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A Carbon Footprint for UK Clothing and Opportunities for Savings
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The objective of the research was to provide WRAP with an overview of the carbon impacts of UK clothing through the clothing life cycle, identifying the most significant contributions to the carbon footprint (i.e. the ‘hotspots’), and quantifying opportunities for carbon footprint reduction.
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... Presently, the majority of the fashion industry's carbon footprint is generated at the clothes production stage, which includes dyeing, weaving and yard spinning (van der Velden et al., 2014). Carbon emissions are also produced in notable quantities during the in-use phase, particularly during washing and drying cycles (Moazzem et al., 2018;Thomas et al., 2012). ...
This paper explores sustainable fashion choices from a Stoic philosophical perspective. Ancient Stoic teachings can help us reexamine our relationship with clothes in the 21st century and provide direction for the considerable number of people that are influenced by contemporary Stoicism. Stoicism provides a clear justification for sustainable living, given its call to live in harmony with Nature. Given the environmental facts, contemporary Stoics would do well to reduce the size of their wardrobe to what is necessary and functional. They should mindfully select clothing made of organic natural fibers, which are of sufficient quality as to reduce wasteful practices.
... Sustainability 2022,14, 8414 ...
We are currently experiencing a global environmental crisis. Our waste culture is leading to huge irreversible damage to our planet and ecosystems. This is particularly evident in both the textile and food sectors, with a system-wide restructuring as to how we consume and source materials becoming ever more urgent. By considering our waste as resource, we can access a vast source of raw materials that is now being recognised as such. Viable materials in the form of waste have the potential for conversion into textiles. However, this proposed solution to our contemporary crisis is not new technology. Throughout the 20th century, science and industry have researched and developed materials from food waste to meet global demand for textiles in times of need, with a major development during the world wars being the invention of regenerated protein fibres (RPFs). For various reasons, this research was abandoned, but much of the development work remains valid. This research critically analyses work that has previously been done in the sector to better our understanding of the historical hindrances to the progression of this technology. By applying modern thinking and scientific advances to historical challenges, there is the potential to overcome previous barriers to utilising food waste as a resource. One of the key influences in the discontinuation of RPFs was the rise of petrochemical textiles. Our current understanding of the detriment caused by petrochemicals warrants a further review of historical emergent technologies. This paper uses Ardil fibre as a case study, and shows that there is a clear disparity between the location of historic research and where the research would now be helpful. Ardil was a British-made product, using peanuts sourced from the British Empire as the source of protein. Techniques used in the processing of Ardil could be better utilised by countries and climates currently producing large amounts of peanut byproducts and waste. Through this research, another historical concern that thwarted Ardil’s acceptance as a mainstream fibre was discovered to be its poor tensile strength. However, contemporary garment life cycles are far shorter than historical ones, with built-in obsolescence now being considered as a solution to fast fashion cycles by matching the longevity of the fibre to the expected use phase of the garment, but ensuring suitable disposal methods, such as composting. This research highlights the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration between sectors, with a specific focus on the wealth of valuable information available within historical archives for modern sustainability goals.
... Drying requires no inputs of materials. All activities of the use phase require inputs of energy, water and detergent [24]. Although clothes are typically washed and dried as mixed loads, each garment is likely to require a different quantity of water, (hot or cold) detergent, etc. to be washed or dried, depending on its weight and the composition of fibers and the physical properties of these fibers. ...
... Finally, costs and CO 2 emissions of HTPP-ECCs were calculated, and compared with the PVA-ECC, most widely studied PVA-ECC (M45) and conventional concrete (C25/30) (Wang and Li, 2006;Flower and Sanjayan, 2007;Kim et al., 2016). CO 2 emission values for cement, fly ash, fine aggregate, PVA fiber, HTPP fiber superplasticizer were assumed as 0.76, 0.027, 0.0034, 3.427, 3.097 tCO 2 / tone and 5.2 Â 10 À6 tCO 2 /L, respectively (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007;Kuroda and Kikuchi, 2012;Thomas et al., 2012;Frazão and Fernandes, 2004). ...
The inherent requirement of high cement content in Strain Hardening Cementitious Composite (SHCC) causes increase in cost, high environmental pollution and unsustainability problems. There is a growing trend to use fly ashes as mineral admixture in matrix phases of composites to solve these problems. In this study, special types of environmentally friendly SHCCs known as High Tenacity Polypropylene-Engineered Cementitious Composites (HTPP-ECC) have been prepared by using two distinct type of fly ashes (FA) (Class C and Class F). Detailed micro-structural characterizations of these fly ashes have been performed before composite preparation. The effects of fly ash type, fly ash/cement (FA/C) ratio and water/cement (W/C) ratio on fresh and hardened properties of HTPP-ECCs have been investigated by using different matrix combinations. The flexural performances of these composites have been compared under four-point loading conditions.
In addition to flexural properties, multiple cracking potential of composites were compared by counting the average crack number and residual crack widths at unloaded condition. A fiber distribution analysis has also been performed by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for each composite and associated with the flexural performances. Finally, CO2 emissions and costs of composites have been compared by considering a conventional concrete mix design (C25/30) and frequently used PVA-ECCs in the literature. Results showed that physical and chemical properties of fly ash, directly affects the performance of composites both in fresh and hardened state and F type fly ash was found more advantageous in producing HTPP-ECC compared to C type fly ash employed in this study. Cost effective green HTPP-ECCs having flexural strengths up to 11.5 MPa and deflection capacity between 8.5 and 11.5 mm can be obtained by a proper design.
... The environmental challenges associated with consumption of textiles on a product level have been investigated in several LCA studies during the past years (Allwood et al., 2006;Blackburn, 2009;Parisi et al., 2015;Velden et al., 2013). Also, several possible interventions for reduction of impacts from textile products and production systems have been studied (Allwood et al., 2008;Hasanbeigi and Price, 2015;Roos et al., 2015a;Terinte et al., 2014;Thomas et al., 2012;Thompson et al., 2012;Zamani et al., 2014). ...
The environmental challenges associated with consumption of textiles have generally been investigated on product level in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies. For social sustainability aspects, social hotspot analysis has instead been applied on the textile sector level. The aim with the industry sector approach developed by the authors was to enable assessment of different interventions in terms of how they contribute to reaching targets for environmental and social sustainability, on the sector level. The approach was tested in a case study on the Swedish apparel sector.
This study presents the environmental impact of apparel consumption in Australia using life cycle assessment methodology according to ISO14040/14044:2006. Available published references, the Ecoinvent v3 dataset, the Australian life cycle assessment dataset and apparel country-wise import data with the breakdown of apparel type and fibre type were used in this study. The environmental impact assessment results of the functional unit were scaled up to the total apparel consumption. The impact results were also normalized on a per-capita/year basis. The Total Climate Change Potential (CCP) impact from apparel consumption of 2015 was estimated to be 16 607 028 tonnes CO2eq and 698.07 kg CO2eq/per capita-year. This study also assessed the impact of acidification potential (AP), water depletion (WD), abiotic resource depletion potential (ADP) - fossil fuel and agricultural land occupation (ALO) using the same methodology. The market volume of cotton apparel in Australia is 53.97 %, which accounts for 45 %, 96 %, 40 %, 46 % and 79 % of total CCP, WD, ADP, AP and ALO impact, respectively. Apparel broad categories of cotton shirt, cotton trouser, polyester shirt and polyester trouser have a high volume in the apparel market as well as a high environmental impact contribution. These high-volume apparel products can be included in the prioritization list to reduce environmental impact throughout the apparel supply chain. It was estimated that from 2010 to 2018 the per capita apparel consumption and corresponding impact increased by 24 %.
Carbon footprints aim to engage consumers in contributing to climate-change mitigation. Consumption-oriented policy measures attempt to cause voluntary or incentivized interventions that reduce environmental impact through the supply chain by utilizing demand drivers. A large body of life cycle assessment studies describe how specific actions can reduce the environmental footprint of an individual or household. However, these assessments are often conducted with a narrow focus on particular goods and processes. Here, we formalize a counterfactual method and operational tool for scoping the potential impact of such actions, focusing on economy-wide impact. This “quickscan” tool can model shifts and reductions in demand, rebound effects (using marginal expenditure), changes in domestic and international production recipes, and reductions in the environmental intensity of production. This tool provides quick, macro-level estimates of the efficacy of consumer-oriented policy measures and can help to prioritize relevant policies. We demonstrate the method using two case studies on diet and clothing using the EXIOBASE3 multiregional input-output database, giving spatially explicit information on where environmental impact reductions of the interventions occur, and where impacts may increase in the case of rebounds.
Climate change is a key environmental challenge of our time. Carbon footprinting is a key environmental accounting tool for business managers, policy makers and non-governmental organisations attempting to identify mitigation measures that reduce the threat of climate change. The textile industry is increasingly engaged in carbon footprinting as a part of policy development and product design. As is the case for any accounting tool, there are a number of methodological issues that need to be handled by analysts producing carbon footprint calculations, and by the consumers of such information, in order to ensure that the information is meaningful in its particular context. This chapter describes these key challenges, the standardisation processes that have arisen to meet them, the outcomes of practical carbon footprint calculations for textile manufacturing facilities and textile products, and recent work on carbon labelling of products. It also attempts to describe current trends and attempts to qualitatively extrapolate future developments in this field.
Man-made cellulose fibres have played an important role in the production of textile products for more than 70 years. The purpose of this study is to assess the environmental impact of man-made cellulose fibres. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted for three types of fibres (i.e. Viscose, Modal and Tencel) produced by Lenzing AG. The functional unit is one tonne of staple fibre. The system boundary is cradle to factory gate. We compared the LCA results with other commodity fibres, namely cotton, PET and PP. Primary energy demand, water use, land use and the CML baseline impact categories were assessed. Sensitivity analyses were carried out to understand the influence of different allocation methods. In addition, three single score methods were introduced and applied. The LCA results show that four modern man-made cellulose fibre products, namely Tencel, Modal, Viscose (Austria) and Tencel (2012), have the lowest overall impact among all fibres studied. Viscose (Asia) has a higher overall impact than the other man-made cellulose fibres and is comparable to PET. Cotton is identified as the least preferred choice due to its high ecotoxicity impacts, eutrophication, water use and land use. The LCA results are influenced by the allocation methods applied; however, the ranking of all fibres does not change.
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