Figure 1. Projected waste generation, by region (millions of tonnes/year).
Extracted from Trends in Solid Waste Management, The World Bank [1] We are aware of the problems that waste possess to our planet. It is very likely that most people you know recycle, try to reduce the amount of plastic they use, avoid flying as much as they can or follow a vegetarian diet. The environmental consciousness is even reaching the industry: there are some industrial fields where we observe a trend towards a circular economy, one such example being the food industry [2]. However, when it comes to sustainability, we tend to overlook the fashion industry.
Since the rise of fast fashion, the consumption of clothing has skyrocketed. In 2016, roughly 107 billion of garments and 14.5 billion pairs of shoes were purchased [3]. This amount is expected to increase by 13% by 2021 [3]. In Sweden, the carbon footprint of clothing consumption is about 330 kg CO2 eq. per person [4]. It is estimated that the average Swedish person produces 7.5 kg textile waste per year that is burned in incinerators [5]. Systems for collection of used clothes has been developed over the past years in Sweden, but non-reusable multi-fiber materials are still to a high extent burned in incinerators due to lack of methods for recycling blends of natural and synthetic fibers [5].
A common blend of fibers is the combination of cotton and elastane, which is present for example in most of the jeans that are produced nowadays. Cotton provides desirable properties in terms of softness, breathability, appearance whilst elastane allows the fabric to stretch without losing its original shape. The issue with blends like these is that the elastane wears out and loses its flexibility, which eventually renders the textile unusable even though the cotton fibers are still intact. Furthermore, the mixture of elastane with cotton makes the latter unrecyclable, which means that otherwise perfectly usable cotton fibers end up in landfills. This contributes to the immobilization of resources that cannot be recovered, and to the destruction of ecosystems. One important reason for textiles having such high environmental impact is the energy and water consumption that the growth and processing of cotton require. Producing 1 kg of cotton requires 20000 liters of water [6]. Furthermore, the production of cotton accounts for one sixth of the global use of pesticides[7] and in terms of energy, 55 megajoules are needed to produce 1 kg of cotton fiber [8]. Still, due to its desirable properties, approximately 26 million tons of cotton fibers were produced in 2018 [9]. Besides this, the presence of plastic in clothes also aggravates the contamination of microplastic in oceans and other bodies of water. In fact, washing synthetic textiles is estimated as the main source of primary microplastics in the oceans [10].
No Time To Waste aims to enzymatically degrade the plastic fibers that are present in clothes, such as elastane, and release the natural materials. The remaining natural fibers can be reused to produce new clothes. By doing this, we would provide a mean to recycle denim and other garments. Hence, we would not only prevent the accumulation of textiles in landfills, where they present a problem and immobilization of resources, but also contribute to reduce the production of cotton, a process which requires tremendous amounts of energy [6], [7], [8].
To do this, we used the power of synthetic biology to give our bacterial strain the capabilities of other bacteria that have been shown to be able to degrade plastic. We aided our work with several in silico methodologies to explore different possibilities and find the most efficient process. Furthermore, we wanted to design a project that would fit into the real needs of society. To do this, we consulted many stakeholders in order to better understand the process of textile recycling. Thanks to their feedback, we could adapt our project to the current recycling infrastructure. From them, we also learned that the reality of the textile industry and its impact in sustainability is not known by a large part of the society. We certainly did not know about it! Since we wanted to have a positive impact, we decided to use our Human Practices work as a tool to spread this knowledge and to educate about sustainability and the fashion industry.
- [1] “Trends in Solid Waste Management.” https://datatopics.worldbank.org/what-a-waste/trends_in_solid_waste_management.html (accessed Oct. 21, 2020).
- [2] F. Fassio and N. Tecco, “Circular Economy for Food: A Systemic Interpretation of 40 Case Histories in the Food System in Their Relationships with SDGs,” Systems, vol. 7, no. 3, p. 43, Aug. 2019, doi: 10.3390/systems7030043.
- [3] “Fashion Consumption Statistics: How Much Do We Buy?” https://www.commonobjective.co/article/volume-and-consumption-how-much-does-the-world-buy (accessed Oct. 21, 2020).
- [4] G. Sandin, S. Roos, B. Spak, B. Zamani, and G. Peters, environmental assessment of Swedish clothing consumption-six garments, sustainable futures. .
- [5] “Textiles-from waste to resource by 2030 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0.”
- [6] “Cotton | Industries | WWF.” https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/cotton (accessed Oct. 21, 2020).
- [7] “The fabrics with the worst environmental impact revealed, from polyester to fur | The Independent | The Independent.” https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/fabrics-environment-fast-fashion-eco-friendly-pollution-waste-polyester-cotton-fur-recycle-a8963921.html (accessed Oct. 21, 2020).
- [8] “Estimating the carbon footprint of a fabric | OEcotextiles.” https://oecotextiles.blog/2011/01/19/estimating-the-carbon-footprint-of-a-fabric/ (accessed Oct. 21, 2020).
- [9] “Preferred Fiber & Materials - Market Report 2019,” 2019.
- [10] F. De Falco, E. Di Pace, M. Cocca, and M. Avella, “The contribution of washing processes of synthetic clothes to microplastic pollution,” Sci. Rep., vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1–11, Dec. 2019, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-43023-x.
