Exploring sustainable approaches for electronic textile products and prototypes

Perera, N, Shahidi, AM ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7780-3122, Marasinghe, K ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9050-5261, Kaner, J ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7946-7433, Oliveira, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8143-3534, Wickenden, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2573-349X, Dias, T and Hughes-Riley, T ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8020-430X, 2024. Exploring sustainable approaches for electronic textile products and prototypes. Sensors, 24 (17): 5472. ISSN 1424-8220

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Abstract

This research investigated the sustainability of textile garments with integrated electronics and their potential impact on the environment. The electronic textiles (E-textiles) sector is booming, with many advancements in E-textile product designs and construction methods having been made in recent years. Although there is a rapidly increasing interest in the reusability and sustainability of textiles, work towards E-textile sustainability requires further attention. Vastly different components are combined when constructing an electronic textile product, which makes it challenging at the end of the life of these products to dispose of them in a responsible way. In this study, a teardown analysis was conducted using a structured method, which first mapped out the interactions between each component of the product with the environment, followed by using Kuusk’s sustainable framework to analyze sustainable strategies. The research provides a unique contribution to transitioning sustainability theories into practical applications in the area of E-textiles, and the method proposed in this work can be employed in modifying electronics-embedded textiles to improve longevity and reduce the negative environmental impact. The work has highlighted key points of improvement that could be applied to a series of commercial E-textile garments, as well as a prototype E-textile device. Beyond this, the work provides a systematic approach for implementing new E-textile product designs that can evaluate overall product sustainability from the design stage to material selection, construction, and the planning of the commercial approaches of a product.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Sensors
Creators:	Perera, N., Shahidi, A.M., Marasinghe, K., Kaner, J., Oliveira, C., Wickenden, R., Dias, T. and Hughes-Riley, T.
Publisher:	MDPI AG
Date:	23 August 2024
Volume:	24
Number:	17
ISSN:	1424-8220
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.3390/s24175472 DOI 2205339 Other
Rights:	© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham School of Art & Design
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	02 Sep 2024 15:46
Last Modified:	02 Sep 2024 15:46
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52156

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