New Composites: Diversifying material sources in a circular textile economy

时装和纺织业是污染、资源枯竭和气候变化的重要贡献者。为了将人类活动控制在地球承载能力的范围内，我们生产、使用和处理纺织品的方式需要进行彻底的变革。这项工作体现在可持续发展的原则中，例如在产品或材料生命周期的每个阶段减少负面的社会和环境影响，以及作为可持续发展的主要方法的循环性，努力在没有浪费的情况下循环资源。新复合材料项目旨在增加纺织品设计中使用的资源的多样性，以促进可持续发展目标，同时在纺织品设计中嵌入可回收性。该行业目前绝大多数依赖于两种类型的纤维，棉花和聚酯，这两种纤维占全球纺织品生产的76%（纺织品交易所，2021年）。虽然这些纤维类别可以通过使用有机或回收的投入进行改进，但必须有更多种类的纤维作为补充。目前对资源范围如此狭窄的关注导致该部门缺乏复原力，因为目前的价格飙升或冲突或贸易路线的其他障碍造成的重大中断已经表明了这一点。该项目旨在解决传统纤维导致生物多样性减少所带来的环境和社会影响。目前，替代材料领域正在进行令人兴奋的多样化创新，例如由消费前和消费后回收纤维制成的材料，玉米生物聚酯或农业废物再生纤维素。然而，这些创新的构成往往不完全透明，难以大规模获取。此外，由于目前的圆形设计指南主要关注市场份额最高的纤维，因此人们对这些新型纤维如何最好地用于循环产品知之甚少。新复合材料项目旨在提高对这些新型纤维的圆形潜力的理解，以鼓励整个行业的纤维多样性。它解决的挑战是：首先，缺乏有关替代材料的成分、生产工艺和可回收性标准的信息，其次，这些材料在成本和性能方面的准入障碍。第一个目标是从材料供应商和回收商那里收集和交叉引用信息，以便为打算使用这些材料的设计师提供指导。这是以项目小组在这一领域的现有研究为基础的。第二个目标将通过将替代纤维与其他可持续但更容易获得的资源混合来实现。第二个目标的实现将通过与英国生产和设计公司合作的一系列原型纺织品样品的形式来实现，这些样品展示了新材料在圆形设计混合物中的应用。研究的结果将是一套指导方针，以及相关的物理演示，以突出使用替代材料进行圆形设计的可能性。这些准则将说明如何将这些材料结合成符合现有和新出现的回收技术标准的兼容混合物，以及如何在结合不兼容的资源时采用拆卸设计。希望这些成果将使更多的新材料的吸收和从污染和单一文化资源的转变。

The fashion and textile industries are significant contributors to pollution, resource depletion, and climate change. To steer human activity back within the limits of the earth's carrying capacity, the way we produce, use, and dispose of textiles needs to undergo radical transformation. This work is embedded in principles of sustainability such as reducing negative social and environmental impacts at each stage of a product or material's lifecycle, alongside circularity as a leading approach to sustainability, which endeavours to circulate resources without waste. The New Composites project aims to increase the diversity of resources used in textile design as a contribution to sustainability targets while embedding recyclability in textile design.The industry currently relies in overwhelming majority on two types of fibres, cotton and polyester, which together account for 76% of all global textile production (Textile Exchange, 2021). While improvements can be made in these fibre categories by using organic or recycled input, it is imperative that a wider variety of fibres should complement their use. The current focus on such a narrow range of resources leads to a lack of resilience in the sector as current price spikes or major disruptions caused by conflict or other obstructions of trade routes have shown. The project tackles the environmental and social impacts linked to the reduced biodiversity which comes from a focus on conventional fibres.Exciting and diverse innovation is currently taking place in the sector of alternative materials, for example materials made from pre- and post-consumer recycled fibres, bio-polyesters from corn, or regenerated cellulose from agricultural waste. However, these innovations are often not fully transparent in their composition and are difficult to access at scale. Moreover, as current guidelines for circular design focus on the fibres with the highest market share, little is known about how these new fibres are best employed in products designed for recirculation.The New Composites project aims to increase understanding of the circularity potential of these new fibres to encourage fibre diversity across the industry. The challenges that it tackles are: first, the lack of information on composition, production processes and recyclability criteria for alternative materials, second, the access barriers for these materials in terms of cost and performance. The first objective is to gather and cross-reference information from material providers and recyclers so that it is accessible as guidelines for designers who intend to use these materials. This builds on existing research in this area by the project team. The second objective will be achieved by blending alternative fibres with other sustainable yet more accessible resources. The realisation of this second objective will take the form of a series of prototype textile samples in collaboration with UK-based production and design companies that shows the application of new materials in blends designed for circularity.The outcomes of the research will be a set of guidelines with associated physical demonstrators to highlight the possibilities of designing with alternative materials for circularity. The guidelines will show ways in which these materials can be combined in compatible blends which respect the criteria of existing and emerging recycling technology, and how design for disassembly can be employed when non-compatible resources are combined. It is hoped that these outcomes will enable an increased uptake of new materials and a shift away from polluting and mono-culture resources.