Design Consultant Using Optimal

Utilization of Fabric as a Sustainable

Design Solution

Authors
Fitrah Nugroho
Luh Gde Ayu Vienna Kumara Dewi

Interior Design, School of Design, Binus University/ Jl. Raya Kb. Jeruk No.27, RW.9, Kb. Jeruk,
Kec. Kb. Jeruk, Kota Jakarta Barat, Jawa Barat 11530/kak.fitrah@gmail.com ;
vienna.kumara77@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Fabric and textiles have long been used as materials in interiors. Its use in interiors is very
diverse. The durability of the fabric varies, some are made of synthetic fibers which are more durable
but difficult to decompose and natural fibers that are more easily biodegradable but have special
care and tend not to last long. The Interior field has textile waste in the process and different section,
from the fabric leftover in the cutting room floor to the post-consumer usage. According to the
Environmental Protection Agency, 15.1 million tons of textile waste was generated in 2013, of which
12.8 million tons were discarded. The textile problem cannot be left alone and there must be a
concrete solution to cover it. We could make the production and post-use of textiles in the interior
more effective so that fabric waste is reduced and becomes more sustainable in the future.
In this study, the use of fabrics in the interior on various aspects will be reviewed. The
general outline of this aspect is the use of fabric during production and post-consumer waste, the
form of fabric waste, and strategies to reduce and empower waste management. The final result of
this research is to create a design consultant that works effectively in the management of industrial
and interior waste. Waste management is a complicated and severe issue for interiors, unlike fashion
in which post-consumer clothing can be reused and resold by other consumers or known as "saving
money", while the interior field, especially the use of fabrics in furniture, is too diverse in form for
reuse in other furniture. Designers have an important role to use and make products from fabric
waste. As an output, this design consultant will be able to provide a solution by making applied
artwork from fabric waste.
KEYWORDS: Fabric; Waste; Sustainable.

INTRODUCTION fiber-reinforced composites is also gaining

Around the world, waste generation
rates are rising. In 2016, the worlds’ cities
generated 2.01 billion tonnes of solid waste,
amounting to a footprint of 0.74 kilograms per
person per day. With rapid population growth
and urbanization, annual waste generation is
expected to increase by 70% from 2016 levels
to 3.40 billion tonnes in 2050 (Worldbank,
2019). One of the solid waste is textile waste,
According to the Environmental Protection
Agency, 15.1 million tons of textile waste was
generated in 2013, of which 12.8 million tons
were discarded (EPA, 2015). Global
population growth and increasing demand for
new products have led to irrepressible textile
production and consumption (Zamani 2014;
Barot and Sinha 2015). It is predicted that
global fiber consumption will reach
110 million tonnes in the year 2020 (Voncina
2016). The textile industry creates large
volumes of fibrous waste. Therefore, the
utilization of this waste for development of
importance and people have become more
focused on it in recent times (Umar M 2017).
Manufacturers in developed countries are
committed to green manufacturing in the
production of textile products (Karla J.
Nielson, 2017). Waste recycling is a very
important issue to save natural resources and
help minimize climate change (Umar M2017).
METHODS
1. Textile Waste Management
Waste Management Waste management is the
biggest environmental problem in most urban
areas and can lead to environmental pollution
in lie many ways and affect drainage systems
(Nobuhiro K. 2014). In the waste hierarchy,
prevention constitutes the first stage; reuse,
recycling, production of energy from waste,
and landfilling come after it. The purpose of
the circular economy is to extend the life of
materials and promote recycling to maximize
material service per resource input while
reducing environmental impacts and resource
usage (Tisserant et al. 2017). Furthermore, the
circular economy promotes collection of
products and their recovery in the same
product chain (Fortuna and Diyamandoglu
2017). The 3R (reduce, reuse, and recycle)
approach to waste management has been
established internationally as one of the
fundamental concepts of the circular economy
for a sustainable society (Yano and Sakai
2016; Tisserant et al. 2017). The 3Rs are
meant to be seen as a hierarchy and are thus
listed in order of importance. Some waste
management experts have recently
incorporated a 'fourth R': "re-think", with the
implied meaning that the present system may
have fundamental flaws, and that a thoroughly
effective system of waste management may
need an entirely new way of looking at waste.
Some "re-think" solutions may be counter-
intuitive, such as cutting fabric patterns with
slightly more "waste material" left - the now
larger scraps are then used for cutting small
parts of the pattern, resulting in a decrease in
net waste (Bojana Voncina, 2000).
1.1. Product Lifecycles This layer
specifically addresses the factor of
value creation product. It focuses
on enabling the operation of
product development processes
systematically leading to products
which achieve balance of the three
dimensions of sustainability, i.e.
which generate low environmental
impacts while delivering socially
useful functions, all available at
reasonable production and
purchase prices. This requires the
application of methods allowing
product development teams to
systematically integrate
sustainability criteria into their
decisions (Sami K. 2017).
1.2. Disposal (Landfilling) Disposal of
solid waste is the least favored
waste management method, in
which the last destination of waste
is a landfill site. Countries try to
manage waste with other options.
However, there is still a huge
amount of waste that ends its life
in a landfill even though it could
be recycled (Bhuiya 2017). In
landfills, synthetic textile waste
does not decompose, while
woolen garments do decompose
but produce methane and carbon
dioxide gases, contributing to
global warming (Strähle and Hauk
2017). With the disposal of waste
in landfills, it must be noted that
methane emissions are more
harmful than carbon dioxide
emissions (Sotayo et al. 2015).
2. Recycling
The term “textile recycling” has come to the
fore since the mid-1940s, when US charities
and the textile industry started repurposing
clothes, shoes, and accessories (Nodoushani
et al. 2016). Downcycling is a recovery
process in which a waste material is
reprocessed into raw material with a lower
value than the original material. Upcycling is a
recovery process in which a waste material is
reprocessed into a raw material with a higher
value than the original material (Vats 2015).
A great challenge in the design of products
that are easy to recycle is seen in the
development of eco-friendly products. Waste
should be avoided both in the production
process and when disposing of products. In
addition, material substance should, at the end
of product life, be suitable to be returned into
the material cycle (recycling). This is also true
of making textiles and, in particular, of
technical textiles (Wang Youjiang 2006).

3. Reuse
Product reuse and environmentalism are
interrelated. The reuse of products plays an
important role in waste management by
conserving resources, reducing negative
environmental influences, and diminishing the
burden on waste management systems
(Fortuna and Diyamandoglu 2017). By
lengthening product life, reuse delays the time
when the product enters the municipal solid
waste facilities, and helps to avoid the cost of
recycling (Ipek Y. E. 2019).
4. Prevention (Reduction)
Waste prevention can be defined as acquisition
of awareness about the adverse effects of
generated waste on the environment and on
people, and the importance of waste reduction
and reuse of products (Nielsen and Schmidt
2014). Directive 2008/98/EC of the European
Parliament and of the Council (2008) describes
prevention (reduction) as follows: “Prevention
means measures taken before a substance,
material or product has become waste, that
reduces: (a) the quantity of waste, including
through the reuse of products or the extension
of the life span of products; (b) the adverse
impacts of the generated waste on the
environment and human health; or (c) the
content of harmful substances in materials and
products.”
5. Design Perspectives
In addition to academic studies focusing on
utilization of textile waste, designers are also
working on this subject. Kushwaha and Swami
(2016) have developed 30 different upcycled
products (cushion covers, table mats, holders
and folders, handbags, wallets, yokes, collars,
earrings, and necklaces) from leather scraps to
increase the value of leather waste. Bernardita
Marambio, a Chilean designer, has used cotton
textile waste together with a 100%
biodegradable adhesive made with starch to
design novel value-added furniture, including
chairs and a table. The designer’s aim was to
draw attention to the large amount of textile
waste in landfills (Costa et al. 2017).
6. Parameter
In the preceding section, the methods for
treatment of wastes were discussed. The
usefulness as well as the limitations of these
methods were pointed out, including some of
the benefits and costs of each process. It was
also recognized that although the wastes from
cotton textile mills have similar characteristics,
each plant should consider its waste as unique
and should study its own problems before
entering into a waste treatment program.
Therefore, this section will be concerned with
how each plant can determine what its specific
waste problems are and how it can solve its
own waste treatment problems to best
adavantage. Before a plant begins to institute a
waste treatment program, it must define the
magnitude of the problem. The following
determinations and actions must be taken:
1. What is the volume of the wastes (a)
before waste reduction measures have
been taken? (b) after waste reduction
measures have been taken?
2. What volume of waste requires
treatment?
3. Will separation or segregation result in
a material reduction of the waste
volume requiring treatment?
4. Wastes must be analyzed to determine
the ranges in strength and pollutional
characteristics of each waste and of
the combined wastes.
5. What effect will future expansion
plans have on the volume and
pollution load of those wastes
requiring treatment?
6. Each waste should be evaluated from
the stand point of toxicity. Can the
waste effluent be tolerated by the
biological processes of treatment?
Having satisfactorily determined the
magnitude of the problem, the first step
toward solution is to initiate methods for
the reduction of wastes and waste volumes
as outlined in the section on “In-plant
Reduction of Processing Wastes.” In-plant
 changes such as improved process control, From the research, the following designs are
process modification, substitutions of the results from designer perspective for
process chemicals, recovery and reuse of maximization the use of fabric:
chemicals and by products, reduction in
waste flow, and institution of good-
housekeeping practices should be
evaluated to determine what savings can
be made. Those which result in substantial
reduction in pollution load should be
instituted. (U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND
WELFARE 1959).

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Both waste management of cutting clothes
patterns and fabric waste in households topics
provide different solutions. Martex Fier
provides a more precise and systematic
solution but requires special machines and
systems that cannot be applied to most small
and medium businesses in Indonesia, which
also had not have such a system yet. India has
a solution from a group of housewives who
process leftover cloth into bedcovers and knits.
For short term, solutions from India are more
suitable, and we hope that future solutions for
machines such as those used by Martex Fiber
already exist in Indonesia.
CONCLUSION
Innovation as The Results of This Study
Creates consultants or agencies that process The solution to the large amount of fabric
textile waste in the furniture and interior waste in Indonesia is to make a campaign
industries. The weakness of the consultant about the importance of maximizing the use of
here is the production costs on labor or labor fabric. Factories that use cloth as the main
costs more. In the process of knitting or material in the manufacture of their products
connecting fabric waste that requires a long are the biggest contributors to the fabric waste
process but it can be covered with material in the form of leftover pieces of cloth. The
costs of fabric waste that can be reduced to society needs to be educated on how important
zero. it is to maximize the use of cloth by a
campaign on how to process the fabrics into
Contribution to Society many useful items, in this case making
Being able to provide a system for people who furniture inspired by the fabric left over from
produce furniture to sort out fabric waste so pieces.
that it can be reprocessed and reduce labor
costs for consultants / agencies that process REFERENCES
textile waste from the interior and furniture
Worldbank (2019), Solid Waste Management,
industries.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/ur
Output bandevelopment/brief/solid-waste-
 management, Accessed 6 October
2019
Environmental Protection Agency (2015),
Textiles: Material-Specific Data,
https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-
figures-about-materials-waste-and-
recycling/textiles-material-specific-
data, Accessed 6 October 2019
Zamani B (2014) Towards understanding
sustainable textile waste management:
environmental impacts and social
indicators. Thesis, Chalmers
University of Technology
Barot AA, Sinha VK (2015) Chemical
scavenging of post-consumed clothes.
Waste Manag.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2015
.09.012
Voncina B (2016) Recycling of textile
materials. 2B Funtex-MDT.
http://www.2bfuntex.eu/sites/default/fi
les/materials/Recycling%20of
%20textile%20materials_Bojana
%20Voncina.pdf
Karla J. Nielson (2017) Interior Textiles:
Fabrics, Application, and Historic
Style
Umar M, Shaker K, Ahmad S (2017)
Investigating the mechanical behavior
of composites made from textile
industry waste.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00405000 .
2016.1193982 Vats S (2015)
Upcycling of hospital textiles int
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,
EDUCATION, AND WELFARE
(1959), An Industrial Waste Guide to
the Cotton Textile Industry
Christoph Herrmann, Sami Kara (2017),
Sustainable Production, Life Cycle
Engineering and Management.
Nobuhiro Kaneko, Shinji Yoshiura and
Masanori Kobayashi (eds.) Sustainable
Living with Environmental Risks 2014
Enis, Ipek Yalcin; Sezgin, Hande; Ozturk,
Merve Kucukali; Risks and
Management of Textile Waste: The
Impact of Embedded Multinational
Enterprises
Wang Youjiang (2006), Recycling in
Textiles
Tisserant A, Pauliuk S, Merciai S et al
(2017) Solid waste and the circular
economy: a global analysis of waste
treatment and waste footprints. J Ind
Ecol 21(3):628–640.
https://doi.org/10.1111/ jiec.12562
Fortuna LM, Diyamandoglu V (2017)
Disposal and acquisition trends in
second-hand products. J Clean Prod
142(4):2454–2462.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.
11.030
Yano J, Sakai S (2016) Waste prevention
indicators and their implications from
a life cycle perspective: a review. J 
Mater Cycles Waste Manag 18:38–56.
https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10163-015-
0406-7
Bhuiya MH (2017) Upcycling the garment
solid waste in Bangladesh. Thesis,
Tallinn University of Technology
Sotayo A, Green S, Turvey G (2015) Carpet
recycling: a review of recycled carpets
for structural composites. Environ
Technol Innov 3:97–107.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eti.2015.02.0
04
Strähle J, Hauk K (2017) Impact on
sustainability: production versus
consumption. In: Strähle J (ed) Green
fashion retail. Springer, Singapore,
pp 49–76
Vats S (2015) Upcycling of hospital textiles
into fashionable garments. Thesis,
Tampere University of Technology
Nodoushani O, Stewart C, Kaur M (2016)
Recycling and its effects on the
 environment. Compet Forum Indiana
14:65–69
Nielsen R, Schmidt A (2014) Changing
consumer behaviour towards
increased prevention of textile waste:
background report. Nordic Council
of Ministers, Copenhagen
Kushwaha S, Swami C (2016) Upcycling of
leather waste to create upcycled
products and accessories. Int J Home
Sci 2:187–192