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Composting Your Clothing – it’s Being Done in Australia

Posted on May 9, 2023May 9, 2023 by dishanth

The average consumer now buys 60% more clothing than they did 15 years ago, and over 92 million tonnes of what is purchased gets thrown away – usually into a landfill. Another problem is the fabric from which our clothing is made. Around 70 percent of the clothing market is made from synthetic fabrics such as polyester, nylon and acrylic, all made from non-renewable sources such as oil and natural gas.

These synthetics can’t biodegrade, meaning they sit in landfills for hundreds of years. Because so many different materials can go into making a single garment, they are hard to separate so they can be recycled properly. Sorting different fibres and materials by hand is extremely labour intensive, slow, and requires a skilled workforce that doesn’t seem to exist in many countries.

What is the solution to reducing textile waste? Consumers can buy less, repair, donate, rent, and organize clothing swaps with friends. Some clothing brands are taking the issue further by creating garments that can be composted after they can no longer be used. Based in Australia, the Very Good Bra has created bras and undergarments made from 100% botanically sourced materials that can be composted, worm-farmed or buried in the soil at the end of their life.

The company uses no spandex, polyester or nylon – even in sewing, thread, elastic and labelling. This means that their products are 100% plastic-free. Their elastics are made from natural tree rubber knitted into organic cotton. Their hooks for bras are made from 100% organic cotton and Tencel sewing thread. Everything has been designed to be put in the soil as is.

The company has worked with sustainability experts, academics and industry to create a proposal for Standards Australia to create standards for compostable textiles. This standard would allow garments to be disposed of in commercial composters and would guarantee that the clothes would compost safely. The proposal was approved by Standards Australia and will enter a development phase to determine the criteria clothing will have to meet so that the compost would not be affected by dyes or flame-retardant coatings. For this to work, more brands must actively participate and consider using more than just natural fibres to ensure their clothing is truly compostable, such as nuts or bio elastics buttons to replace zippers.

If more clothing brands think about making their clothing compostable, we can enter a circular economy and reduce our landfill waste and impact on the planet.

Source Happy Eco News

Innovative smart fabric responds to changes in temperature

Posted on February 24, 2023 by dishanth

Aalto University in Finland, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Cambridge, have developed new textiles that change shape according to temperature levels.

Weaving together old technology and a new approach, the fabrics use liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs), which were developed in the 1980s. LCEs are a smart material that can respond to light, heat, or other stimuli. Although LCEs have been made into fibres, they have yet to be made into textiles until now.

This innovation offers opportunities in the apparel sector for adjustable aesthetics, fabrics that could help monitor people’s health, and improve thermal insulation.

According to India-based market research company Coherent Insights, the smart and interactive apparel market is set to be worth US$6.5m by 2028.

To develop this smart fabric, the team at Aalto University used conventional textile crafting techniques and tested two versions with soft or stiff LCE yarn. Under an infrared lamp, all of the LCE fabrics contracted as they warmed up. The changes were reversible as they relaxed back to their original shape once the temperature dropped.

Pedro Silva, a postdoctoral researcher who led the study, commented: “At first, the impact of using industrial textile techniques with these kinds of new materials wasn’t clear to us. The elasticity of the two types of LCE yarn is comparable to spandex or even softer. That meant it was essential to understand if the textile industry could use these yarns and how the combination with conventional yarns would impact their movement.”

Following this, the researchers combined LCE yarns with linen and nylon in a radial pattern to weave a circle that would lift itself into a cone when heated. Heating the pattern caused the LCE yarn to contract into a cone before it relaxed back into a flat circle.

Maija Vaara, a PhD student at Aalto University who crafted the weaves and laces, hopes that the work will “trigger new ways of thinking when it comes to the materials of tomorrow.”

Source – Just Style

Xeros study explores upcycling of laundry microfibres

Posted on January 30, 2023 by dishanth

Microfibres are defined as tiny ‘threads’, smaller than 5mm, that break off from textiles through the everyday acts of wearing and laundering garments and textiles Xeros explains.

Estimates from The Microfibre Consortium suggest every year more than half a million tons of microfibres are released into the world’s oceans simply from washing our clothing.

Meanwhile, independent research shows that microfibres from synthetic textiles (known as microplastics) are one of the biggest sources of microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans.

In order to address this, Xeros Technology has developed a washing machine filtration device, XFilter, which captures the microfibres and prevents their release into the world’s oceans.

XFilter lasts the lifetime of a washing machine and allows users to place the captured microfibres directly into their bin to be disposed of with other household waste, as we already do with vacuum cleaners and tumble driers that collect similar mixed fibres.

“Microfibre waste from filtration is a complex material to recycle within existing recycling infrastructure: not only are the microfibres often mixed materials, but they also contain captured dirt and soil,” says Xeros. “This is why Xeros have teamed up the University of Surrey – to accelerative research into improved methods to permanently reduce this continued pollution build-up in the future.

Led by Dr Melis Duyar, the team from the University of Surrey and North Carolina State University have developed a new method specifically designed to upcycle textile micro/nano fibres shed during the washing and drying of clothes. The method produces clean hydrogen and solid carbon nanomaterials as a by-product.

Dr Duyar, senior lecturer at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at University of Surrey, said: “At the University of Surrey, we are developing solutions to upcycle microplastics without releasing the fossil carbon contained within them into the atmosphere in the form of greenhouse gas emissions. Plastics are one of the problems associated with our dependency on fossil fuels, so any solution we develop to address plastics pollution must also fit within our strategy for reaching a net zero emission economy. This partnership with Xeros will allow us to bring our technology closer to commercialisation, by developing methods for upcycling real microfibre waste collected from commercially available filters. We are excited to see our patent pending processes in action as applied to mixed fibre feedstocks, which is a big step towards developing a viable, real-world solution.”

The carbon nanomaterials developed using this upcycling method can be used in various essential products including batteries, solar cells and medical devices.

Dr Paul Servin, application development director of Xeros, added: “There is nothing better than to convert, what is today considered to be waste and a problem in the world, into a highly valuable product which is what we, together with the excellent researchers at University in Surrey, will accomplish. I’m extremely excited about this project which can hopefully lead the way to future separated collection of microfibres from washing machines, tumble dryers and vacuum cleaners for the purpose of upcycling to a higher valued product.”

The project began this month with research conducted over a 12-month period.

Source Just Style