Green manufacturing has become the latest trend for the fashion and textile industry globally because of the increasing awareness of sustainability. Some recent technologies have been developed to move towards green manufacturing including materials development, recycling, digitalisation, etc. Three examples of innovative technology related to the textile industry are explained below:
- Materials Development – Regenerated Cellulose Fibres from Sustainable Source
This is a technology related to textile material development. Recently, people have been paying more attention to sustainable production and products. Fibres that are derived from natural cellulose – a non-petrochemical source – are hence gaining interest. Meanwhile, bacterial cellulose, which is a sustainable and environmental-friendly material with high purity, high degree of polymerisation and high crystallinity, has been developed, so that the industry can take it as an alternative source for producing regenerated cellulose fibre. The advantages of using bacterial cellulose as an alternative material for cellulose fibre production is its fast growth rate without using pesticides, enormous amounts of water, and various polluting chemicals.
- Recycling – Separation of Nylon from Textile Waste
When recycling textiles, waste separation by materials is necessary. In the past, methods used for separating nylon, the second most used synthetic fibre, from textile waste had to use highly-polluting chemicals and incur high power consumption. But there is now a new technology that can separate and recover nylon from textile waste at a low-cost and eco-friendly level. The recovered nylon can be used as an alternative to virgin nylon fibre for re-spinning.
- Digitalisation – Decentralised Intelligent Platform for Customisation
Customisation platform is the third example related to digitalisation in the fashion and textile industry. By using remote body measuring technology, intelligent auto-grading, and blockchain technology, such direct-to-customer decentralised platform is well-designed for customisation orders. Through the decentralised intelligent platform, customers can have their clothes tailor-made worldwide anytime in response to the rapid changing consumer landscape. Hence, this platform can provide SMEs a cost-effective made-to-measure business model.
Besides the above 3 examples, there are still many other innovative technologies that are environmental-friendly and related to green manufacturing. With the use of cutting-edge technologies, the fashion and textile industry is moving towards green and sustainability gradually.
References:
https://www.hkrita.com/en/our-innovation-tech/projects/development-of-regenerated-cellulose-fibres-from-sustainable-source
https://www.hkrita.com/en/our-innovation-tech/projects/separation-and-recovery-of-nylon-from-textile-waste
https://www.hkrita.com/en/our-innovation-tech/projects/made-to-measure-mass-customisation
