The purpose of this research is to reduce the environmental burden of textiles, specifically focusing on the production of Merino woollen jumpers. The study addresses two techniques to lessen the environmental burden: (1) recycling of wool garments by shredding or unravelling and (2) preventing the overstocking of products through on-demand knitting. The environmental burden is measured via LCA using Idemat. The results are reported in terms of eco-costs (EUR) and carbon footprint (kg CO2-e). A cradle-to-gate analysis of recycling by either shredding or unravelling is compared with the use of virgin wool. The results are: EUR 3.53 in eco-costs and 21.93 kg CO2-e as the carbon footprint for a virgin wool jumper to EUR 0.31 eco-costs and 1.56 kg CO2-e for a recycled wool jumper and EUR 0.19 eco-costs and 0.89 kg CO2-e for an unravelled wool jumper. Additionally, a cradle-to-grave calculation per wear was made, resulting in: EUR 0.045 and 0.278 kg CO2-e, EUR 0.004 and 0.020 kg CO2-e, and EUR 0.002 and 0.011 kg CO2-e, respectively. A revenue-normalized comparison between on-demand knitting and mass production based on the eco-costs/value ratio (EVR) shows a 44% higher environmental impact for a mass production system.

Een belangrijk motto in de transitie naar een circulaire economie luidt: afval is grondstof. Het duidt op de doelstelling om een afgedankt materiaal maximaal te hergebruiken. Helaas is het lang niet altijd mogelijk om een reststroom zodanig te recyclen dat hij als nieuwe grondstof kan worden ingezet. Het materiaal is bijvoorbeeld te vervuild of het is vermengd met andere materialen. Aan de andere kant kan een reststroom ook interessante eigenschappen hebben waarvan je gebruik kunt maken. Denk aan een bijzondere herkomst, een mooi uiterlijk of een interessante functionele eigenschap

Conducting fibres and yarns promise to become an essential part of the next generation of wearable electronics that seamlessly integrate electronic function into one of the most versatile and most widely used form of materials: textiles. This review explores the many types of conducting fibres and yarns that can be realised with conjugated polymers and carbon materials, including carbon black, carbon nanotubes and graphene. We discuss how the interplay of materials properties and the chosen processing technique lead to fibres with a wide range of electrical and mechanical properties. Depending on the choice of conjugated polymer, carbon nanotube, graphene, polymer blend, or nanocomposite the electrical conductivity can vary from less than 10⁻³ to more than 10³ S cm⁻¹, accompanied by an increase in Young's modulus from 10 s of MPa to 100 s of GPa. Further, we discuss how conducting fibres can be integrated into electronic textiles (e-textiles) through e.g. weaving and knitting. Then, we provide an overview of some of the envisaged functionalities, such as sensing, data processing and storage, as well as energy harvesting e.g. by using the piezoelectric, thermoelectric, triboelectric or photovoltaic effect. Finally, we critically discuss sustainability aspects such as the supply of materials, their toxicity, the embodied energy of fibre and textile production and recyclability, which currently are not adequately considered but must be taken into account to ready carbon based conducting fibres for truly practical e-textile applications.

The purpose of this study is to benchmark production processes and production chains of clothing products, by means of social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). In this paper we present the socio-economic costs (s-eco-costs) method for monetisation of external socio-economic burden for workers. The method is applied to six cases of garment production chains. The s-eco-costs are the marginal prevention costs to reach a sustainable level (the Performance Reference Point, PRP) for wages and are the monetary compensation costs beyond the PRP to account for unacceptable exploitation of workers. The s-eco-costs (in €) include five sub-indicators, proposed as a base-line for several social issues in S-LCA: - Minimum Acceptable Wage (based on minimum wages in rich countries and statistics on economic migrants)- Child Labour (forced labour, not able to attend school)- Extreme Poverty (derived from World Bank absolute poverty line)- Excessive Working Hours (forced labour, involuntary)- Occupational Safety and Health (based on statistics of ILO)These s-eco-costs have been calculated for cotton T-shirts and pairs of jeans for three garment production chains: USA-Europe (Western ‘W’); India-Bangladesh (Asian ‘A’); China/India-Bangladesh (Asian Best Practice ‘ABP’), revealing the hotspots in these chains, and enabling benchmarking. The total results for the s-eco-costs of T-shirts are: W = € 0.05; A = € 1.46 and ABP = € 0.33. The results for the jeans are: W = € 0.38; A = € 12.56 and ABP = € 2.67. The most important hotspots are in the cotton fields in India and the garment production phase in Bangladesh. The authors hope that the proposed system will inspire others in the field of S-LCA to proceed with the development of quantitative indicator systems.

The dissertation ‘Making Fashion Sustainable – The Role of Designers’ describes the PhD research of Natascha M. van der Velden on the envisioned role designers could take responsibility for in the transition towards a more sustainable fashion industry.
The current worldwide textile and apparel system is unsustainable – from both an environmental as well as a social point of view. The clothing industry is associated with (un-)sustainability problems ranging from materials depletion and toxic emissions to social exploitation.
This thesis argues that knowledge about life cycle thinking and life cycle assessment (LCA, as a method to calculate ‘eco- and socio-burden’) could accelerate the transformation towards a more sustainable fashion production system. Therefore, designers are encouraged to include findings that result from the application of the LCA method, in the fashion design process, with the aim to gain insights into the sustainability hotspots over the clothing products lifecycle. This knowledge can help designers to apply ecodesign and create ‘Life Cycle Clothing’, and is intended to enhance the self-empowerment based learning and probing process of the designers, the makers and the wearers of fashion. It is envisaged, within the wider context of the national and international governance of the fashion branch sustainable development future, that (i) the analytical methods and ecodesign approaches from this study, together with (ii) the self-empowerment process, will be essential elements (even necessary conditions) for a successful transition.
The conclusions of the research suggest practical guidelines for designers who are willing to adopt a different role than many of their predecessors, and – possibly with help from the tranS-LCA-tor – become a frontrunner of sustainable fashion by adding quantitative sustainability assessment to their ‘portfolio of skills’.