A new report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is calling for major change in the fashion industry, as synthetic fibres from washed clothes are linked to ocean microplastics.
According to IMechE, 35 per cent of microplastics released into our oceans come from synthetic textiles, with a typical 5kg wash load of polyester fabrics producing six million microfibres. The report, Engineering Out Fashion Waste, urges the garment industry to invest in new environmentally-friendly materials, as well as to tackle the enormous waste problem the sector engenders. IMechE claims that three-fifths of all clothing is discarded within a year of being produced, either sent to landfill or incinerated.
“We need to build on existing industry initiatives and fundamentally rethink the way clothes are manufactured, right down to the fibres that are used,” said IMechE’s Aurelie Hulse, lead author of the report.
“Garments should be created so they don’t fall apart at the seams and so that they can be recycled after they have been worn for many years. Fabrics should be designed not to shed microfibres when washed and industry needs look at how efficiencies can be made in the cutting process, which currently sees 60bn m2 of cut-off material discarded on factory floors each year.”
Consumers and retailers also have a role to play. To reduce an item of clothing’ carbon footprint, people are encouraged to wash their clothes at a lower temperature, use mesh laundry bags to catch threads, use tumble dryers less often, and install filters on washing machine waste pipes. Water pollution and energy use from the fashion industry is significant. The report highlights that in 2015, the industry produced 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e), more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.
“The garment industry is one of many industries that has a threefold impact with emissions to air, water, and large amounts of waste produced for landfill and incineration,” said Dr Jenifer Baxter, head of Engineering at IMechE.
“This means that to begin to create a sustainable fashion industry we need to address all of these areas and engineers are producing solutions that range from greater efficiency in machinery and water use to new materials with reduced shedding. Given that it has been estimated that there are 20 new garments manufactured per person each year and that consumers are buying 60 per cent more than in 2000, these environmental implications must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
So much to comment upon here: but as good Engineers we surely start at the beginning, getting to the root of the problem.
1. Fashions! Fortunately for ‘my’ industry, these change certainly once and often twice per annum. Almost by definition this implies ‘waste’ . Apart from working clothes and those ‘used’ by children, very few textiles wear out , they become ‘out-of-fashion’ or the wearers grow out of them?
2 Greed! that of the retail consortia: who take such a large ‘slice’ of any overall ‘profit’ notwithstanding the incredible efficiencies of operation(s) in most textile manufacturing (much better than electronics) that the incentives (and ability) for manufacturers to consider their environmental responsibilities are small. Yes, so-called ‘functional’ textiles are made up to a specification, not down to a price: but the market for these is small, by comparison with clothing.
3. life style: an apparently ignored (by the I Mech Eng) aspect of textile items at both ends of our bodies and our lives! Waste disposal? deliberately catered for by items that are definitely ‘single use’. Here Textiles and the paper industry come close.
Article refers to wash bags catching the fibres. If that is possible then presumably we can design a cleanable, reusable filter to install in the washing machine drain. My previous washer actually had a strainer, very coarse, in the drain which use to get clogged with horse hairs, don’t ask.
Mind you one of the irritations I have with washers is that they can’t even blend hot and cold feeds to achieve the required temperature, relying on electricity, your wallet and our planet to heat water from mains cold so getting makers to care about the drain water will be difficult.
They are, if made properly with well specified sewing thread
they are: ever heard of ‘shoddy’
It has done for decades: but almost by definition, and as our industry has to cater for covering in two dimensional ‘stuff’ what is actually curvilinear and three dimensional -you and I, there will be cutting allowances. Look at Lectra and Gerber www sites: computer designated lay planning which is remarkably efficient in getting maximum use out of fabric. An order of magnitude better than in the past
Actually the largest component of textiles by weight in the average household is carpeting, curtaining, bed linen, towels (happily made of cotton so not apparently of any interest to the I Mech E) and furniture covers, not clothes.
just for the record, I will suggest that if we ‘returned’ to natural fibres(of which cotton and wool are the main examples) -which have an inherent ability to adsorb our moisture, sweat, urine, – we could reduce the need for ‘de-odourants’ and their micro-particulates: probably just as much a cause of pollution as those the I Mech E seems to be concerned about. I could go on: to my view those presenting this type of research? do so in a flawed premise. But, of course I have only worked in and for the textile industry since 1965.