In our fourth and final lecture of the series, Ros Hibbert discussed sustainability issues relating to the materials industry, minimising waste and life-cycle thinking.
Sustainable Textiles: "Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" - UN 1987 Brudland Commission report.
The bottom line here is that interconnectivity needs to be more widely realised, the design world are beginning to take responsibility, but is that enough? What happens in one part of the world affects another. This is where considerate design comes in; the consideration of the entire life cycle of textile/fashion products.
The Current Environment:-Retailers are placing larger pressure on manufacturers and suppliers to reduce costs to meet the consumer demands for cheaper prices.
-Seeing a shift in trade patterns, manufacturers then try to produce a greater number of style variations in smaller quantities. The retail giant Zara are a classic example of a company that produces deft changes and quick turnarounds of collections.
-Corporal social responsibilities are being added to the factors by which companies are judged.
-Product styles are quickly becoming obsolete due to the disposable, throw away culture that we live in; styles are constantly changing with new fashions to replace the old.
"Up to 90% of a product's environmental impact is decided at the design stage."- The Design Council
-Industrial processes and textile design use chemicals heavily in fabric manufacturing and fabric finishing that can be very detrimental to the environment made worse by the fact that it is in conjunction with the extremely high water usage in textile production.
-Monitoring of the supply change is gradually improving, but transparency in this area is difficult in countries that outsource their fabrics.
-Energy and water are used extensively throughout textile production. Intensive cotton agriculture, polyester processing and garment aftercare processes are all very high, and each have a negative effect on the environment.
Environmentally Friendlier Production Alternatives:
-It is possible to reduce the amount of waste that textile production creates by creating seamless products, knitwear and accessories and through 3D printing.
-Using natural dyes, such as vegetable and plant dyes, to colour fibres and textiles. These dyes are recently becoming explored much more in the hopes of reducing the use of chemical dyes in production.
-There are also investigations into building colour into natural fibres, by feeding silkworms coloured powders to create luminescent colours in the silk. Akin to feeding flamingos food that makes them pinker.
-Using new raw materials: Inego is the first melt processable, naturally based polymer. It is produced from a regenerable resource and is biodegradable, offering a sustainable life cycle. It also has built in UV protection and elasticity.
-Spider silk, as has been mentioned in my previous lecture notes, is a potential new fibre with the dragline silk produced by the Golden Orb-Weaving spider can be up to 5x stronger than steel in comparison.
-Bio Processing, as mentioned in an earlier post about Carole Colette's Bio Lace, which is a manufacturing process for textiles that uses living technology. Biomimicry functions are also being explored in an attempt to create evolvable,, adaptive textiles with zero waste.
-Waste reduction saves money, yarn, dyes, chemicals and can reduce production time.
Changes to our garment care routines is another way we can help to reduce our water usage; laundering clothes less frequently, hand-washing, cold water use and line drying are recommended where possible. A 'waterless' washing machine- Xeros- uses 90% less water than the average commercial washing machine and relies on minute nylon beads to absorb stains.
The average lifetime of a garment is approximately 2 years. Innovation in reprocessing textiles, both pre consumer and post consumer waste, is improving assisted by the price rises in raw materials. Discarded polyethylene fishing nets are extremely hazardous to the ocean environment and can take hundreds of years to biodegrade. However, they are now being collected by plastic recyclers and turned into reusable polymers. Although it must be noted that the lack of cost effective disassembly techniques has held up the development of textile reuse.
- The WEAR-2 system, developed in the UK, allows items such as zips, buttons and trims that contaminate recycled material to be removed.
-The Trash to Trend website is both a database for designers to see where textile waste is available, but to also showcase their own second use products.
Composting fabrics is another alternative to final disposal, bearing in mind that the product must be an organic natural fibre containing no chemicals or toxins. Any non biodegradable elements such as metal or synthetic thread will still remain after composting.
Challenges Ahead:
- We are all recycling more than we ever have before, but there is still a growth in our waste creation.
- The second use of a 'down cycled' product is of lower commercial value than the original, as the fibres are always weaker and have a shorter life span than its first incarnation.
- 'Upcycling' limits the quantity that can be created and also produces irregular sizes of fabric, causing designers to be unable to produce large commercial runs.
- Some consider recycling as merely delaying the arrival of a product to landfill. But surely that's the whole point of recycling? To reuse a product as many times as you can before it can be used no more?
In 2012 it was estimated that the world consumed a total of 60 million tons of fibre, which is 12 million tons more than in 2001. This is set to rise as the population increases.
As a student of textile design I always feel really quite guilty when I hear about the damaging effects that the textile industry has on the environment. However, this lecture given me hope that the industry is ever changing and trying to adapt to a more environmentally friendly method of production. In the spring term I will be given a project brief that focuses primarily in creating textiles through sustainable production methods and I know that I can go into that project inspired to try and find new and exciting ways to produce textiles ethically.
Image Sources:http://www.innovationintextiles.com/sustainability-in-textiles-clothing-why-should-we-care/
http://fashionbombdaily.com/2012/11/13/fashion-discussion-zara-is-the-worlds-largest-fashion-retailer-is-it-your-favorite/
http://www.ecouterre.com/swedish-student-turns-toxic-textile-effluent-into-clean-dye-free-water/polluted-river-dyes/
http://www.pure-tinctoria.com/
http://creationrevolution.com/2012/07/secrets-of-spider-silk/
http://trash-to-trend.myshopify.com/collections/katrina-kaubi/products/starlet
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