2.8 Responsible Design Flashcards
What do the fashion and textiles products consume vast amounts of?
- Natural resources
- Water
- Energy
- Toxic chemicals
What does this have negative impacts on?
The environment and the lives of workers on the industry
What does sustainable fashion seek?
To minimise these negative effects and is part of the growing trend towards sustainability in terms of human impact on the environment and social responsibility
What do designers and manufacturers have a responsibility to do?
To ensure products are made from sustainable materials and components
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by recycling waste?
- PET polyester
- Econyl
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by organic fibre production?
- Organic wool
- Organic cotton
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by sustainable sourcing?
- Bamboo
- Fairtrade cotton
- Fairtrade components
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by a closed loop production?
- Lyocell
- Econyl
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by modern fibre and fabric developments?
- Coloured organic cotton
- Biomimetic fibres
- Easy care fabrics
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by biodegrade fibres?
- Ingeo
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by fibres made with reduced water consumption?
- Hemp
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by fibres made with renewable energy?
- Fivres make in factors using solar, wind or hydroelectric power
What sustainable materials/components can be produced by humanely produced fibres?
- Ahimsa (peace silk)
What else could also have a significant impact of waste?
The packaging of textile products
What do designers and manufacturers need to consider for packaging?
- How packaging materials are sourced and transported
- If they are biodegradable/recyclable
- How storage can be minimised
- If carrier systems can be used
What can be reduced by making every stage of production more efficient?
The use of energy and resources, more up to date technologies can be used to combine processes, and modern developments in fibres can reduce the need for some processes
How are products designed?
Generally, to conserve energy and materials for economic reasons, however advances in technology have made or possible to design more sustainable products
What does fast fashion respond to?
Consumers demands for the latest trends, production and distribution has to be rapid to keep up with this demand as stock needs to be replenished quickly
What leads to large amounts of waste?
Fast fashion is discarded just as quickly, these are incinerated or destined for landfills
What should consumers be encouraged to do?
To recycle more and products need to be designed with recyclable materials in order to minimise impact on the environment
What is cradle-to-cradle?
Clothing that can be developed with components that can be recycled and fibres that can be reclaimed and reused in a closed loop system
What source and environmental concerns are there for natural fibres?
Source: plants and animals
EC: Intensive farming
What source and environmental concerns are there for regenerated fibres?
Source: cellulose e.g. wood pulp or cotton waste
EC: deforestation
What source and environmental concerns are there for synthetic fibres?
Source: non renewable fossil fuels
EC: tecyclability
Who does the responsibility for conserving resources lie on?
The fashion and textile industry and also the consumer, the post consumer waste generated by fast fashion has significant impact on the environment
What is slow fashion?
Durable fashionable garments that have a long product cycle
What are consumers encouraged to buy?
- Fewer, higher quality clothes
- Second hand clothes
- Organic, biodegradable materials
- Sustainable fabrics
- Recyled materials or reclaimed fibres
How can consumers extend the life of their clothing?
- Repairing and upcycling garments
- Buying easy care products
- Storing garments carefully to protect them
Where can consumers support sustainable practices and seek products?
- Made by Fairtrade
- Made locally
What do designers need to consider?
How the durability of their products can be improved to make them more sustainable
What are the 3 product disposals?
- Incineration
- Landfill
- Reclamation
What is incineration?
Toxic chemicals are released into the atmosphere
What is a landfill?
Materials and components can take a long time to decompose, methane gas is produced as a result
What is reclamation?
Biodegradable products, break down naturally without releasing harmful chemicals, but if fabrics contain chemical finishes reclaiming the fibres is more difficult
What is a circular economy?
A cradle to cradle approach to the products life-cycle, whereby all the materials in a product can be continually reused through recycling and reclaiming fibres
How should products be designed?
So that they are easy to repair and care for to extend their useful life and made of recyclable fibres which can be used to make new products
What does sustainable manufacturing do?
- Conserves the use of resources during production
- Uses non toxic materials
- Keeps waste to a minimum
- Prevents pollution of the environment
- Supports Fairtrade policies
- Reduces ‘fashion miles’
What does cleaning, bleaching and dyeing natural fibres require?
Lots of water and harsh detergents, synthetics can be used instead as they are naturally white and clean
What does dyeing microfibres in strong colours require?
Lots of water, dope dyeing synthetic fibres by adding colour befor the fibre is spun reduces water consumption
What do modern dyes have?
Less impact as the chemicals used are less toxic, natural fibres can be bleached with sunlight or dyed with natural dyes made from plants
What does sublimation printing do?
Uses heat to transfer dye onto fabric which reduces water use and effluent
How can textiles factories reduces their use of non renewable fossil fuels?
By switching to renewable and sustainable sources such as wind, solar and hydroelectric power to drive their machines
How can material waste be minimised?
- Computer software to generate the most efficient lay plans
- Automated manufacturing processes to make it more accurate
- JIT stock control systems to reduce over ordering
How can fabric waste be minimised?
- Making sustainable capsule collec tions from leftover/recycled fabrics
- Donating unwanted textiles to charity or to be resold
- Reselling clothes
What are other solutions that minimise waste?
- EPOS systems to more accurately check the levels of stock
- More local manufacture to save on transportation costs
- The by-products of the cotton industry for other purposes
How can offcuts be recycled?
Can be used in other products, or the fibres can be reclaimed by shredding the fabric and re-spinning the reclaimed fibres into new yarns
What is pre consumer recycled context?
Where offcuts of expensive fabrics such as silk can be recycled and patched together to make one off fashion items or accessories
What toxic chemicals can be used in the textiles production?
- Fertilisers used in growing cotton crops
- Bleaches and dyestuffs used in cleaning and colouring fibres
What happens if chemicals aren’t carefully managed?
Pollutants can end up being discharged into local rivers, leeched into the soil or released into the atmosphere, this can damage the environment and affect workers health
What does organic farming involve?
Crop rotation, organic fertilisers and the exploitation of natural predators to promote pest control
When can heat be used in textile products?
- Melt solutions
- Air dry fibres
- Heat water for dyeing
- Steam finishing processes
What can large scale irrigation lead to?
Exhaust local water supplies and lead to desertification
What will enhance an organisations reputation?
Managing waste and instituting sustainable practises which is costly but it makes good business sense as it satisfies the consumer demand for sustainable products
What do manufactures need to take into account the costs of?
- Sustainable crop production and husbandry
- Producing textile products
- Waste management
What has global manufacturing meant?
That fashion and textile products, materials and components can be sourced from anywhere on the world and therefore the distances a product travels during its life cycle have increased dramatically
What do clothing and textiles make up?
About 7% of the world’s exports
What has globalisation led to?
Lower prices, which has increased the consumption of cheaper, more disposable products
What are the benefits of sustainable fashion becoming popular?
- Fashion miles are reduced as restless use suppliers located closer to the point of sale
- UK and European manufacturers no longer find it difficult to compete with Asia and eastern Europe
