Blog Post #4

How do we Alleviate the Pressures of Mass Production?

Soon, There Will be no Time Left 

Stenton et al., (2021) begins with a critical warning on the effects of human activity on climate change. How exactly we as humans have impacted the climate to change by continuing to support the mass production and eventual waste of textiles that do nothing to help the environment. 

  • Effects of climate change will be irreversible in no time 
  • Waste, Consumption and overproduction in the textile industry 
    • The Fashion Industry is responsible for 10% of worldwide greenhouse gases emissions, this includes 4% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. 
    • These numbers are on track to increase to 25% of global greenhouse gases emissions by 2050
  • Research done on economic and societal pressures of the best solution for the textile issue
  • Introduction to circular economy 

Where does food waste and textiles end up?  Mostly landfills.

  • 85% of textiles end up in landfills every year (2021) 
  • 931 million tonnes of food waste is generated by the retail home sector alone (2021) 
  • Textiles and food waste each equate to over USD 400 billion of clothing being wasted and an economic loss for the food (2021) 
  • There is a way in which we can kill these two birds with one stone 

 

What is a Circular Economy? 

A Circular Economy aims to eliminate waste through the continual use of resources. 

  • This is nothing new: reducing, reusing and recycling products and materials which will extend the lifespan of clothes 
  •  Regenerated Protein Fibers(RPFs) are introduced as a multi solution for our top two main issues: food waste and overproduction in the textile industry. 
  • RPFs are man made fibers created from natural protein sources 

How do Regenerated Protein Fibers work? 

Step 1) Protein Extraction 

Stenton et al., (2021)  begins with calling to action the fact that effects of climate change will be irreversible in no time. Introducing problems such as waste, consumption and overproduction in the textile industry, research is done among the authors to get extensively broad perspectives ranging from the economic to the societal pressures of transitioning to what they believe to be the best solution for the textile issues; a circular economy. This circular economy in fashion entails that the lifespan of clothes will be extended through the use of reducing, reusing and recycling. This article directly supports that ​​fast fashion is a major contributor to environmental degradation, accelerating water pollution, carbon emissions, textile waste, and microplastic pollution while providing a solution for these negative factors of fast fashion. 

 

Stenton et al., (2021) studied to find that there is a direct similarity between where food and textiles end up: landfills. Specifically, 85% of textiles end up in landfills every year (Stenton et al., p. 1); 931 million tonnes of food waste were generated by the retail sector to the home alone(Stenton et al., 2021 p. 4). In turn, textiles and food waste [each] equate to USD 400 billion of clothing being wasted and an economic loss of such an immense amount. Moreover, the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of greenhouse gases, this includes 4% of CO2 emissions which is predicted to increase to 25% just by 2050. Stenton et al., (2021) use the circular economy as a means to study regenerated protein fibers (RPFs) which may potentially address two of our largest issues in the modern world- at the same time. Using food industry waste and physically, chemically  or biologically transforming it to a bio-based material will, in theory, have a solution using this circular economy. Already, several countries have used This article presents numerous ways into which several countries use materials from waste food into textiles, applying them to everyday cosmetics. 

In addition, specific molecular based food waste is broken down into ways that can be reused in an entirely different way by transforming the way technology and science allows it to be.

Even while there are all these possibilities of using RPFs and more complicated scientific processes, the authors still engage in discussing other options for the issue of fast fashion and its great impact on the environment and essentially debunking its effectiveness. “A commonly accepted solution amongst the fashion industry is to ‘slow’ the fashion cycle and focus on the production of high-quality garments” (Cooper et al., 2014 as cited in Stenton et al., 2021, p. 2). Stenton et al.,(2021) explain that this concept of  ‘slowing’ the fashion cycle and focusing simply on making greater quality garments, in turn would make clothing last longer due to its improved quality even while it takes longer to produce. However, to alternate to this type of slow fashion only hinders the realistic cultural attitudes and garment collection schemes that include fash fashion.(cite source)  This simply means that our social standards are accustomed to much 

Attempting to solve environmental issues caused by the textile industry by slowing down the production of garments and placing a higher price tag for the quality also doesn’t equate to affordability and attainability which socio-economic consumers might be limited to. 

Source: Stenton, M., Kapsali, V., Blackburn, R. S., & Houghton, J. A. (2021). From Clothing Rations to Fast Fashion: Utilising Regenerated Protein Fibres to Alleviate Pressures on Mass Production. Energies, 14(18), 5654. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185654