In March 2004 the Department of Conservation and the Environment (DEC) engaged the Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia (TFIA) to run a Cleaner Production training program for textile manufacturers. In this program manufacturers were engaged to determine what their wastes were and then to develop ways of reducing these wastes for better environmental outcomes, but also to save the companies money.
They were successful in reducing wastes, energy and money. Overall the program developed over $1m in waste cost savings as well as over 100 mega litres of water savings, 260 kilowatt hours of electrical energy, 8,000 Giga Joule of gas energy and 300 tonnes of raw material waste savings shared by the 10 participants. This also saved some 850 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide equivalent Greenhouse emissions per year into the air environment.
However, there is still a lot to do! And the reuse of manufacturing wastes by design is a significant opportunity open to the textile industry.
As things currently stand, wastes still occur at each stage of manufacture from raw textile manufacture through to the finished product.
Typically raw material wastes are:
| Manufacturing stage | Waste types | Percentage of raw material lost |
|---|---|---|
| Renewable fibres (cotton, wool, cellulosics) | Farm wastes Retting wastes Wool scouring and carbonising wastes Cotton ginning | 5 to 20 % |
| Synthetic fibres (nylons, polyester etc.) | Monomer manufacture wastes Polymerisation wastes | 1 to 3 % |
| Yarn manufacture | Fibre blending wastes Carding and combing wastes Spinning and twisting wastes Dyeing wastes | 3 to 5 % |
| Fabric manufacture | Off cuts, samples, QA tests Fabric trim and leader wastes Off spec and over production wastes | 3 to 5 % |
| Product manufacture | Cutting wastes Selvedge Make up wastes Off spec product, samples, over order and over production Rejects and take backs | 10 to 20 % |
| Total raw material losses | 15 to 50 % |
Some of these losses, particularly at the product manufacturing end of the journey are due to the design and specification of the end product. There is room to move with product design to reduce manufacturing wastes, but also to look at reusing wastes in new products.
This is the design challenge!
Kim Andrew [Design Lecturer with Unisearch at the University of NSW]: There's a lot of problems in the fashion industry in terms of sustainability. There's a lot of pollution, a lot of waste, a lot of abuse of finite resources and there's a lot of human impact as well as land, air and water, impacts that the textile industry has to deal with in order to become more sustainable.
ANDREW: When you manufacture the garment it requires laying the material and a lot of wasted fabric used to be dumped in the land fills. The use of computer technology now allows them to place patterns very efficiently on the fabric so that they have the minimal amount of waste possible. And a lot of smart companies are using that waste to produce smaller products such as Rip Curl making wallets. Maud N Lil are making small bears and Patagonia are making babies' wear which is coming out next year.
Common wastes from manufacture:
| Product | Wastes | Manufacturers |
|---|---|---|
| T-shirts, singlets, underwear | Cutting room wastes Fabric trim Roll off-cuts | DPK Bonds |
| Bedding | Fabric roll ends Quilting trim Foam | Sealy Dunlop |
| Blinds, outdoor fabrics | Roll ends Trim Off-cuts | Shaw of Australia |
| Carpets | Cropping wastes Trim Out of spec product | Interface Carpets Ontera Carpets |
| Garment dyeing | Off spec garments Ripped and damaged garments | Colour Change |
| Sheets and manchester | Trim Roll ends Samples and off-cuts | Sheridan |
| Non woven products | Fibre Product off cuts and off spec | United Bonding Melded Fabrics |
| Leather products | Off cuts Trim | Contemporary Leathers |
| Commercial fittings | Samples and trim | Instyle Contract Textiles |