Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Optimizing Apparel Development to Reduce Waste
EPA Grant Number: SU836784Title: Optimizing Apparel Development to Reduce Waste
Investigators: Cobb, Kelly Ann , Cao, Huantian
Institution: University of Delaware
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Phase: I
Project Period: November 1, 2016 through October 31, 2017 (Extended to August 31, 2018)
Project Amount: $14,999
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2016) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Sustainable and Healthy Communities , P3 Awards , P3 Challenge Area - Chemical Safety
Objective:
The Fashion Industry is a highly complex, global, ever-changing system. The amount of textile waste in U.S. landfills has grown at more than three times the rate of overall waste volumes for all materials. Between 2000 and 2011, textile waste increased 38% environmental impacts, the generation of significant amount of solid waste. The production, use and disposal of over 19 billion garments per year causes significant environmental and human health problems. Large Apparel companies such as NIKE are mapping their waste streams and findings suggest it is most effective to reduce waste at the development stage rather than use resources to manage unneeded materials downstream in the supply chain (Nike, 2013).
In 2012, 14.33 million tons of textile waste was generated in the United States, which represented 5.7% of total municipal solid waste. Of these textile waste, 15.7% was recovered and 12.08 million tons were discarded. The apparel giant Nike (2013) defines waste as any product or material purchased anywhere in the supply chain that does not ultimately end up in the consumer’s closet. This definition includes non-product waste (such as packaging), manufacturing waste (such as scrap material in contract factories) and product waste such as samples. In addition to textile waste from the cutting room and post-consumption, apparel sampling can also generate a huge amount of textile waste. A major apparel brand would easily have millions of product samples each year, which may become textile waste.
The purpose of this project was to focus on using virtual prototyping as an alternative to waste generated in physical apparel sampling. Many types of materials are used in apparel products, and each material has different environmental impact. Over 16,000 materials are used in apparel and footwear products each year. A pair of shoes alone can use more than 30 materials (Nike Considered Design, 2010). Sustainable Apparel Coalition has developed material sustainability index (MSI) that can help companies choose the best fabrications of textiles. Our vision is to mesh the possibilities of virtual prototyping with MSI data. Sustainable Apparel Coalition has developed material sustainability index (MSI) that can help companies choose the most sustainable materials. We sought to mesh the possibilities of virtual prototyping with MSI data, using version 2 of the MSI tool.
Waste Reduction in Product Development Phase:
The apparel giant Nike (Nike Considered Design, 2010) defines waste as any product or material purchased anywhere in the supply chain that does not ultimately end up in the consumer's closet. This definition includes non-product waste (such as packaging), manufacturing waste (such as scrap material in contract factories) and product waste (such as samples). Our focus is on the reduction of solid textile waste in apparel product development processes and is in direct alignment with the Solid Waste Disposal Act – Section 8001. We propose the development of an interactive development tool that offers product developers a platform for virtual problem solving prior to physical sample production.
We hypothesize that further impacts will be negated by embedding materials sustainability data that will serve to educate product developers on fabric selection. By creating efficiencies in the product development phase of the apparel product life-cycle a significant amount of solid waste would be eliminated as well as making a significant decrease in the product’s carbon footprint. In addition, apparel sampling process usually uses air freight transportation, which generates greenhouse gasses and air pollution. Using virtual sampling as a substitute of physical apparel prototype to reduce air freight transportation is related to Clean Air Act -- Section 103. Waste reduction in apparel production can be achieved through increased efficiency in the product development phase by the utilization of 3D technology, the benefit of using 3D technology is that problems can be solved prior to generating physical waste. There is a significant opportunity to shape and influence how a product is created. "Design is the first signal of human intention." As this quote by William McDonough, Co-Author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, articulates: design can be a beneficial, regenerative force.
Virtual Prototyping enables designers to quickly visualize how a material will ultimately appear on a product. During product development, physical prototypes are frequently required for quick iterative evaluation to provide feedback for design modification such as selection of design alternatives, engineering analysis, manufacturing planning and visualization of a product. Studies have shown that virtual prototyping is faster (Hammon et al., 2014), and performs equal to physical prototyping (Wojtczuk and Bonnardel 2010). Primarily, virtual prototyping technology is used in in engineering industries such as automotive and interior design, we see a potential if applied to apparel and footwear. If it is not the desired look, the developer can try different materials until the perfect match is found. The virtual/visual data help in transcending the technical aspects of fabric composition and improve tactility. Virtual prototyping saves time and money and allows the designer to explore and experience hundreds of options before making a final choice (Bux, 2014).
Our project aims to create a custom fabric library, which contains fine-tuned visual data regarding fabric visualization. The virtual/visual data would help transcend the technical aspects of fabric composition and improve tactility. Virtual garment design saves time and money and allows the developer to explore and experience hundreds of options before making a final choice. With the goal of replacing physical prototypes, a virtual prototyping technology must first offer the same functions and then even more functions. In considering physical prototypes, designers have sensory evaluation of a product, such as color, texture, surfaces, form, feel, fitness, and so on, it is important for virtual prototyping to offer such evaluation as well. Currently, Adidas is using photo visualization as the final test stage before they mass produce a new item (Piller, Lindgens, & Steiner, 2012). Not only does this cut down on material waste, but it saves the company a lot of time that would otherwise be spent obtaining the raw materials and constructing the samples. By integrating the CAD option into this sector of manufacturing, we will effectively and sustainably skip the manufacture of physical prototypes. The MSI assesses material impacts in the areas of energy, chemistry, water and waste. The current process of fabric selection in apparel product development does not take into consideration the environmental impacts of chosen materials. With a lack of access to information regarding material sustainability, developers and other decision makers cannot make informed, sustainable decisions (Nike, 2013). By embedding MSI data into the 3D prototyping system fabric library, we can educate product creation teams to use environmentally better materials and further improve sustainability.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
A team of researchers investigated the potential of virtual prototyping by customizing a virtual fabric library based on measurements of textile mechanical property data from two knit and two woven fabrics. Optitex CAD software was used to create the virtual garment. Researchers referred to MSI data during fabric selection. Textile material characteristics such as weight, thickness, stretch, bend, shear, and coefficient of friction were measured in Optitex laboratory and were incorporated into the customized fabric library. Researchers customizing avatar features in Adobe Photoshop and Optitex 3D model properties. The virtual garments were then created by developing 3D virtual textile structures, applying texture mapping to virtual garments using Adobe Photoshop software, embedding into the Optitex CAD software fabric library. Concurrent with virtual garment construction, researchers constructed physical garment samples out of selected textile materials, comprised of one light and one heavy weight of both knit and woven substrates.
Conclusions:
It was found that the virtual and physical garments are similar. With appropriate textile characteristics measurement and textile mapping, virtual garments have the potential to replace physical garments in sampling. Improvements can be made by outsourcing 3D model features such as hair and by streamlining documentation physical garments in 360 degree format concurrent with offering runway viewing format (or similar) as output from Optitex as simulated in our project. MSI data could be seamlessly incorporated into CAD system to facilitate sustainable material selection. The team recommends that apparel companies develop core fabrics/key items as virtual prototypes to assess their own supply chains. In the future the team will simulate this with several apparel companies. In the future, we will compare virtual and physical garments by an industry expert panel survey; to measure potential waste reductions of virtual apparel prototype production in contrast to physical apparel prototype production; and to develop recommendations in optimizing apparel product development via virtual prototyping methods.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 1 publications for this projectRelevant Websites:
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.