Zero Waste Fashion – 3D Printing With Innovative And Sustainable Materials
Words by Rueen Amiriara
Zero waste fashion with the use of 3D printing. 3D printing technology already allows fashion designers to take their skills to the next level. It enables them to create innovative garments, new knitting methods, accelerate manufacturing and even create new ways of customisation.
However, to those of us interested in what 3D printing can do for fashion, the capacity of printing with innovative and sustainable materials, bacterias, and living organisms, is what excites us the most. A revolutionary concept that holds the key to ‘Zero Waste Fashion’.
This article looks at a study done by a team of researchers from St. Catherine University, who have explored the use of “3D printing to create zero-waste sustainable fashion“.
How To Measure Sustainability In Fashion
According to the Zero-waste International Alliance, achieving full sustainability in fashion depends, in large part, on designing and managing products and processes to avoid the creation of waste and toxic materials, while conserving, recovering, and reusing all resources.
In that light, to asses the level of sustainability, researchers were able to reduce waste by cutting back on certain materials, or by reusing the extra material. A procedure that has become possible thanks to the use of advanced modelling tools such as Tinkercad and Rhinoceros 5, combined with a MakerBot Replicator 2 printer.
Zero Waste Fashion And The Role Of 3D Printing
Moreover, in reviewing the revolutionary aspects of 3D printing for the fashion industry, the study views the technology as possessing a high potential to redefine the wasteful ‘ready-to-wear’ approach to fashion.
Researchers also assert that the ‘Fair Trade plastic’ association could play a part in the global endeavour for a more sustainable fashion industry. The adoption of an ethical standard for filaments, as in created from sustainable materials, selected by renown material scientists such as Joshua Pearce, founder of the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology research group.
And while this study might seem appealing only to researchers in the field of 3D printing, the findings are huge for the fashion industry.
Since giant footwear manufacturers such as Nike and Adidas, in their attempts to deliver on consumers’ demand for high customisation, have embarked on 3D Printing, the ability to instantly print footwear from sustainable materials, with zero waste is a huge success for everybody: businesses, consumers, and the planet.
The researchers conclude by stating that it is critical to explore the sustainability attribute, and its application through divergent, 3D design thinking, and a considerate choice of materials that could, hopefully, construct a new narrative of sustainable 3D printing for zero-waste, in the fashion industry.
This article was originally published on WTVOX.