How can we utilize clothing waste?
Alon Meron (designer and RCA tutor for Design Products MA/MSc) once mentioned that: “in the current industry of design, we cannot ignore the impacts of a product - which [almost] takes the fun out of design”.
Although the environmental aspect of manufacturing forces us to carefully reconsider our materials, I find that all designers share the role of being responsable for our products and concepts. Since it was the overconsumption and unsustainable production of goods that led us to the current global crisis, we need to re-evaluate our economic, social, and environmental relationships to achieve a more holistic worldview.
Project duration: 3 Months
Key Skills:
Full Document:
Why Clothes?
When people imagine a landfill, mounds of paper wrappers, glass sheets, aluminum cans, and PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) bottles are some discarded objects or materials that come to mind.
Within our current collection and recycling programs, paper, glass, and plastics have a recycling rate of ~66%. In stark contrast, only 12% of materials used in clothing actually ends up being reused.
Shaping the Material
With this next batch of experiments I wanted to test the durability and malleability of the composite. To this end, I chose to emulate tableware for three reasons:
Eating utensils have subtle curves that act as a perfect benchmark to evaluate the moldability of my material
Tableware needs to withstand moisture, and in this instance, I can test another aspect of my material.
I wanted my composite material to substitute polyethylene plastic, and reduce our over-reliance on plastics within our daily lives.
Playing with tiles
Having experimented with sheets, plates and other forms, I wanted to manufacture thicker tiles - this time with pieces of cloth exposed to evaluate how well the cloth actually added to the integrity of the composite.
Having made multiple tests, I found that by sanding the faces of these artefacts, a hypnotic “marbling” effect would be exposed.
Changing Pliability
After making the table ware prototypes, I was fascinated with the flexibility and durability of the one-layer thick composite tests. To further accentuate the functionality of these experiment, I made a series playing with living hinges.
While experimenting with bio-resin (which can contain listed oil, soybean protein, and sunflower seed oil), I learned that by adding more lipids, the elasticity and flexibility can be changed.
Continued Testing…
As the transparent nature of the prototypes 2,3, and 4 interested me, I wanted to play with lighting fixtures. The intricate structures of different weaves of clothing lent themselves well to having light shine through: as the patterns would be magnified and highlighted.
To showcase this attribute of my composite material, I made two lamps to contrast the possibilities of these products. To illustrate the most amount of variance, I created one lamp to be “cooler”, and one “warmer” in tone.
Constructing Vessels
Having conducted numerous tests on the resin prototypes, I realized that this composite material is quite resilient. This is important, as durable materials are open to more industrial processes, and can be shaped in a larger number of ways. Considering the strength of the composite, I wanted to try lathe turning.
Final Thoughts
As a case study, I have looked at recycling processes for glass fibre and carbon fibre: neither of which has sustainable end points. The problem with recycling composite materials is that they cannot be melted down and reformed like metal, glass, plastics, or paper.
More investment has been placed into the recycling of carbon fibre, as the carbon fibre threads are ten times more expensive than glass fibre, but ultimately, the technology for recycling almost all composites, including my material, is immature.
Icons by several authors, all rights to perspective owners