Table Of ContentECOTEXTILES
© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production © 2004, John Easton
The Textile Institute and Woodhead Publishing
The Textile Institute is a unique organisation in textiles, clothing and footwear.
Incorporated in England by a Royal Charter granted in 1925, the Institute has individual
and corporate members in over 90 countries. The aim of the Institute is to facilitate
learning, recognise achievement, reward excellence and disseminate information within
the global textiles, clothing and footwear industries.
Historically, The Textile Institute has published books of interest to its members
and the textile industry. To maintain this policy, the Institute has entered into partnership
with Woodhead Publishing Limited to ensure that Institute members and the textile
industry continue to have access to high calibre titles on textile science and technology.
Most Woodhead titles on textiles are now published in collaboration with The Textile
Institute. Through this arrangement, the Institute provides an Editorial Board which
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© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production © 2004, John Easton
Ecotextiles
The way forward for
sustainable development
in textiles
EDITED BY
M. Miraftab and A. R. Horrocks
CRC Press
Boca Raton Boston New York Washington, DC
W
OODHEAD PUBLISHING LIMITED
Cambridge England
© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production © 2004, John Easton
Published by Woodhead Publishing Limited in association with The Textile Institute
Woodhead Publishing Limited, Abington Hall, Abington
Cambridge CB21 6AH, England
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First published 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited and CRC Press LLC
© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile
production © 2004, John Easton
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Woodhead Publishing ISBN-13: 978-1-84569-214-8 (book)
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Printed by Antony Rowe, Wiltshire, England
© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production © 2004, John Easton
CONTENTS
Introduction
M Miraftab and R Horrocks, University of Bolton, UK viii
Part I Recycling and use of waste as raw materials
Perceptions towards clothes with recycled content and environmental
awareness: the development of end markets
Y Nakano, Northumbria University, UK 3
Acoustic and mechanical properties of underlay manufactured from
recycled carpet waste
I Rushforth, K Horoshenkov and S N Ting, University of Bradford, UK,
and M Miraftab, University of Bolton, UK 15
Carpet fiber recycling technologies
Y Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA 26
Use of waste as raw materials: efficient recycling techniques
S Macaulay, Anglo Felt Industries Ltd, UK 33
Part II Sustainability and ecodesign
Building ecodesign throughout the supply chain: a new imperative for
the textile and clothing industry
T Bhamra, Loughborough University, UK 41
Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production
J R Easton, DyStar, UK 50
Molecular manufacturing for clean, low cost textile production
D Forrest, Naval Surface Warfare Center and Institute for Molecular
Manufacturing, USA 59
The substitution of hemp and flax for cotton in wound spool filters
C Sevajee and R Edyvean, University of Sheffield, UK 75
It may be eco-friendly but is an INGEO™/cellulose blend strong
enough to withstand wet processing?
J Suesat and D Phillips, University of Manchester, UK 91
Eco initiatives in the textile pipeline: a South African experience
P Foure, Clothing and Textile Environmental Linkage Centre,
South Africa, and T Mlauli, Department of Trade and Industry,
South Africa 96
v
© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production © 2004, John Easton
Part III Sustainable development and renewables
The use of renewable resource based materials for technical
textiles applications
R Shishoo, Shishoo Consulting AB, Sweden 109
Some properties of kenaf and kenaf combined waste composites
W Y Ahmad, J Salleh, M F Yahya, M I Abdul Kadir and M I Misnon,
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia 128
Tensile and flexural properties of composites made from spinning waste
J Salleh, W Y W Ahmad, M R Ahmad, M F Yahya, S A Ghani and
M I Misnon, Universiti Teknologi of MARA, Malaysia 136
UK technical textiles: issues relating to sustainability
B McCarthy, TechniTex Faraday Partnership, UK, and
C Byrne, Mediatex, UK 145
Part IV Waste management
The effect of a flocculent on the colour removal properties of a
conditioned activated sludge
G Smart, University of Bolton, UK, and J Binkley, University of
Manchester, UK 153
The anaerobic digestion of textile desizing wastewater
R Dinsdale, University of Glamorgan, UK, K Bryne and
D Tucker, Water Development Services, UK 163
Effluent treatment using a submerged aerated filter
E Groom, Queen’s University Belfast, UK 168
Effluent treatment at Thos. Chadwick & Sons Ltd
M Madden, ENCO, UK, and M Andrews, Thos. Chadwick & Sons Ltd 170
Protective properties of textiles dyed with natural dyes
D Gupta, IIT Delhi, India 182
Part V Novel technologies
Tandem wet-on-wet foam application of both crease-resist and
antistatic finishes
J Pearson, University of Huddersfield, UK, and A Elbadawi,
Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre, Sudan 195
An all natural slip resistant and absorbent fibrous material
S Hutchinson, North Carolina State University, USA 200
vi
© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production © 2004, John Easton
Laser and devore
J Stoyel, University of the West of England, UK 210
Cellulose-protein textiles: utilisation of sericin in textile finishing
A Kongdee and T Bechtold, Leopold-Franzens University, Austria 216
vii
© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production © 2004, John Easton
Part I
Recycling and use of waste as raw materials
© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production © 2004, John Easton
PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS CLOTHES WITH RECYCLED
CONTENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS:
THE DEVELOPMENT OF END MARKETS
Yukie Nakano
Centre for Design Research, Northumbria University, Sandyford Road, Squires
Building, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
ABSTRACT
UK waste is growing steadily every year by 2–3 per cent, despite the fact that our
government encourages us to recycle more. Due to a lack of landfill sites, we need to
reduce our waste drastically. However, developing end markets for recycled materials
is necessary for recycling to be successful, and the achievement of those markets depends
on consumer demand for products.
This study has explored the public perception towards clothes with recycled content
and was designed as a guide to clothing industries that are, or will be, dealing with
recycled materials for their products. The public survey aimed to identify the potential
market for clothes with recycled content, particularly those made from plastic (PET)
bottles using a fleece jacket as an example.
The findings reveal that there is a contradiction between the public reaction towards
products with recycled content and their awareness of environmental issues.
INTRODUCTION
Pressure to meet EU landfill regulations, a lack of available landfill sites and a growing
concern for environmental hazards such as land, water contamination and air pollution
associated with incineration and landfill sites have pressurised the UK Government to
take action and raise the recycling rate. They indicated a target in Waste Strategy 2000
for England and Wales to recycle 25 per cent of household waste by 2005.1
However, in 2001/02, we created 28.8 million tonnes of municipal waste of which
22.3 million tonnes went into landfill. This was an increase of 2.4 per cent compared
to 28.1 million tonnes in 2000/01 with 22.1 million tonnes going into landfill. Parallel
to this development there was also a 1.2 per cent increase in recycling municipal waste
from 12.3 per cent in 2000/01 to 13.5 per cent in 2001/02.2 This clearly shows that
although the recycling rate has seen a rise, this is not sufficient to reduce the amount of
waste going into landfill sites, as the total amount of waste produced has increased at a
faster rate than recycling. If our pattern of consumption keeps to its current trend and
we do not reduce our waste, it is clear that in the near future there will be no available
landfill sites.3
One significant contributor to this situation is the plastic beverage bottle. It is derived
from crude oil and the rapid growth of plastic bottle consumption combined with its
short life cycle, results in its continuous entry as waste into landfill sites and
incinerators.4 Looking at waste by weight, approximately 10–11 per cent of household
wastes is plastic.5 Around 1.6 per cent of this comprises plastic bottles. However,
3
© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production © 2004, John Easton
looking at waste by volume, plastic bottles would represent more than 5.4 per cent of
the waste.6
In England recycling plastic started in the 1990s, since then the development of
plastic recycling has been slow: approximately 3% (14,000 tonnes) in 2001.7
The main key barriers to the successful implementation of plastic bottle recycling have
been identified as the lack of an efficient recycling infrastructure and an unstable
market for collected materials.8 While improving the recycling infrastructure is a
relatively straightforward task, which some local authorities may already have started
addressing, developing end markets for recycled materials provide bigger challenges.
As Sutherland mentions, developing end markets for recycled material is vital for
recycling to be able to grow.9 He also suggested that success of the market development
relies on consumer demand for goods with recycled content.10
The RECOUP survey shows that approximately 10% of local authorities are not
collecting plastic bottles because they have no confidence that there is a market for the
collected materials.11 The recent WRAP study also pointed out that the plastic industry’s
preconceptions towards recycled plastic materials have been hindering market
development. The industry believes that recycled materials are of inferior quality to
virgin materials and therefore hesitate to use them.12 Nevertheless, advances in recycling
technology have made it possible to produce desirable quality goods from recycled
plastic. In order to encourage industries to change the current practice it is necessary to
convince them of the quality of recycled materials and to examine the public acceptance
towards products with recycled content.
This study concentrates on clothing with recycled content, particularly those made
from plastic (PET) bottles. In order to examine the public perception towards clothes
with recycled content, a survey was carried out using a fleece jacket as an example.
The fleece jacket is a product that can be made from recycled materials and it is a
particularly good example of recycled clothes currently available in the market place
as it shows that recycled materials are no longer inferior quality to virgin materials.
The survey aimed to identify the potential market for clothes with recycled content.
This study and the resulting information was designed as a guide to clothing industries
that are or will be dealing with recycled materials for their products. Shopping behaviour
and environmental awareness, especially attitudes towards recycling were closely
scrutinised. Analysis of previous consumer attitudes13 towards products marketed as
environmentally friendly have contributed to the design and the analysis of the survey.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GREEN MOVEMENT
IN THE CLOTHING INDUSTRY
In the early 1990s, we all experienced an increased interest in the green movement.
The products e.g. biodegradable washing detergent, organic cotton and paper made
from controlled forests, marketed as ‘environmentally friendly’ were sold everywhere.
Yet, consumers were soon disappointed with lesser quality and the premium price of
its products compared to conventional ones.
The clothing sector tells a similar tale. Esprit launched ‘Ecollection’ using mainly
organic cotton with natural colours. This was initially an overwhelming success but
soon consumers moved to more colourful clothes.14 Patagonia invented a fleece jacket
made from recycled PET plastic bottles. The product was very successful and many
companies followed suit and produced a fleece jacket made from plastic bottles.
However both the jacket’s popularity and the high price gave rise to cheaper copies by
4
© 2007, Woodhead Publishing Limited, except Supply chain partnerships for sustainable textile production © 2004, John Easton
