Sustainable Apparel

Textile products require laundering for a number of times throughout their wear life. Fabrics are mainly damaged by chemicals and mechanical distortions they are exposed during laundering which leads to the unpleasant appearance. Ironing is a process of smoothing out wrinkles by heat, pressure and friction, often with application of moisture or steam. The present contribution deals with the characterization of smoothness appearance, low-stress mechanical and dimensional properties of cotton, cotton/polyester and polyester plain fabrics after repeated cycles of laundering/ironing in comparison with repeated cycles of laundering. The results show that repeated ironing can preserve an appreciate smoothness appearance during wear life and also reduce the effects of successive launderings on low stresses mechanical properties.

Despite the growing attention on sustainable consumption of textile and apparel products, little information is available for consumers guiding their decisions for sustainable consumption and product care. The objective of this study is to develop the logical processes to assess the environmental and economic impacts made by the textile product care and to measure the CO 2 eq. and utility cost during drying and ironing procedures. Particularly, the influence of quick-drying property and durable-press finish on product care and their impacts on CO 2 eq. and utility cost were evaluated. Results indicated quick-drying and hydrophobic fibers consumed less electricity during tumble-drying as it contained less amount of water after spinning for dehydration. A higher spin speed was favorable for saving energy during tumble-drying, as less water remained in wet laundry after spinning. While cotton fabrics were obviously wrinkled after laundering, a polyester/cotton blend in 65/35 with durable-press finish maintained smoothness grade 4 or 5 during ten times laundering period. With a conservative criterion where a grade lower than 5 needs ironing, a polyester/cotton 65/35 with durable-press finish was judged to need ironing once in two cycles of laundering. This can save about 64 % of utility and CO 2 eq. that the cotton fabric would produce in the ironing process. It is anticipated that this study provides information that is useful to consumers in their decision making for sustainable consumption.

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Sustainable clothing consumption is vital to reduce the negative ecological footprint of global textile and apparel (TA) industry. Social media, such as Facebook (FB), twitter, blogs, etc., can disseminate relevant information to help raise consumer awareness. This study investigated if Facebook could be a potential disseminating media of TA sustainability information, by examining what formats of Facebook posts and what types of sustainability topic generated more engagement. The findings showed that participants engaged more in video format followed by infographic and weblink. Besides, participants engaged more in water-related FB posts followed by waste-related contents . Energy-related FB posts generated the least amount of engagement.

Despite the growing attention on sustainable consumption of textile and apparel products, little information is available for consumers guiding their decisions for sustainable consumption and product care. The objective of this study is to develop the logical processes to assess the environmental and economic impacts made by the textile product care and to measure the CO 2 eq. and utility cost during drying and ironing procedures. Particularly, the influence of quick-drying property and durable-press finish on product care and their impacts on CO 2 eq. and utility cost were evaluated. Results indicated quick-drying and hydrophobic fibers consumed less electricity during tumble-drying as it contained less amount of water after spinning for dehydration. A higher spin speed was favorable for saving energy during tumble-drying, as less water remained in wet laundry after spinning. While cotton fabrics were obviously wrinkled after laundering, a polyester/cotton blend in 65/35 with durable-press finish maintained smoothness grade 4 or 5 during ten times laundering period. With a conservative criterion where a grade lower than 5 needs ironing, a polyester/cotton 65/35 with durable-press finish was judged to need ironing once in two cycles of laundering. This can save about 64 % of utility and CO 2 eq. that the cotton fabric would produce in the ironing process. It is anticipated that this study provides information that is useful to consumers in their decision making for sustainable consumption.