Garbage talk: Easily outdated, but difficult to date

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 15. August 2023

Text by Tone Skårdal Tobiasson

The results from the Wasted Textiles pilot study, executed by four Master-students Camilla Sunde (UiO), Eva Hovda (NTNU), Siri Vestengen (NTNU) and Saeid Sheikhi (Høyskolen Kristiania) has now been published. Avfall Norge and their summer program REdu, were able to get the pilot financed by The Norwegian Retail Environmental Fund, and the results from the pilot where the four students tested out a system for picking analysis that captures vital information on the textiles that mainly had status as garbage is presented in the report.

The analysis conducted in Slemmestad Mepex-center offers valuable insights into the current status of discarded textiles in Norway. The “TPR” (named for the Targeted Producer Responsibility idea) picking analysis results provide us with information regarding the composition of fibres, garment age, country of production, and brand details of the discarded textiles. This data was taken from the care labels on the products. Over a period of 13 days, the team successfully managed to analyze a total of 3024 items using the TPR picking analysis method that they fine-tuned based on a combination of wardrobe studies and classic waste picking analysis.

Picking analyzes are used for other product groups to say something about use. In food, this form of analysis is used to monitor how much edible food is thrown away from private households (see e.g., this study (miljodirektoratet.no)) and to monitor and reduce food waste from institutions. The textiles analysed in the report originated from various waste streams: Mepex’s “Klesbyttedag” (clothing swap day), TRV (Trondheim city pilot project on collecting textiles) and residual waste. Residual waste is the hardest to work with because of smell and humidity making it difficult to weigh the items. In the report, the TRV waste is the largest and most important, representing 91.4 % of the material. Textiles from TRV-pilot are supposed to be damaged textiles. Residents of the pilot area in Trondheim were given instructions and special bags for damaged textiles, clothing and shoes. Residents are encouraged to deliver usable textiles to collection boxes already located in the area and to put the bag with destroyed textiles outside for collection on a fixed day, every four weeks. The interns photographed all the items, gave each textile item a number, and registered information on if the brand could be identified if the care label was intact if there was a year of production or when the product entered the market anywhere on the textile, country of origin, fibre-composition, what state of ‘used up-ness’ the items were in, the weight, etc.

The findings in the REdu project, are based on a small sample, 3024 items all in all. 2564 of 3024 items (the total registered) had the brand present either on the label or a logo visible. 708 distinct brands were identified, but a few dominated, H&M being in the lead, followed by Cubus, Lindex and KappAhl. Out of the 3025 analysed textiles only 95 items had the year of production on their care labels, 2905 did not include this information. Of these clothing pieces 14 of them were from NameIt (a Danish children’s brand), 7 from Vero Moda, 7 from Selected – all three Bestseller brands, and 6 of them were from Bik Bok. For the remaining individual brands, 61 items were with a production year. Some brands have labels with codes that may or may not contain this information, that they would need to explain. Some brands said they are willing to help with this information.

The progress in the TPR picking analysis time efficiency showcases the potential for applying picking analysis and the time it might require. In the TPR approach, they utilised several input parameters and managed to analyse an average of 234 items per day, equivalent to around 79 kg. On the other hand, the “fast TPR method” employed fewer input parameters while still capturing details for each item. With this approach, the average number of items examined within a 30-minute span is 29, equal to 7.6 kg per person. The time used to analyze was affected by the different textiles analysed, whereas multilayer and complicated multi-fibre items were more time-consuming.

In assessing the potential of machine learning in textile waste management, the results are promising, but not without challenges. The initial model focusing on textile type classification achieved significant accuracy, with an accuracy of 82.25 %, emphasizing the practicality of using automation for sorting textiles. However, the usability classification model highlighted the need for comprehensive and quality data inputs to predict an item’s reuse potential. While machine learning presents great promise in enhancing sorting efficiency, determining reusability, and promoting fibre-to-fibre recycling, its successful deployment hinges on several factors. These include the expansion and quality improvement of datasets, the integration of advanced sensing technologies, and a broader assessment of environmental, economic, and social impacts.  Ethical considerations are paramount, especially in ensuring that machine learning models operate effectively and ethically. By partnering with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes, feedback loops between producers and waste management can be optimized.

The data gathered from the examined items highlights the possibility of reusing materials in the textile sector that the consumers themselves deem as garbage.  Assessing the level of wear and tear in clothing was relatively easy, factors like pilling, stains, discolouration, damaged zippers, missing buttons, holes, and general signs of use are easy to spot and register. A majority of the items were in a good usability state, where 42% of the textiles scored a condition of 4 (5 being the highest score indicating mint condition, while 1 is not at all reusable), suggesting that the discarded textiles were not “used up”. Also, 21 items were found with their price tags still attached. While some items displayed minor damages, many of these can be fixed effortlessly at home, pointing towards the value of imparting basic repair skills to consumers.  Notably, 17.66% of items had a maximum usability score of 5, indicating a considerable number of nearly new items being discarded. We will remind the reader there that these were supposed to be worn out or «broken» items, as fully usable textiles were supposed to be donated in the donation boxes.  

The data obtained from this analysis holds significant importance in comprehending the possibilities of automated sorting, material reuse, and recycling. It provides a foundation for introducing strategic methods like extended producer responsibility (EPR) and policies focused on waste prevention. Hopefully, the TPR picking analysis can be used to assess eco-modulated environmental fees in an EPR scheme, aiming to ultimately decrease excessive textile production in the fast fashion sector. In 2022, 105 913 tonnes of new textiles which are equivalent to 19.3 kg per capita, were put on the Norwegian market, so future data collection is not in danger of not having materials to study, once textile waste will be collected separately from 2025.

Click here to read the full report (avfallnorge.no).

REdu result seminar

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 17. July 2023

Webinar, Friday 11th of August 2023, 09:00-10:00, Oslo/Zoom.

Four intern students in the Avfall Norge REdu project have worked on the SIFO proposal for TPR (read more about this here), and will present the results from this work at 9 am CET on the 11th August via Zoom. We are eagerly awaiting these results, as this is the first time we will get answers to whether the textiles that end up in various waste streams can be identified by brand, if we can estimate how long their duration of service has been and in what state they are for reuse or recycling.

The seminar is free and open to all and can be accessed via this zoom-link. The meeting ID is 828 0060 9300.

Welcome!

Both Wasted Textiles and the REdu picking analysis project are financed by the Norwegian Retail Environmental Fund.

THE PLASTIC ELEPHANT: Overproduction and synthetic fibres in sustainable textile strategies

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 30. June 2023

Authors: Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Lisbeth Løvbak Berg, Anna Schytte Sigaard, Tone Skårdal Tobiasson and
Lea Gleisberg

Summary

In this report, we examine national, international and corporate strategies for sustainable textiles to understand if and how they embrace the increased production volumes based on synthetic materials, which can be referred to as the ‘plastic elephant in the room’. This is done through a lens of four questions. First, we look at whether the strategies discuss growth in production volumes and possible measures to stop this growth. Second, we examine whether they address the plastification of textiles. By plastification, we mean the increasing share of plastic fibres used for textile production. Third, whether they discuss the raw material for plastics, and fourth, plastic waste. The results show that none of these questions that can reduce the environmental impacts of clothing production are given a central role in the strategies.

Click here to read the full report.

Ecodesign position paper: Textiles and footwear

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 14. May 2023

Jeans surplus textiles lined up in a factory in Poland.

In a position paper from the Change and Wasted Textiles projects, authors Kate Fletcher, Irene Maldini, Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Kirsi Laitala, Jens Måge and Tone Skårdal Tobiasson have addressed the background document from EU’s Joint Research Centre on Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).

The main theme in the position paper, is that the JRC document Preliminary study on new product priorities lays the basis to increase environmental burdens rather than reduce these. Therefore, in the paper, the authors ask that the work with the ESPR incorporates more empirical understanding about ecodesign, clothing consumption, and textile and fashion design. This in order that the directive will have the effect of reduced environmental burdens (including on climate) and will minimize inappropriate or unintended side effects.

The aim in writing the paper is to support the ESPR process for textiles and footwear in fostering deep and lasting environmental change.

The authors applaud the efforts of the EU in regulating the textile and footwear sector and agree in the priority that has been assigned to clothing and footwear on the bases of high consumption volumes in the EU, potential environmental improvements, and lack of previous regulation. However, it is the view of the authors that the current work with the Ecodesign Directive is based on some assumptions that are not in line with the knowledge that is there, nor is it targeted towards the main and interconnected challenges in clothing and textiles: overproduction and the increasing plasticization of the material content of products.

These two factors are interconnected due to the fact that an increase in production is not possible without the cheap, easily available fossil fuel-based raw material for fibres, materials, dyes and other processing chemicals.

It is therefore questionable whether textiles and footwear should actually be the initial priority for ESPR. Perhaps starting with cement would be better.

ESPR position paperDownload
ESPR position paperDownload

Want Not, Waste Not: Preliminary findings

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 31. March 2023

Different clothing items with different ages and duration of ownership.

Author: Anna Schytte Sigaard

Summary

This project note presents preliminary findings from a PhD project looking into textile waste from Norwegian households. 28 households collected textiles that they would have otherwise discarded for a period of six months. The textiles were collected by the PhD candidate during visits to the households where qualitative interviews were carried out. Then, all textiles were registered along with information from the interviews. The findings indicate that most of the discarded textiles are clothes and shoes. However, when broken down into textile categories, household textiles represent the largest group of discarded textiles. In addition, findings show that about one third of the collected textiles were in a very good condition, either like new or with only minor changes. The fiber content of the textiles corresponded with the preliminary findings from work package 2 in Wasted Textiles, as there was an equal distribution between 100% synthetic textiles, 100% non-synthetic textiles and textiles containing a mix of these. It was also found that the largest group of users were adult women, especially when looking at number of textiles discarded. If weight was applied instead, the difference between the genders evened out more. As these findings are preliminary, it is too early to provide any hard conclusions. Instead, the project note is meant to grant insights into the kind of data that will eventually be available and shared with the project group.

Click here to read the full project note.

Reducing Plastic in Consumer Goods: Opportunities for Coarser Wool

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 28. January 2023

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg, Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Anna Schytte Sigaard, Jan Broda, Monika Rom and Katarzyna Kobiela-Mendrek.

Abstract

Production and use of plastic products have drastically increased during the past decades and their environmental impacts are increasingly spotlighted. At the same time, coarse wool, a by-product of meat and dairy production, goes largely unexploited in the EU. This paper asks why more coarse wool is not used in consumer goods, such as acoustic and sound-absorbing products, garden products, and sanitary products. This is answered through a SWOT analysis of results from a desktop study and interviews with producers of these products made from wool, as well as policy documents relating to wool, waste, textiles, and plastic. Findings show that on a product level, the many inherent properties of wool create opportunities for product development and sustainability improvements and that using the coarser wool represents an opportunity for replacing plastics in many applications as well as for innovation. This is, however, dependent on local infrastructure and small-scale enterprises, but as such, it creates opportunities for local value chains, value creation, and safeguarding of local heritage. The shift to small-scale and local resource utilization requires systemic change on several levels: Here the findings show that policy can incentivize material usage transitions, but that these tools are little employed currently.

Click here to read the full paper (mdpi.com).

Natural and Sustainable? Consumers’ Textile Fiber Preferences

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 26. January 2023

by Anna Schytte Sigaard  and Kirsi Laitala

Abstract

Textile fibers have become a major issue in the debate on sustainable fashion and clothing consumption. While consumers are encouraged to choose more sustainable and circular textile materials, studies have indicated that a reduction in production and consumption has the greatest potential to reduce the total environmental impact. This can be considered an ecocentric perspective with a focus on degrowth as opposed to a technocentric view where new technologies are expected to solve environmental problems while economic growth continues. Based on a survey in Norway (N = 1284), we investigate how the techno- and ecocentric perspectives impact Norwegian consumers’ fiber preferences and perceptions and the corresponding effects on their clothing consumption. We found that the majority of consumers preferred natural fibers compared to synthetic materials. This contradicts current market practices and the recommendations by material sustainability comparison tools such as the Higg Material Sustainability Index (MSI), where many synthetics receive better ratings than natural fibers. We also found that perceptions of high sustainability regarding fibers were negatively correlated with reduced consumption. Our study suggests that a continued focus on material substitution and other technological measures for reducing climate change will impede the move toward sustainability in the textile sector.

Click here to read the full article (mdpi.com).

A functioning ‘functional unit’?

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 12. January 2023

Ingun Grimstad Klepp and Tone Skårdal Tobiasson

What on earth is the functional unit of a winter coat, t-shirt, a warm sweater… or a pair of boots?

For LCA-based tools and category rules, there is a central idea of a “functional unit”. How this will function in the ongoing work with EU’s PEFCR (Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules), is based on the number of days of “usability”. Let’s explore what this means.

Before we embark on this commentary, please be advised: The authors live in a climate that is cold and increasingly wet with very volatile climatic changes, they love wool and they like to provoke. As the warning has been issued, proceed with caution.

A “functional unit” is most often described for paint. It is not the liter of paint that has an environmental impact to be reconned with, it is, however, a painted wall one year that is the “functional unit”. With a “good” paint as opposed to a “less good” paint you can paint less often and therefore you need less. The functional unit, is what the paint is supposed to do, keep the walls protected and good looking for a certain period of time. This is at the very core of a life cycle assessment. It defines what the environmental footprint is. So far so good. Let’s then move on to apparel.

The reason why we are asking the question in the headline, was one of the drearier days in Oslo before Christmas. We had had several days of cold, snowy weather and there was a sudden change. Plus degrees and salted streets and sidewalks resulted in a cesspool of water and slush. Tone had made the mistake (she lives on a hill, where the weather is colder) of wearing her wool boots downtown. Ingun, who also lives on higher ground, had on the other hand, donned her new, lined rubber boots bought at a flea market. As the two of us emerged from the offices of Consumption Norway into the debacle of sidewalks and streets, Tone realized her new wool boots could risk a “functional unit” melt-down. They risked having to be replaced after only five, six days of use.

And how was this supposed to be computed by the LCA calculations? In the technical secretariat for PEFCR for apparel, this is now being done by projecting, making assumptions on how often something will be and can be used, but not on actual real-life use. But projecting the weather fluctuations as a result of global warming, which is also extreme cold periods, where the norm is “unnormal”, is not part of looking into the crystal ball. Also, increasing heating costs are resulting in people’s real need for much warmer clothes, also in-doors, to save on their energy bill. Projected in the crystal ball? Most probably not. Likewise, during summer, with extreme temperatures, the need to turn down air-conditioners will be another issue related to the on-going energy-crisis.

Let’s get back to textiles.

In the Higg MSI there are few parameters, but they skew so that synthetics come out better. Yes, SAC keeps insisting that synthetics and natural fibers shouldn’t be compared, but for anyone who has had access to the numbers associated with the MSI, it is blatantly obvious that a person who uses the tool will be over-taken by the gaming-gene and play around with getting the best score possible, which will give synthetics a heads up.

But what then about the PEFCR? Here gaming won’t be an option. But comparing to a base-line product will. For example, a base-line winter coat. But what is the functional unit of a winter coat?  In PEFCR it is 100 days of “usability”, but in Los Angeles this will mean a double-digit number of years, close to 30? In LA, a wonderful and warm winter coat will be worn maybe one or two days during a year – while in Tromsø, Norway’s most northern city, it can serve a purpose from late September until May. In other words, the coat is presumed to last somewhere between 30 and 100 years in one case (LA) and less than a year in the other case (Tromsø).

Looking at regions where a product ends up, for assigning a score, was recently launched by Intersport’s Ben Blischke during Performance Days in Munich, but for a completely different reason. As he was more concerned with end-of-life, he wanted a score associated with waste handling, which differs widely from region to region. We’ll come back to waste-handling, however, there are other issues with “days of use” in the PEFCR. We will assume a number of the readers are “suits”. You work in offices, and your functional unit of dress is a suit of some kind – a man’s or woman’s suit. Enter the Pandemic. Home-officing. Onesies. Comfort. Exit the tie. Even exit the suit as such. Hugo Boss has recently launched a knitted suit, that takes the user from formal (office) to casual (home) wear. This suit – potentially worn all day rather than just during work hours and then exchanged with trainers and a sweater when Hugo returns home… means a need for less clothes. So how would this “function” be computed in PEFCR?

What are clothes supposed to DO for us? Let’s take a step back, and explore this. They need to protect us from unwanted scrutiny of our bodies, keep us warm, enable us to move around, keep us cool, dry, or even alive. The point is that apparel’s function is in constant flux. In Tromsø or Oslo this is obvious when the weather changes from day to day, and what boots to wear can changed on a daily basis. And you actually need several pairs to survive. Literally. Or just to feel well dressed, on a winter day? Arriving at the office in very heavy winter or rubber boots won’t get you through the office-day, while a nice pair of fashion boots would. But if you fall and break your hip bone because of your very fashionable, but slippery-soled boots… how functional was that unit?

Our clothes and our shoes, boots and accessories are judged by us every single day; when we get dressed. We make good choices, and bad. We learn and we fail, but it is not a labelling scheme based on LCAs that is going to ensure that we have good clothes that meet the weather, the energy bill, the social expectations, the changing mores of what is acceptable attire in different settings. Yes, there will be very physical issues such as pilling, abrasion, seams that burst, water-repellency AND warmth and cooling issues that some fibers meet more than others. But all these aspects cannot, by magic, be converted into number of days of use. Because some people live in LA, and others in Tromsø, and because what functions clothes deliver for us is so varied and complex.

We would therefore like to open up the discussion: Just how, is the technical secretariat for apparel handling this issue? Where global averages are the name of the game, giving us information that is at best so-so, but at the end of the day, completely meaningless.

Let’s get back to those pesky functional units.

One liter of paint on one wall that lasts so long.

The LCA community needs to figure out what a functional unit is for a winter coat beyond 100 days of use, depending on whose wardrobe it ends up in, and we need research to back this up. At Consumption Research Norway, Professor Klepp has worked with a research method called Wardrobe studies for 23 years, which offers key insights that have been shared with the technical secretariat, however, counting what actually counts, instead of what one can count (and particularly within LCA boundaries), is proving hard. Technical durability, measured in pilling-tests or fiber strength, are so far all the voting members have been able to agree on. But people don’t get rid of clothes because they “break”, or are “unrepairable”, only one third of clothing disposal happens for this reason. Where the clothes we dispose of end up (incinerated, in land-fill or donated to the Global South with extremely problematic waste handling) is certainly important, as Blischke pointed out. Most of all because of microplastics, which we all know is not included in any LCAs.

SAC had an idea that they could kick PEFCR into function based on the kindergarten-level LCAs that were available for apparel, that actually are not at all comparable between fibers, that say nothing meaningful about functional unit nor do they give the consumer what the consumer needs the most. Information that makes sense. Tone’s winter boots survived the cesspool of water and slush. She jumped a lot of puddles. So, let’s start looking at other ways of doing the math for apparel. The paint-one doesn’t work. We have an idea, which is rather than projecting into a crystal ball, looking backwards and using state of the art research to ascertain what actually has been used. And for how long. This is a much more powerful tool than PEF, in our view.

This op ed was originally published in EcoTextile News, but was recently removed for undisclosed reasons.

Click here to read an opinion piece on the same theme (sciencenorway.no)

Mapping of the industry’s design tools

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 3. January 2023

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg, Tone Skårdal Tobiasson, Ingun Grimstad Klepp

One of NF&TA’s tasks in Wasted Textiles is to map what tools are being used by businesses, academia and organisations in the design and product development processes to ensure more environmentally friendly and circular production, and how these relate to the central questions in the project.

The mapping was done by Kjersti Kviseth. Ten different design tools were examined and the analysis shows that they have clear common trais. They all emphasise duarablity (‘Social’, ‘Emotional’, ‘Technical’, ‘Longer use’) and minimising waste in production.

The most important questions for Wasted Textiles is whether they will contribute to reducing the volumes of clothing produced and the share of these that are made from synthetic fibres. On these topics the tools are simultaneously very different and very vague. Only two of them include minimising the use of synthetic materials. Overall, the tools will therefore not halt the e ‘plastification’.

The same can be said for volumes. Admittedly, four tools say something about volumes, but the measured proposed are weak. The remaining six do not address this decisive aspect at all.

Kjersti Kviseth ends the report with a personal reflection where she emphasises that the tools reflect the understanding of the environmental issues that existed at the time of their making, and that they will be amended as the understanding matures and the knowledge about plastics and volumes increases. We can hope that she is right, but at the same time the road ahead is long and the current situation is that non of the most common design tools address the most central problematic of the industry: the increase in production volumes and the galloping plastification of clothing and other textiles.

Read the document here (docdroid.net).

Selbu spinning mill’s pivotal role in wool projects

Lisbeth Løvbak Berg on 15. November 2022


12 years ago, Selbu spinning mill was established, focusing on wool from traditional, Norwegian heritage sheep breeds.

From the beginning, cooperation in projects has been important. Let’s do a deep dive!

Why do Selbu work on projects? Well…. Exchange of competence and skills, development of own competence and skills, new challenges for the employees and because project work is a part of their business plan. Check.

So HOW do they work on projects? They need to be involved in the application process from the outset! Their competencies are: Wool sorting and classifying, processing of wool for project partners, development of new products, testing of new methods in production and courses/workshops covering crafts and skills, as well as excursions to endangered seminatural landscapes, formed by grazing.


In WOOLUME: Selbu’s role is to test the production of a range of products made of wool from the Polish (Carpathian) milk sheep breeds, a wool sorting workshop in the Koniakov mountain village, with the main challenge is to find the best use of coarse wool, exchange of knowledge: traditional farming in cultural landscapes. Here you can read about the last trip to Poland.

Founder, Ingvild Svorkmo Espelien explaining during the Polish WOOLUME Partners visit to Selbu Spinning Mill.
Founder, Ingvild Svorkmo Espelien explaining during the Polish WOOLUME Partners visit to Selbu Spinning Mill.

In hiWool: Selbu’s role is to look at traditional sheep breeds in Norway and Portugal, wool sorting and processes, exchange of competence, also for textile traditions, and finally a knitting challenge with pattern development.

Ingvild and the hiWool team examining Portuguese wool on a visit to Portugal.
Ingvild and the hiWool team examining Portuguese wool on a visit to Portugal.

In the Estonia/Norway cooperation project, Selbu’s role is about wool sorting from traditional sheep breeds in both countries, exchange of experiences and competence, spinning yarn for weaving twill textiles for fulling and feedback from the textile tests, and coordinating education in Estonia and Norway.

Nordenfjeldske Fibershed – Fibershed Norway is Selbu spinning mill’s latest venture. This is a network and cooperation system based on local resources, craft, traditions and farms. This will be part of the development of Fibershed Europe and a chance to build a functional cooperation for sustainable production.

Click here to read more about Selbu spinning mill – in Norwegian (selbuspinneri.no)