Additives Enhancing Biodegradability in Plastics and Potential Implications for Textiles: A Mechanistic Review

ABSTRACT

Recent advances in additive‐assisted plastic biodegradation have revealed multiple pathways—oxidative, hydrolytic, enzymatic, and microbial—that accelerate polymer breakdown in environmental conditions. Innovations in pro‐oxidant, hydrolysis‐promoting, microbial nutrient, enzyme‐releasing, and surface‐activating additives have expanded the toolkit for enhancing polymer degradation through complementary chemical and biological mechanisms. Applying these insights to textiles provides a promising framework for improving the end‐of‐life performance of synthetic and blended fibers. Textile fibers, with their high surface‐to‐volume ratios, offer unique opportunities for additive action, but also present challenges related to fiber morphology, additive dispersion, dye or finish interactions, and environmental variability. Mechanistic studies of oxidation, hydrolysis, and microbial colonization in plastics serve as valuable templates for understanding similar processes in textiles. In addition, predictive modeling of degradation kinetics—considering factors such as surface chemistry, local moisture, and oxygen diffusion—will be crucial for designing fibers that balance functional durability with environmentally responsive degradation. Overall, this review highlights that translating additive‐enabled degradation strategies from plastics to textiles requires an integrated, mechanistic design approach that accounts for fiber architecture and use‐phase performance. Future research should prioritize standardized testing, life‐cycle and techno‐economic assessments, and multifunctional additives to enable scalable, sustainable adoption of biodegradable textiles that support the circular bioeconomy.