Study On The Eco-design Of Cotton Textile Products

China is the textile giant but not textile power, and the capacity for sustainable development is relatively weak. Among them, the cotton textile industry plays an important role in promoting economic development and social progress. China’s economy becomes increasingly globalized after the accession to the WTO. In the international environment, more and more attentions are being paid to those environmentally friendly, ecological cotton textile products. At present, the cotton textile enterprises, who are driven by economic interests, continuously improve research and development efforts in the functional cotton textile products, and then emphasize the development and application of technological value-added. Unfortunately, these enterprises ignore the protection of ecological environment, and the cotton textile industry still can not achieve sustainable development that the economic environment is in harmony with ecological environment. In order to help the cotton textile industry enter the path of sustainable development, this thesis has carried out the eco-design research on the entire life cycle of cotton textile products, and provided a theoretical basis and practical reference for the transformation of China’s ecological textiles.This thesis focuses on the eco-design mechanism for the sustainable development of human society. Through the case studies of existing product eco-design at home and abroad, this thesis firstly summarized the related experiences, ideas and principles. On this basis, this thesis proposed the systematic eco-design schemes for the whole life cycle of cotton textile products, which mainly is divided into four life cycle stages:cotton cultivation, cotton production, clothing and recycling. This thesis respectively used the emergy analysis and carbon footprint methods to compare and analyze different environmental impacts before and after the product eco-design, and then used the parameters of product-system&eco-environment coordination degree to test the extent of ecological and environmental protection. Furthermore, this thesis proposed the estimation and implementation methods of eco-value-added, which can reflect the economic effects of product eco-design, and promote the coordinated development of ecological environment, economy and society. Finally, this thesis also built a preliminary evaluation index system for the product sustainable degree, which can give a comprehensive evaluation for the effect of product eco-design.In general, this thesis mainly includes the following contributions:(1) The eco-design of the cotton cultivation stageThe technology and planting methods are the key factors in determining cotton yields and environmental impact. By emergy analysis, this thesis compared the difference of emergy consumption caused by different planting methods. The results shown that the planting of completely organic cotton is most favorable to ecological environment, which is one direction of the future efforts of research&development.(2) The eco-design of the cotton production stage with energy savingIn the cotton production stage, the eco-design needs to achieve low power, low water consumption and low noise, which can reduce the emissions of waste-water and waste-gas, and solid waste. This thesis carried out the eco-design research on the cotton weaving, dyeing, utilization of waste heat generated by machinery and equipment, and water resources of cotton production. Then the production process after the optimization can significantly reduce the environmental load. What’s more, this thesis used the emergy analysis to compare environmental impacts before and after the eco-design, which can provide important policy recommendations for the construction and development of ecological printing and dyeing industry.(3) The eco-design of the cotton clothing stageThe thesis finished the investigation and analysis on the mainstream consumer groups of cotton clothing, and then proposed multi-angle eco-design strategies for the clothing manufacture and use process. Based on consumer value and a variety of demands, in order to provide better consumer satisfaction, this thesis proposed a series of strategies such as extending the product satisfaction, product accessories, emotional design and service-oriented design. Furthermore, this thesis used the carbon emission to analyze and compare the environmental impacts before and after the eco-design, which can provide a basis for constructing a new value system of the cotton clothing stage.(4) The recycling eco-design of used cotton textiles and the construction of eco-closed supply chainOn the basis of the investigation about the waste processing situations of domestic and international cotton textiles, the thesis analyzed the main factors for the various recycling modes, and then carried out the eco-design research from the three dimensions which includes the ecological dimension to reduce the environmental impact, the economic dimension to improve low-carbon and energy saving of second-hand clothing use, the social dimension to expand recycling channels. By deeply processing waste cotton into recycled fiber, this thesis explored how to build a "eco-closed supply chain" of cotton production and consumption, in order to achieve the recycling of cotton textile waste, and realize almost "zero waste"(5) The construction of "product-system&eco-environment coordination degree" modelBased on the coordination mechanism of product system and environmental development, this thesis built a "product-system&eco-environment coordination degree" model. By respectively taking the cotton cultivation stage and apparel production stage as two examples, this thesis used two quantitative tools such as emergy analysis and carbon footprint to characterize the beneficial result of the eco-design according to the coordination degree. The higher the product-system&eco-environment coordination degree, the greater the eco-design benefit. Furthermore, this thesis used the estimation of eco-value-added to quantify the economic benefits of eco-design, and put forward the implementation idea of product eco-value-added.(6) The construction of "product sustainable degree" evaluation index systemThe eco-design is optimized from such three dimensions as ecological benefits, economic benefits and social benefits. A preliminary evaluation index system is built according to the "product sustainable degree", which can provide a quantitative basis for the green flag of cotton textile products.In summary, the eco-design schemes throughout various life cycle stages of cotton textile products, and some key indicators such as the product-system&eco-environment coordination degree, eco-value-added and product sustainable degree, can provide the theoretical and technical support for the sustainable development of China’s cotton textile industry.