Researchers have developed an app that will greatly reduce the immense waste created during the production of clothing. According to Tech Xplore, WasteBanned will allow designers to use as much of the material as possible.
The majority of people on this planet wear clothes on a daily basis, and many may not put much thought into where those clothes came from or how they were made.
When clothes are made, some fabric is cut away and will never be used. This accounts for millions of tons of waste, according to Royal Waste Services, most of which will either end up in landfills or incinerators.
🗣️ Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to recycle old clothes and electronics?
🔘 Giving me money back 💰
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🔘 Keeping my stuff out of landfills 🗑️
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Nearly 60% of all clothing material is made of plastic, so it doesn't degrade as quickly as natural materials in landfills. Dyes and other hazardous materials used in the production of the synthetic fibers begin to break down and contaminate the nearby land and water. When those materials are burned in an incinerator, they release toxic pollution into the air, not to mention the dirty energy sources used to create the flames.
WasteBanned is looking to eliminate as much of that waste as possible, known as minimal- or zero-waste design. Developed by researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), the University of Washington, and Adobe Research, the app allows users to design, edit, and simulate how their clothes will look. Then it creates a blueprint to map out precise dimensions for their garment and tells the user where to cut.
The app also allows users to undo cuts, redo cuts, and make any necessary edits before scissors touch fabric in the real world, all but eliminating mistakes that would result in wasted fabric.
"Zero waste design can be a really hard puzzle, but it's rewarding to solve it," said Mackenzie Leake, researcher and senior author of the research.
This app couldn't come along at a better time, as fast-fashion brands are producing twice the amount of clothes, so also twice the amount of waste, as they were in 2000, per Earth.org.
"Garments look really simple, but once you cut one piece, you're also modifying others," Leake said. "This intertwined process, called link editing, requires creativity, and WasteBanned is a fun, interactive tool that helps you visualize these changes before you begin to cut. We'd love to see more people design in this more environmentally friendly, resourceful way."
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