Team members: Salomon Ruiz, Dominick Nardone
For our group presentation, we talked about the development of sustainable technology and how it has been implemented in the fashion industry. We divided the presentation into three parts – manufacturing, consumption, and disposal. I was in charge of researching about manufacturing, Dominick did consumption, and Salomon focused on disposal. We drew a lot of our findings from the class readings and personal research.
I quickly summarized the current sustainable developments related to fashion such as wearable technology, renewable fibers, and eco-tech fashion. I realized that the current trend of sustainable technology employed in factories is committing to a closed loop system, in which the byproducts from manufacturing can be reused in other steps in the product cycle. The goal of most current sustainable technologies is to retain value, address the growing population’s demands, and to be eco-friendly. Two companies succeeded in transitioning to a cradle to cradle system. The first one being a carpet company called ‘Desso’ that recycles used or disposed carpet parts to create a dust catching and hypoallergenic carpet. The second company, called ‘DyeCoo’, implemented the usage of supercritical CO2 as solvent when dying fabrics, eliminating the need to waste several thousand liters of water.
Dominick focused his research on many interactive methods used online that help consumers make sustainable choices when purchasing products like the self tailoring app in shopping malls and websites like etsy and ebay. Salomon also talked about the importance of the digital realm but in the process of disposing of garments. We showed the class an interesting video made by H&M introducing their initiative to recycle used clothing. They recently applied the hydrothermal method to separate cotton and polyester blends into new fibers. Overall, we were able to give a very encompassing and informative presentation. I had a great time working with my teammates and learned a lot about the different types of technological innovations in the fashion industry.