Review of the end-of-life solutions in electronics-based smart textiles

Research and development of new products in the smart textile field is growing rapidly because of versatile application areas. There is an extensive focus on the integration of electronics into textiles. However, when different industry fields are merged, as here, the sustainability and recycling issues might descend into even more complex systems. The paper reviews current research and development conducted on the end-of-life solutions for textile integrated electronics. Chosen papers had to be peer-reviewed, written in English, and address the end-of-life issue of electronic-based smart textiles. The search resulted in 18 publications, which indicates a low amount of research but also the serious lack of legislation and actual solutions emerged in this multidisciplinary field. Three tracks were found: smart textile services, eco-design strategy and educating guidelines. Authors suggest concentrating on preventive actions in textile-electronics design and manufacturing processes and the generating standardization for waste management of e-textiles.