Thesis
Evaluating Environmental Impact of Natural and Synthetic Textile Fibers Employing a Life Cycle Assessment Method
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005205
Abstract
A life cycle assessment is an environmental impact assessment that can be applied to a good or service. It helps measure and model the potential environmental impact that those goods or services produce during their entire lifecycle. A life cycle assessment of five commonly used fibers: organic cotton, conventional cotton, jute, kenaf, and polyester in the textile and apparel industry was conducted utilizing openLCA software and the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (I) methodology. A cradle- to-gate system boundary was used, including agriculture, spinning, weaving or knitting, and wet- processing stages, and the functional unit for each textile was 1 kg. Organic cotton, conventional cotton, and polyester inventory data were sourced from Ecoinvent v3.8 database, and jute and kenaf were sourced from the literature. Evaluated impact categories include global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, land use, and water use. Based on these impact categories, conventional cotton produced the most significant environmental impact in global warming potential, acidification, and water use, whereas organic cotton dominated the impact in land occupation. Jute generated the most significant impact in eutrophication, and polyester produced the most negligible impact in all evaluated impact categories. The findings of this study will aid industry stakeholders in transitioning traditional supply chains toward a more sustainable direction and help consumers identify which fibers are a more sustainable choice for their purchases. This research will also advance the body of knowledge regarding LCAs in the textile and apparel context to improve the reliability of this assessment.
Metrics
106 File views/ downloads
59 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Evaluating Environmental Impact of Natural and Synthetic Textile Fibers Employing a Life Cycle Assessment Method
- Creators
- Victoria Krystyna Gonzalez
- Contributors
- Xingqiu Lou (Advisor)Ting Chi (Committee Member)Armine Ghalachyan (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Apparel, Merchandising, Design and Textiles, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 67
- Identifiers
- 99901019638101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis