Qianwen Huang’s research while affiliated with Zhejiang Sci-Tech University and other places

Social life cycle assessment (S‐LCA) has garnered significant attention in academia and the business sector. To enhance the guidance of S‐LCA application and future research, it is imperative to conduct a thorough analysis of its research status and challenges, considering the extensive development of methodological approaches. Leveraging bibliometric and content analysis on 452 articles from the Web of Science database, this study examines publication trends and delineates the conceptual structure and coupling themes within the S‐LCA field. Through an amalgamation of bibliometric findings and a comparative analysis between life cycle assessment and S‐LCA, the study outlines prominent challenges. Five primary issues related to inventory construction and data conversion, as identified through content analysis, are presented. This article comprehensively reveals a deep understanding of research status and faced challenges, serving as a complement for future practitioners and researchers.

Textile production involves using various chemicals that may remain in clothing and pose health risks. Alkylphenol ethoxylates are non-ionic surfactants which may be involved in various textile printing and dyeing auxiliaries due to their excellent emulsification, wetting and decontamination abilities. This study aimed to determine the dermal exposure doses and health risks of alkylphenol ethoxylates in 10 unwashed textile samples for infants, toddlers and pregnant women. The concentrations of alkylphenol ethoxylates and alkylphenols (APs) were determined by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The total concentrations of alkylphenol ethoxylates (nonylphenol ethoxylates and octylphenol ethoxylates) in 10 textile samples were 113.21–1431.18 mg/kg, among which nonylphenol ethoxylates with ethoxy groups of 2–10 were the dominant chemicals. The highest dermal exposure dose was found in the toddler group, which was 1.27 and 4.14 times higher than those in the infant and pregnant women groups. When the maximum concentration was used for risk assessment based on tolerable daily intake, the hazard indices ( HI) for toddlers and infants were estimated to be 10.62 and 8.37, which may pose a higher risk to human health. Our assessment was specifically focused on new garments before washing. The garments containing alkylphenol ethoxylates can be washed to significantly reduce the exposure risk. The results of our study offer important information on human exposure to alkylphenol ethoxylates in textiles and clothing and provide a scientific basis for planning risk management measures for alkylphenol ethoxylates.

Bast fiber textiles have become increasingly popular as a sustainable alternative in recent years. Although the carbon emissions of bast fiber textiles have been studied using life cycle assessment method, there is a lack of comprehensive literature analyzing and summarizing the results. This study reviews the current state of research on the carbon emissions of bast fiber textiles. Compared to other plant fibers, there are fewer studies on the carbon footprint or life cycle assessment of bast fiber textiles, and these studies lack a comprehensive "cradle to grave" or "gate to grave" analysis. In addition, inconsistencies exist in the allocation methods used for carbon footprint assessments. This study suggests a combination of physical and economic allocation to conduct a more accurate environmental impact assessment of bast fiber textiles. On the basis of the above review, this study modularizes the process of the entire life cycle of textiles and analyzes the carbon sequestration and emission characteristics to determine the main considerations for carbon footprint assessment. The carbon sequestration effect of bast fiber textiles should be analyzed at the raw material extraction stage and at the end-of-life stage. Oxygen release and consumption are also considered as additional factors to be quantified and analyzed in this study. In the future, the modular method should be used for all carbon footprint evaluation reports for bast fiber textiles. This method helps to comprehensively quantify and evaluate the carbon footprint of bast fiber textiles throughout their entire life cycle. It can provide recommendations for green design, green production and sustainable consumption.

Lifestyle changes have altered the consumption behavior of people. As one of the most energy-intensive and energy-consuming activities in the apparel consumption process, laundry and clothes drying have a significant impact on the environment in terms of carbon emissions and water consumption. Undergraduates are a special category of people whose worldviews are in the developmental stage, and it is important to study and develop their beliefs and behaviors regarding environmental consumption. This study investigates and evaluates the relationship between undergraduates’ consumption behaviors and environmental impacts. The 125 undergraduates in Hangzhou, China are classified into three different washing modes: H-mode (hand-washing only), M-mode (machine-washing only), and HM-mode (hand- and machine-washing) on the basis of their washing behavior. The environmental impacts including water footprint and carbon footprint of undergraduates are calculated by the methods of direct consumptive carbon footprint ([Formula: see text]) and direct consumptive water footprint ([Formula: see text]). The results show that the factors leading to the environmental impacts of Hangzhou undergraduates’ apparel consumption behavior are: washing frequency, consumer knowledge, washing method, drying frequency and method and clothing purchase quantity. It also reveals that higher washing and drying frequencies can lead to more energy and water consumption, which ultimately result in more severe environmental impact. Besides, consumer knowledge, washing and drying method do have a significant influence on undergraduates’[Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. Understanding the factors that influence undergraduates’ apparel consumption behavior can help cultivate their environmental awareness as well as provide guidance to the government and universities in identifying the environmental impact of undergraduates’ clothing consumption.

The production of cotton textiles involves cotton cultivation, ginning, spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, finishing, cutting and sewing. It consumes large quantities of freshwater, energy and chemicals, causing serious environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of cotton textiles have been studied extensively through various methods. However, little literature comprehensively summarizes current status of researches on environmental impact of cotton clothing comprehensively and identifies common problems to further study. To fill this gap, this study collates published results on the environmental performance of cotton clothing based on different environmental impact assessment methods, i.e., life cycle assessment, carbon footprint, and water footprint. Apart from the environmental impact results, this study also discusses the key issues when assessing the environmental impact of cotton textiles, such as data collection, carbon storage, allocation methods, and the environment benefits brought by recycling. In the production process of cotton textile products, there will be other co-products with economic value so that the environmental impact should be allocated. The economic allocation method is the most widely used method in the existing researches. In the future, considerable efforts are required to construct the accounting modules which consist of multiple modules, each representing a production process of cotton clothing and including an inventory of inputs under that process, such as cotton cultivation (water, fertilizer, pesticides), and spinning (electricity). It can ultimately be used to flexibly invoke one or more modules to calculate the environmental impact of cotton textiles. Moreover, returning carbonized cotton straw to the field can retain about 50 % of carbon, thus having a certain potential for carbon sequestration.