Textination Newsline

When the sun is currently shining, shading textiles face particular challenges. On the one hand, they should allow as much daylight as possible into the rooms during the dark season. On the other hand, the angle of incidence of the sun's rays is so low that the light is particularly dazzling - much more so than in summer. The German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research (DITF) are using special light measurement techniques to research suitable shading textiles.

Daylight enhances well-being and has many advantages over artificial lighting. Sensible daylight management can therefore increase the ability to perform and concentrate. As less artificial light is required and solar gains and losses are used for room air conditioning, daylight management also saves energy.

Textile daylight systems influence the incidence of light and are mainly designed to be movable. Internal systems include, for example, roller blinds, folding blinds and curtains. External systems are external venetian blinds, awnings and screens that are guided in front of the façade. The DITF can precisely measure daylight behavior in its light and dark laboratories - even beyond existing standardized test methods. A test method developed in Denkendorf allows the glare control of solar protection devices to be re-evaluated and has been included in the standard to determine the cut-off angle. This cut-off angle describes the extent to which a solar protection device can block the transmission of direct light from a certain angle of incidence. In the currently valid standard, glare control is quantified using the two characteristics of normal and diffuse light transmittance. For solar protection devices with an openness coefficient of 1-3 %, a higher glare control class can be achieved. This applies to cut-off angles of 65° or less. The cut-off angle is determined by an angle-dependent measurement of the direct light transmittance. During the test, the solar protection textile is rotated in a modified test sample holder from the zero point until the direct light transmittance falls below a defined threshold value. This process is repeated after a gradual azimuthal rotation of the test sample, in other words a rotation of the textile in the test sample holder. Depending on the symmetry properties of the sample, up to 29 individual measurements may be required to determine the cut-off angle.

At the DITF, testing and development facilities for other photometric requirements such as incident light, self-luminous textiles and light-conducting textiles are available for industrial product developments.

With most donated clothes exported or thrown away, experts are calling for a shakeup of how we deal with the growing fashion waste issue.

A first of its kind study, published in Nature Cities, analysed what happens to clothes and other textiles after consumers no longer want them in Amsterdam, Austin, Berlin, Geneva, Luxembourg, Manchester, Melbourne, Oslo and Toronto.

Across most western cities from Melbourne to Manchester it found the same pattern of textile waste being exported, going to landfill or being dumped in the environment.

Global textiles waste each year weighs 92 million tonnes and this could double by 2030.

Charity shops handle a large amount of used clothes, but the study found because many are poor quality and there's little financial benefit to manage them locally, charities trade some valuable items and discard or export the rest.

In Melbourne, charities export high-quality, often vintage, second-hand clothes to Europe, forcing the city’s independent resale businesses to import similar apparel back from Europe or the United States.
But overall, charities and collectors have been reporting the plummeting quality of garments over the past 15 to 20 years, decreasing resale potential.

Study co-author Dr Yassie Samie, from RMIT University, said local governments and charities need to coordinate more to manage textile waste.

“We're used to charities doing the heavy lifting, but they’ve been unable to fully handle the volume of donated clothes for a long time now,” Samie said.

“Charities are driven by social welfare values and need to raise funds for their programs.

“However, their operations are ill-equipped to deal with the volume of used textiles that need to be reused and recycled.

“Given the role of charities within communities, it's essential they expand beyond direct resale in second-hand shops and explore other business models, such as swapping and repair centres.”

Overconsumption and oversupply were the main drivers of the cities’ textile waste, causing the export of between 33% (Australia) and 97% (Norway) of donated clothes.

Collaboration in local networks the key
Most local governments in the cities studied did not get involved in textile waste beyond providing public spaces and licenses for charity bins and commercial resellers.

Across cities like Melbourne, local governments send dumped textiles directly to landfill, instead of diverting to recycling or reuse facilities or other local alternatives.

“This indicates the lack of mechanism and incentives in place to drive real systemic change,” Samie said.

Amsterdam was the opposite – its municipality manages collection and sorting of unwanted clothes and encourages collection of all textiles, including nonreusable ones.

From January 2025, European Union Member States must establish separate collection systems for used textiles.

But the biggest per capita discarders of textile waste, Australia and the US, have no such regulation.

Fashion advertising ban
Samie said it was important to incentivise promotion of local alternatives to fast fashion, including reselling, swapping and repairing.

“Sustainable fashion initiatives like second-hand retailers struggle to compete with fashion brands’ big marketing budgets and convenient locations,” she said.

“Fast fashion alternatives exist but they are under-promoted, despite their potential to significantly reduce cities’ textile waste.”

To create more space for these alternatives, the study’s authors called for a ban on fashion advertising in cities. “A ban on fashion advertisements would give more space to promote more sustainable alternatives,” Samie said.

France recently introduced a ban on advertising ultra-fast fashion, while each item will come with a penalty of up to 10 euros by 2030.

Samie said she would like to work with local governments to find better uses for discarded textiles.

‘Urban transitions toward sufficiency-oriented circular post-consumer textile economies’, with Katia Vladimirova, Yassie Samie, Irene Maldini, Samira Iran, Kirsi Laitala, Claudia E. Henninger, Sarah Ibrahim Alosaimi, Kelly Drennan, Hannah Lam, Ana-Luisa Teixeira, Iva Jestratijevic and Sabine Weber, is published in Nature Cities (DOI: 10.1038/s44284-024-00140-7).
Source: Aеden Rаtcliffe, RMIT University