Policy 5. Consider and implement end-of-life strategies (recycle, renew, or reuse) when choosing materials, designing, and producing apparel.
Americans on average throw away 68 pounds of clothing per person per year. 1 Synthetic fibers use depleting resources as raw material and natural fibers contain valuable nutrients. Those valuable materials cannot be recovered in landfill. William McDonough and Michael Braungart introduced a model for “cradle to cradle” design in which products can be designed from the onset so that, after their useful lives, they will provide “nourishment” for something else. Materials can be conceived as “biological nutrients” that will easily reenter the water or soil without depositing synthetic materials and toxins, or “technical nutrients” that will continuously circulate as pure and valuable materials within “closed-loop” industrial cycles. 2
Cradle to cradle design has been successfully applied by some textile and apparel manufacturers. DesignTex produced a wool/ramie blend upholstery fabric. Due to natural fiber content and use of safe dyes, the trimming waste was able to be used to make mulch and nonwoven fabrics for farmers, and consumers can safely compost the fabric after use. This is an example of a “biological nutrient.”
How materials will be used at the end of a product’s life must be considered during the design phase. Design methods, such as design for recyclability, design for adaptability, design for remanufacture, and design for disassembly, can be applied in the apparel industry to facilitate end-of-life recycling, renewing, or reusing.
Patagonia has set a goal of recycling 100% of its products by 2010. In 2005, Patagonia announced a new line of recyclable Capilene Performance Base Layer garments. This initiative allows customers to return used polyester clothing, which is in turn sent to fiber manufacturer Teijin and recycled to make new products.3 A U.K.-based product design and sustainability consulting company Wax RDC worked with Clarks to design “Footnote” infants’ footwear using the design for remanufacture strategy.4
Design for adaptability (DFA) involves creation of garments that can be used in multiple settings over a lifetime of wearing. Examples of DFA include the use of multiple components that can be attached to change a suit from a business to casual look and to completely change the silhouette of the garment for a fresh fashion feel.5 Design for disassembly (DFD) is a strategy to improve recyclability of complex products composed of many different materials. Robert Bogue has proposed a series of simple design rules concerning product architecture, materials, and fasteners to implement DFD.6
DFD has been applied by apparel design students to design jackets that have a wool shell and synthetic fiber lining. The two layers would remain stitched together during the jacket’s usable life span but would be easily separated for recycling.7
- Claudio, L. (2007). Waste couture: Environmental impact of the clothing industry. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(9), A449-A454. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/115-9/EHP115pa449PDF.PDF. [↩]
- McDonough, W. & Braungart, M. (2002). Remarking the way we make things: Cradle to cradle. New York: North Point Press. [↩]
- Environmental Leader. (2009, March 10). Patagonia: On the road to 100% recyclability. Available at http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/03/10/patagonia-on-the-road-to-100-recyclability/ [↩]
- Gray, C. (nd). Remanufacturing and product design. Available at http://www.cfsd.org.uk/events/tspd12/abstracts/Gray_abstract.pdf [↩]
- Dickson, M. A., Loker, S., & Eckman, M. (2009). Social responsibility in the global apparel industry. New York: Fairchild Books. [↩]
- Bogue, R. (2007). Design for disassembly: A critical twenty-first century discipline. Assembly Automation, 27(4), 285-289. [↩]
- Bennett, J., Helmkamp, C., Gam, H., Cao, H., Rumsey, R., & Farr, C. A. (2008, November). Exploring a sustainable apparel design method: Case study of creating a man’s jacket for easy disassembly. Paper presented at the 2008 annual meeting of International Textile and Apparel Association, Schaumburg, IL; Rumsey, R., Cao, H., Gam, H., & Farr, C., (2008, November). The design of men’s jacket for material recovery. Poster presented at the 2008 annual meeting of International Textile and Apparel Association, Schaumburg, IL. [↩]
