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Abstract:
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By taking responsibility for its products throughout their manufacture and
consumers' usage, an organization will have recognized the current impact and the
irreversible effects its activities can have on the future ecology. Life-cycle management
is one approach to reducing the environmental burdens associated with a product. Lifecycle
assessment is a tool that supports life-cycle management. The life-cycle
assessment methodology involves analyzing the resources and energy consumed and the
wastes generated at each stage of a product's life cycle.
For this research, a methodology to develop an environmental profile for a textile
product was accomplished by following a cotton-rich sweatshirt through its life cycle.
By quantifying the resources and energy consumed and the wastes generated at each
stage of the sweatshirt's life cycle, a better understanding of the intricate relationship
among the various stages was achieved.
The environmental profile showed that the consumer stage of the life cycle
demanded the most resources and energy and generated the largest amount of total
waste, indicating a need to educate consumers on more efficient laundering and disposal
practices. Polyester manufacturing consumed a substantial amount of energy and
released the most air emissions, yet comprised only 4.3 % of the shirt's composition.
Collectively, textile manufacturing contributed only 6 % to the total solid waste
produced. However, this amounted to 25 % of the sweatshirt's total weight.
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