Cleanup of agrochemical spills using cotton sorbents

We evaluated natural sorbents such as cotton that had been structured into needlepunched nonwovens with or without polypropylene fibers in the cleanup of agrochemical spills such as malathion. It was shown that high levels of compaction and fraction of polypropylene, mechanical properties of the nonwoven sorbents were generally increased considerably. At low level of compaction, variations on mechanical properties by fiber composition became smaller or nonsignificant. On the other hand, at low level of compaction nonwovens made by high fraction of gray cotton showed excellent sorption capacities. The highly effective natural sorbents can be produced by using gray cotton fibers to replace synthetic sorbents such as polypropylene in cleanup of agrochemical spills occurred both on land and in water. However, the repeated application is not recommended for the gray cotton sorbent in cleanup of malathion.