UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Textiles: Circular Bioeconomy for Textile Materials

当前全球时尚供应链的特点是缺乏透明度、强迫劳动、恶劣的工作条件、不平等的权力关系以及由快时尚引起的生产过剩。缺乏道德规范的全球时尚供应链也造成了严重的污染。2016年，英国服装的总足迹（包括全球和地区排放量）为2620万吨二氧化碳，高于2012年的2400万吨（相当于家庭交通排放量的三分之一以上）。纺织品循环中心（TCC）建议通过纺织品的循环资源流动为英国提供材料安全。这将刺激英国纺织制造业、中小企业服装和创意技术领域的创新和经济增长，同时减少对进口、对环境和道德有影响的材料的依赖，并使供应链多样化。TCC将提供基础研究理解，以实现向更循环经济的过渡，支持“英国设计和制造”的品牌。为了实现这一愿景，我们将通过支持中小企业时尚服装社区在材料和产品制造方面的创新，通过供应链设计获得循环材料，以及消费者体验，来促进时尚和纺织行业的增长。我们方法的核心是通过让消费者参与新的消费文化，使他们成为变革的推动者。我们将通过由创新商业模式和数字工具组成的供应链设计，在新型材料制造和代理消费者体验之间实现共生。我们将利用经实验室验证的生物技术，将生物基废物来源的原料（消费后纺织品、作物残茬、城市固体废物）转化为可再生聚合物、纤维和柔性纺织材料，作为欧盟过渡战略的一部分，以取代进口棉花、木浆、合成聚酯纤维和石化整理。创新有机废弃物生物精制、3D织造、机器人、增材制造与循环设计相结合的先进制造技术，生产服装用柔性连续纺织品和三维纺织形态。这些技术将使制造中心位于商业街或当地社区，并将支持中小企业服装品牌和零售商提供现场/按需生产的产品，以满足当地的定制需求。这些中心将通过商业和相关技能的发展产生区域文化和社会效益。我们将通过废物管理、农业、生物精炼厂、纺织生产、中小企业服装品牌和消费者利益相关者之间的产业共生，为这些纺织品设计一个透明的供应链。服装品牌将通过我们的数字“生物材料平台”进入这条供应链，通过该平台，他们可以访问有关其来源、属性、循环性和生命周期延长策略的材料和数据。我们将与中小企业服装品牌合作，开发店内配置器和新颖的情感和创意技术，让消费者沉浸在数字沉浸式体验和服务中，放大资源流动、人类福祉和满意度之间的耦合，从而创造一种新的消费文化。这种去物质化的方法将需要商业模式的创新，为服装增加价值，以应对生产过剩和脱离。消费者将成为循环价值链中的关键节点，实现负责任和个性化的参与。作为一个以人为本的设计主导中心，TCC在创造这些创新方面具有独特的地位，这些创新将促进英国纺织制造业、中小企业时尚服装和创意技术领域的重大业务和技能增长，并大大减少浪费和碳排放，以及对纺织行业的环境和道德影响。

The current global fashion supply chain is characterised by its lack of transparency, forced labour, poor working conditions, unequal power relationships and overproduction caused by fast fashion. Lacking ethics, the global fashion supply chain is also highly polluting. The total footprint of clothing in use in the UK, including global and territorial emissions, was 26.2 million tonnes CO2 in 2016, up from 24 million tonnes in 2012 (equivalent to over a third of household transport emissions).The Textiles Circularity Centre (TCC) proposes materials security for the UK by circularising resource flows of textiles. This will stimulate innovation and economic growth in the UK textile manufacturing, SME apparel and creative technology sectors, whilst reducing reliance on imported and environmentally and ethically impactful materials, and diversifying supply chains. The TCC will provide underpinning research understanding to enable the transition to a more circular economy that supports the brand 'designed and made in the UK'. To enact this vision, we will catalyse growth in the fashion and textiles sector by supporting the SME fashion-apparel community with innovations in materials and product manufacturing, access to circular materials through supply chain design, and consumer experiences.Central to our approach is to enable consumers to be agents of change by engaging them in new cultures of consumption. We will effect a symbiosis between novel materials manufacturing and agentive consumer experiences through a supply chain design comprised of innovative business models and digital tools.Using lab-proven biotechnology, we will transform bio-based waste-derived feedstock (post-consumer textiles, crop residues, municipal solid waste) into renewable polymers, fibres and flexible textile materials, as part of a CE transition strategy to replace imported cotton, wood pulp and synthetic polyester fibres and petrochemical finishes. We will innovate advanced manufacturing techniques that link biorefining of organic waste, 3D weaving, robotics and additive manufacturing to circular design and produce flexible continuous textiles and three-dimensional textile forms for apparel products. These techniques will enable manufacturing hubs to be located on the high street or in local communities, and will support SME apparel brands and retailers to offer on-site/on-demand manufacture of products for local customisation. These hubs would generate regional cultural and social benefits through business and related skills development.We will design a transparent supply chain for these textiles through industrial symbiosis between waste management, farming, bio-refinery, textile production, SME apparel brands, and consumer stakeholders. Apparel brands will access this supply chain through our digital 'Biomaterials Platform', through which they can access the materials and data on their provenance, properties, circularity, and life cycle extension strategies.Working with SME apparel brands, we will develop an in-store Configurator and novel affective and creative technologies to engage consumers in digitally immersive experiences and services that amplify couplings between the resource flow, human well being and satisfaction, thus creating a new culture of consumption. This dematerialisation approach will necessitate innovation in business models that add value to the apparel, in order to counter overproduction and detachment. Consumers will become key nodes in the circular value chain, enabling responsible and personalised engagement. As a human-centred design led centre, TCC is uniquely placed to generate these innovations that will catalyse significant business and skills growth in UK textile manufacturing, SME fashion-apparel, and creative technology sectors, and drastically reduce waste and carbon emissions, and environmental and ethical impacts for the textiles sector.