Feat of ‘dung-gineering': How your clothes could soon be made from cow manure

Daily Mail​

07-05-2025

As the relentless churn of fast fashion piles up mountains of waste, many people are looking to cut down their wardrobes' carbon footprint.
Now, scientists have found a radical new way to make clothing cheaper and better for the environment.
Scientists at the University College London (UCL) have found a way of turning cow dung from farms into cellulose fibres, which can be woven together to make fabric.
But before you turn your nose up at this feat of 'dung-gineering', the scientists say the final product doesn't smell anything like its unusual raw material.
Cellulose is a natural fibre found in plant cell walls, but it is also used in everything from clingfilm and food products to surgical masks and textiles.
While it is sometimes derived from natural sources, this vital material is often created synthetically from toxic chemicals.
Meanwhile, farms around the world are struggling to keep ahead of the mountains of manure produced by ever-larger herds of cattle.
According to the study, published in The Journal of Cleaner Production, turning cow dung into textiles could be a smart way to solve both of these issues.
Making fibres from cow dung is possible because manure contains tiny fragments of cellulose left over from the plants they eat.
These small pieces can be pulled out of the dung, leaving behind all the other impurities.
Senior author Professor Mohan Edirisinghe says: 'Extracting the fragments from dung was relatively straightforward using mild chemical reactions and homogenisation, which we then turned into a liquid solution.'
This liquid is then spun into fibres through a process called 'pressurised spinning'.
This is a fairly standard manufacturing process in which jets of liquid are shot out of a spinning drum.
By changing the pressure of the jet and the speed of the rotation, the process can be tailored to make fibres, beads, ribbons, meshes, or films as required.
Initially, Professor Edirisinghe and his colleagues couldn't get the dung solution to form fibres when spun.
However, through a process of trial and error, they realised that turning the rotating drum on its side and shooting the jets into water caused fibres to form.
'We're still not quite sure why the process works, but the important thing is that it does,' says Professor Edirisinghe.
Now, for the first time, the researchers are able to turn cow dung into fibres of manufacturing-grade cellulose.
This opens up the possibility of turning unwanted farmyard waste into a range of useful products including clothes.
Professor Edirisinghe told MailOnline: 'Basically, you can make cellulose fibres and I see no reason why it can't be made into a mesh and turned into clothing.'
He adds: 'There's no smell that I can notice, and you can't guess the origins by looking at it.'
The researchers say it would be easy to scale up their existing device to produce more fibres.
In the future, this might be a 'win-win' scenario for cattle farmers and textile manufacturers.
Research suggests that the amount of animal waste produced by farms around the world is due to increase by 40 per cent between 2003 and 2030.
The researchers say these cellulose meshes (pictured) could be used to make clothing
In the next five years, farms could produce at least five billion tonnes of manure each year, with many farms producing more than they can use as fertiliser.
First author Yanqi Dai, from UCL, says: 'Dairy farm waste, such as cow manure, is a threat to the environment and humans, especially through waterway pollution, the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when it decomposes, and the spread of pathogens.
'It is also often a burden on farmers to dispose of properly.'
Runoff from dairy farms, where rain washes away manure, can lead to waste finding its way into local water systems.
This can have devastating effects on the ecosystem, including creating toxic algal blooms which can wipe out local wildlife, andcreate a health hazard for humans.
By giving farmers a way of turning dung into valuable materials, this technology could incentivise better waste management and provide a sustainable source of fabric.
Professor Edirisinghe says: 'The most important thing for the environment is to create natural materials from plants or animals.
'There are heaps of dung and it's causing an environmental hazard. This way you get something from nothing in a sense.'
THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF FARMING COWS
The livestock animals are notorious for creating large amounts of methane, which is a major contributor to global warming.
Each of the farm animals produces the equivalent of three tonnes of carbon dioxide per year and the amount of the animals is increasing with the growing need to feed a booming population.
Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases, trapping 30 times more heat than the same amount of carbon dioxide.
Scientists are investigating how feeding them various diets can make cattle more climate-friendly.
They believe feeding seaweed to dairy cows may help and are also using a herb-rich foodstuff called the Lindhof sample.
Researchers found a cow's methane emissions were reduced by more than 30 per cent when they ate ocean algae.
In research conducted by the University of California, in August, small amounts of it were mixed into the animals' feed and sweetened with molasses to disguise the salty taste.
As a result, methane emissions dropped by almost a third.
'I was extremely surprised when I saw the results,' said Professor Ermias Kebreab, the animal scientist who led the study.
'I wasn't expecting it to be that dramatic with a small amount of seaweed.'
The team now plans to conduct a further six-month study of a seaweed-infused diet in beef cattle, starting this month.