Natural fibres in next-to-skin textiles: current perspectives on human body odour

Laing, R. M.

doi:10.1007/s42452-019-1388-1

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 22 publications

(14 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Scenario 1-washing frequency. Wool garments can be worn longer between washing intervals than garments made of other fibre types because of the natural odour resistant properties of wool (Laing 2019;McQueen and Vaezafshar 2020). Airing is a traditional way of keeping wool clothing free of odour (Laitala et al 2017a).…”

Section: Inventory Data and Description Of Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To quantify the environmental impacts of the use phase in a garment life cycle, data on garment care (Schmitz and Stamminger 2014;Laitala et al 2018) and utilisation (Farrant et al 2010;Dahlbo et al 2017;Laitala et al 2017a;Fei et al 2020) are of primary importance. Wool is a fibre type of interest because wool fabrics have odour-resistant properties (Laing 2019;McQueen and Vaezafshar 2020). The cradle-to-grave environmental impacts of a wool sweater were recently reported by Wiedemann et al (2020), showing that the total lifespan of the garment was the single most influential factor on environmental impacts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Reducing environmental impacts from garments through best practice garment use and care, using the example of a Merino wool sweater

Wiedemann¹,

Biggs²,

Nguyen³

et al. 2021

Int J Life Cycle Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose Garment production and use generate substantial environmental impacts, and the care and use are key determinants of cradle-to-grave impacts. The present study investigated the potential to reduce environmental impacts by applying best practices for garment care combined with increased garment use. A wool sweater is used as an example because wool garments have particular attributes that favour reduced environmental impacts in the use phase. Methods A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to compare six plausible best and worst-case practice scenarios for use and care of a wool sweater, relative to current practices. These focussed on options available to consumers to reduce impacts, including reduced washing frequency, use of more efficient washing machines, reduced use of machine clothing dryers, garment reuse by multiple users, and increasing number of garment wears before disposal. A sixth scenario combined all options. Worst practices took the worst plausible alternative for each option investigated. Impacts were reported per wear in Western Europe for climate change, fossil energy demand, water stress and freshwater consumption. Results and discussion Washing less frequently reduced impacts by between 4 and 20%, while using more efficient washing machines at capacity reduced impacts by 1 to 6%, depending on the impact category. Reduced use of machine dryer reduced impacts by < 5% across all indicators. Reusing garments by multiple users increased life span and reduced impacts by 25–28% across all indicators. Increasing wears from 109 to 400 per garment lifespan had the largest effect, decreasing impacts by 60% to 68% depending on the impact category. Best practice care, where garment use was maximised and care practices focussed on the minimum practical requirements, resulted in a ~ 75% reduction in impacts across all indicators. Unsurprisingly, worst-case scenarios increased impacts dramatically: using the garment once before disposal increased GHG impacts over 100 times. Conclusions Wool sweaters have potential for long life and low environmental impact in use, but there are substantial differences between the best, current and worst-case scenarios. Detailed information about garment care and lifespans is needed to understand and reduce environmental impacts. Opportunities exist for consumers to rapidly and dramatically reduce these impacts. The fashion industry can facilitate this through garment design and marketing that promotes and enables long wear life and minimal care.

show abstract

Section: Inventory Data and Description Of Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing environmental impacts from garments through best practice garment use and care, using the example of a Merino wool sweater

Wiedemann¹,

Biggs²,

Nguyen³

et al. 2021

Int J Life Cycle Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…6 Stimulated by changes in fiber use, in cleaning-related requirements and other emerging environmental matters (e.g. product re-cycling, concepts of circular manufacture 8 ), we extended our investigations of adsorption and release behavior to include viscose rayon and used the same VOCs as in the study by Yao et al. 7 (i.e.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Binding and release of odor compounds from textiles: Changing fiber selection for apparel

Richter

Laing

Bremer

2020

Textile Research Journal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding odor volatiles known to constitute those emanating from the human body and how these interact with textiles is relevant to diverse interested parties because of changing fiber use, a better understanding of apparel life cycles including cleaning and the potential for fiber/textile re-use. This paper extends the application of our proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry model system on adsorption and release behavior of fiber types typical of next-to-skin uses to include both viscose and other volatile organic compounds in body odor for which release has not previously been studied (hexanoic acid, acetone, cyclohexanone, hexanal, methyl butanoate, ethyl benzene, 1-octanol, decanal, butanoic acid). The current findings confirmed release patterns of different fiber types found in our earlier studies – low release of volatile organic compounds from cotton and wool, but higher release from polyester – and made a new finding of low release from viscose. Adsorption characteristics were different given the different volatile organic compounds analyzed. Viscose showed better adsorption characteristics for primarily polar volatile organic compounds, but was otherwise very similar to cotton.

show abstract

“…The odour intensity of various materials alone does not explain the differences in washing frequency. In some cases, synthetic clothes are washed less frequently than the cotton garments, even though research indicates that synthetic garments are the most odour intensive [49,50]. This could be because the types of garments are different and thus used for different occasions but may also be related to other factors that cause frequent washing of cotton, such as the design of garments and structure of the fabrics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laundry Care Regimes: Do the Practices of Keeping Clothes Clean Have Different Environmental Impacts Based on the Fibre Content?

Laitala¹,

Klepp²,

Kettlewell³

et al. 2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Clothing maintenance is necessary for keeping clothing and textiles functional and socially acceptable, but it has environmental consequences due to the use of energy, water and chemicals. This article discusses whether clothes made of different materials are cleaned in different ways and have different environmental impacts. It fills a knowledge gap needed in environmental assessments that evaluate the impacts based on the function of a garment by giving detailed information on the use phase. The article is based on a quantitative wardrobe survey and qualitative laundry diary data from China, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA. The largest potential for environmental improvement exists in reducing laundering frequency and in the selection of washing and drying processes, and through a transition to fibres that are washed less frequently, such as wool. Adopting best practice garment care would give larger benefits in countries like the US where the consumption values were the highest, mainly due to extensive use of clothes dryers and less efficient washing machines combined with frequent cleaning. These variations should be considered in environmental assessments of clothing and when forming sustainability policies. The results indicate the benefits of focusing future environmental work on consumer habits and culture and not only technologies.

show abstract

Natural fibres in next-to-skin textiles: current perspectives on human body odour

Cited by 17 publications

References 22 publications

Reducing environmental impacts from garments through best practice garment use and care, using the example of a Merino wool sweater

Reducing environmental impacts from garments through best practice garment use and care, using the example of a Merino wool sweater

Binding and release of odor compounds from textiles: Changing fiber selection for apparel

Laundry Care Regimes: Do the Practices of Keeping Clothes Clean Have Different Environmental Impacts Based on the Fibre Content?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About