Overview
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ABSTRACT
The textile industry is currently undergoing deep change, and needs to rethink its systems to build lean, sustainable, competitive processes. It must also strive to bring to the market products with low impact on the environment. Ecodesign helps companies achieve these goals. This article begins with a presentation of some ecodesign initiatives in the textile industry, giving the key points of a successful approach and the directions to be taken to design eco-textiles. Issues affecting the textile sector are then presented. Lastly current limitations and obstacles to be overcome are outlined, opening perspectives on the needs of the textile industry. This article informs the reader on the state of the sector, and on the practical possibilities in textile eco-design.
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Emmanuel PRETET: Textile engineer ENSAIT - Textile engineering consultant Bureau d'étude CarboneTex, Roubaix, France
INTRODUCTION
Since the 1990s, eco-design has been gaining ground in many sectors. Through eco-design, environmental impacts are assessed and taken into account in the design and development of a product, throughout its life cycle (from raw material to end-of-life). This global, multi-criteria assessment makes it possible to identify, act upon and reduce the environmental impact of a product or service.
The textile sector is also taking a close interest in concepts linked to the eco-design of products and services. Numerous initiatives have taken place, and new concepts have been developed to bring eco-designed textiles to market. As consumer demand for textiles incorporating sustainable development concepts continues to grow, manufacturers are adapting through innovation. This growing demand pushes them to develop new materials, new assemblies and new ways of manufacturing and using textiles. Ecodesign thus appears to be a strategic tool, and therefore a factor of competitive differentiation in a globalized economy.
This has given rise to new constraints. Some of these are still holding back the development of eco-design in the textile industry, and consequently the expansion of the range of eco-designed textile products on the French and world markets. Today, the textile industry has the capacity to cope with the technological and scientific innovations it faces. But changing attitudes at all levels of the value chain is the challenge for the years ahead. The development of new models of consumer behavior on the one hand, but also on the part of principals and distributors, will enable wider acceptance of eco-designed textile products.
This article sheds light on current eco-design practices in the textile industry, through a few examples and initiatives, but also through a focus on the different axes to be developed to eco-design a textile product. All this is put into perspective with the current limits and obstacles facing the textile industry.
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Ecodesign in the textile sector
Bibliography
Software tools
Life cycle assessment (LCA) software
SimaPro http://www.pre-sustainability.com/simapro
Gabi http://www.gabi-software.com/france/index/
Lifecycle analysis databases
...Websites
Events
National Ecodesign Conference, held every year http://www.eco-conception.fr
International LCA Congress, held annually in Lille http://www.avnir.org
Colloque Filières et Recyclage, takes place every year in Paris
Standards and norms
- Environmental management – Help in setting up an eco-design approach - NF X30-264 AFNOR - 2013
Regulations
Article L.541-10-3 of the French Environment Code.
Law on programmed obsolescence adopted by the National Assembly on October 14
Order no. 2010-1579 of December 17, 2010 containing various provisions adapting to European Union law in the field of waste (JO no. 0293 of December 18, 2010, p. 22301, text no. 1 [NOR: DEVX1028667R])
Patents
Article assembly and disassembly system WO2013189956 A1
Process for producing a carded spinning yarn from textile waste EP 1995362 B1
Directory
Manufacturers – Suppliers – Distributors (non-exhaustive list)
Observatory of technical textiles in France http://www.textilestechniquesenfrance.com
Organizations – Federations – Associations (non-exhaustive list)
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