World'S First Wool Garment Life Cycle Assessment Research Results Released

The world's first wool garment life cycle

Release of evaluation research results

Data on environmental impact of wearing a sweater once:

Produce 0.17 (± 0.02) kg CO2 equivalent (greenhouse gas);

It consumes 0.88 (± 0.18) MJ fossil energy;

Consumption of 0.96 (± 0.42) water equivalent;

……

One piece of woolen sweater:

The first owner wears 79 times in his life;

When the first owner no longer wants it, the garment is either disposed of as urban waste, recycled, given to family members, or donated to charity and resold. The resale donation rate to charities: 76%;

The average time between washing was 5.2 days;

……

What impact does wool have on the environment, from pasture to clothing to shopping malls, to consumer wear, and finally to waste? This issue is of great significance to the sustainable development of wool industry. IWTO has organized scientists to carry out research on life cycle analysis (LCA) of wool with AWI funding. It took seven years to complete the first wool garment life cycle assessment project. The research report entitled "environmental impact assessment of a woolen garment from production, use to waste" was published in the International Journal of life cycle assessment in June this year and is now available for direct reference on Springer.

The study quantifies the specific environmental impacts of a 300 gram Australian wool sweater, from Australian wool production, Chinese spinning and weaving garments and their sale, use and disposal in the EU, on the environment, including related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, consumption of petroleum fuel, energy and water, and land occupation. The research results show that, firstly, in the whole product cycle, the most greenhouse gas emissions are in the livestock sector of sheep breeding, followed by clothing retail and washing and protection; energy consumption is mainly concentrated in wool processing, and clothing retail and washing and care also consume a certain amount of energy; water consumption is evenly distributed in wool production, wool spinning processing and clothing washing and care, etc. Second, the production, processing and care of wool clothing can improve efficiency, reduce energy consumption and environmental impact. Thirdly, the wearing frequency and service life of clothing are the most important factors to determine the environmental impact of clothing. It shows that consumers are the most important factor affecting the sustainability of their wool clothing. By maximizing the service life of clothing, consumers themselves can contribute to reducing the environmental impact of clothing.

So far, only a variety of textile fiber life cycles have been evaluated. However, most of the life cycle assessment (LCA) of wool is limited to a certain link of the industrial chain. This research report fills the gap in the complete industry chain (LCA) of wool clothing, and provides support for the wool textile industry to ensure that the environmental performance of wool fiber and wool products is fairly and fairly evaluated. Scientists and experts from different countries participated in the project. Many member enterprises and organizations provide basic data for integration and analysis. The EU has urged all textile industries to provide transparent and reliable environmental impact data based on scientific research literature.