Introduction
With the mission of “making the project good and responsible for the world” established by the United Nations and iGEM committee, our project was initiated, developed, and finalized around the idea of sustainability, namely of the textile industry and the circular economy of fashion. Although our project addresses many SDGs, we eventually landed on the following four most related goals:
Goal 4: Quality Education
Target 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship [1].
Facilitated by the practical and theoretical knowledge regarding biotechnology we had gained along the progression of our project, we strongly felt that we should try our best to introduce biotechnology to a wider range of people, which gives opportunities for career development if they strive to pursue a STEM-related career, aiming specifically at Target 4.4.
We were greatly inspired by the team Lambert GA 2020 (https://2020.igem.org/Team:Lambert_GA/Sustainable)on Target 4.4, whose efforts towards quality education were immense. It was fascinating that they envisioned collaborating with teachers to create an after-school program about biotechnology and scientific research. Building on their work, we set up an extracurricular activity, namely the iGEM Club, allowing the proposal to come true. Through the iGEM Club, not only did we discuss biotechnology and other STEM-related content, but we also expected to inspire every one of our members to follow our route of leading others to the STEM field.
The most practical one of our contributions to targeting quality education was constructing the first-ever molecular biology lab in our school, Shenzhen College of International Education. The construction of such a lab has long been envisioned since two years ago, started from scratch by our student advisors of this year's team. As our advisors reached their senior year, we gladly took charge of the rest of the preparation of the lab, including applying for central funding, listing and purchasing relevant consumables, and laying out future plans. Currently, this lab has equipment for basic molecular biology experiments, such as PCR, DNA electrophoresis, culturing bacteria, etc. After full construction in the foreseeable future, this lab would invaluably contribute to students' future career development as it encourages them to plan, design, and accomplish their own projects. This also reinforces the school's focus on biology-related courses and allows every biology-pursuing student after us to access this lab constructed with our full efforts.
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Target 9.4：By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities[2].
Infrastructure is the key to the industry's sustainability, determining resource-use efficiency. Through interactions with relevant SDG stakeholders like companies and research centers of a sustainable textile economy, we witnessed the necessity of retrofitting the fashion and clothing industries to make them sustainable. Our project targets Goal 9.4 as we have designed a multi-module, multi-functional, and high-biosafety fabric degradation bioreactor in addition to our positive experimental results. However, incineration plants and landfill sites are the only main characters regarding the conventional treatment of textile waste. They produce not only air pollution by emitting particulate matter, which causes lung and heart diseases, but also produce heavy metal and toxic chemicals such as mercury and dioxin, which cause neurological diseases and cancer, respectively[3]. After visiting several incineration plants and evaluating our approach FabRevivo towards the other existing methods to treat textile waste, we have concluded our evaluation in the table below.
It is suggested that our approach effectively combines the advantages of both incineration plants and landfill sites moreover eliminates almost all of their disadvantages. The only disadvantage of our approach is that microorganisms used might be released if improperly treated, which can be successfully treated since we have a whole and well-considered discussion on meeting complete bio-safety. (See Safety)(https://2022.igem.wiki/greatbay-scie/safety)
According to Mr. Wang, the co-founder of Shandong ChuangXinYi Renewable Resources Co. Ltd, the only way to prevent more textile waste from entering incineration plants and landfill sites is to improve the existing down-cycling recycling chain. The treatment of textile waste in most factories starts with shedding unwanted clothes into smaller pieces in machines called disintegrators. Then, the small pieces are sent to machines called garnett machines for fiber extraction[4]. However, due to machine limitations, the final product has always been no more than rags, carpets, fillings for insulation, car seats, etc. Though we acknowledge that textile recycling is for sustainable aims and the future, there are still major improvements we can make to improve sustainability. These low-quality, short-fiber products can no longer be recycled due to the irreversible effects on the quality of fibers and only end up in incineration plants or landfill sites, unfortunately. Our solution, however, eliminates this down-cycling nightmare by fully degrading the fibers into sugar and other possible monomers and utilizing them again with engineered microorganisms, which then will be converted to biodegradable material such as bacterial cellulose that can be fed back to the fashion industry to form a sustainable closed loop and circular economy.
Due to time limitations, we have not constructed the full-size machine for our hardware. In the future, we plan to collaborate with the government and machine manufacturers to introduce the full-size machine to Mr Wang's textile recycling factories and evaluate and improve our solution based on real-life operations in terms of sustainability.
Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
According to The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, millions of tonnes of clothes are produced, worn, and thrown away annually[6]. Every second, the equivalent of a rubbish truckload of clothes is burnt or buried in landfills. Of 100 billion garments made yearly worldwide, 92 million tons become waste [7]. This is an obvious reflection of an irresponsible consumption and production chain. The root causes of triple planetary crises are unsustainable consumption and production patterns: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution[5]. Therefore, our project ensures more textile waste can be biodegraded, recycled, and reused to tackle the issue.
Target 12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.
First, we decided to hone on Target 12.5, which proposes the reduction of waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse. Through the help of experts in the field of textile recycling, the design of our project actively meets Target 12.5, particularly as the successful use of cellulosome with enzyme synergy is the highlight to increase the recycling rate. In 2020, the number of waste textiles was about 22 million tons in China; which recycled fibers of waste textiles were only about 1.5 million tons. We saw the cruel reality of the current progress; we realized that there is still room for improvement in the recycling capacity and level of waste textiles. Therefore, our project assists the country's sustainable goals. In the meantime, we are confident that this project can play an essential role in meeting sustainable goals from the UN and the country if successfully implemented. (See Implementation) (https://2022.igem.wiki/greatbay-scie/implementation)
In China, there are already sustainable goals regarding reducing textile waste: By 2025, the national recycling rate of waste textiles is proposed to reach 25%, and the production of regenerated fibers from waste textiles reaching 2 million tons. This reflects the Indicator under subgoal 12.5, which focuses on the Indicator: “National recycling rate, tons of material recycled.” According to the "Implementation Opinions" issued by The National Development and Reform Commission in China, the recycling of waste textiles should accelerate. The basis of our project is deeply integrated and ingrained with this proposal, designated to help the environment to be more sustainable. Furthermore, it is encouraged that “waste textiles that cannot be recycled to be standardized for fuel utilization.” Our project is also designed to fulfill the aspect of fuel generation, as the end products of our degraded cellulose can be turned into the form of ethanol by fermentation, which can be used as a clean fuel.
Target 12.8: By 2030, ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature [5].
More importantly, we also tackled target 12.8, which hopes to ensure that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development. First, we hope to inform fashion companies about textile sustainability and our sustainable project. For instance, we had an interview with Mo&Co, a large fashion brand founded by the EPO group. The conversation made us realize the current sustainable measures taken into account by regular fashion brands are only at the basics and have a long way to go. We saw that although brands are developing eco-consciousness, the efforts are still insufficient to meet sustainable expectations. Being the first to thoroughly propose a biological textile recycling strategy to a large fashion brand, we further spread the message of sustainability and would want more fashion brands to recognize the importance of textile recycling. In the future, to build on our current achievements, we want to connect more substantial and transnational fast fashion companies to inspire more sustainable practices.
Furthermore, through research, discussions, and interviews with circular textile economy professionals, we realized that textile waste is not only needed to solve by scientific methods but is also a social-economic problem. Ultimately, this project highlights the cruciality of responsible consumption and production of apparel. Only with the responsibility and awareness established will there be an improvement in “sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources,” as well as “material footprint and consumption.” Through public surveys and interviews we conducted in our Human Practices, it has been revealed that a considerable proportion of people did not have an explicit knowledge of fashion being a significant source of pollution. Thus, we also found it necessary to educate the public through innovative and convincing ways so that a larger proportion of the world acquires the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, aiming specifically at Target 12.8. We first did this through a collaborating article with BJEA_China. In this article, our work was harmoniously divided where BJEA first introduced the harm caused by PET pollution. Correspondingly, we cast our spotlight on involving everyone in the solution to PET pollution. We discussed approaches that everybody can take daily to minimize PET pollution, for instance, sorting garbage or buying products made of biodegradable materials.
We then started to envision other ways that are more direct and more entertaining to spread the value of sustainable development. Therefore, we took our project one step further to educate about the closed-loop circular economy and thoughtful consumption of textiles. Our final idea was promising yet challenging ––– creating a series of student-produced documentaries (see episodes in IHP or Education) https://2022.igem.wiki/greatbay-scie/human-practices. https://2022.igem.wiki/greatbay-scie/education In the four episodes plus a trailer, we have discussed multiple topics closely related to the sustainability of the current fashion industry. Our prime aim was to eliminate people's negative stereotypes about the textile recycling industry, appealing to more people to put their unwanted clothes into recycling bins.
Through those means, we have successfully brought up the awareness of producers and consumers regarding sustainability and textile recycling with our best efforts.
Goal 13: climate actions
Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning[8].
Starting from Goal 13, climate action, we were aware of the unsustainable textile industry, its massive greenhouse gas emissions, and the loss of natural resources. We intend to take active actions to combat climate change and its impacts caused by unsustainable textile recycling methods through our project FabRevivo. It is estimated that 92 million tonnes of textile waste are produced globally every year, with only a meager 12% getting recycled; the majority of the rest may only end up in landfill sites and incineration plants, making textile waste the second largest industrial polluter. The carbon and heat emissions resulting from the traditional methods of processing waste garments and textiles constitute an immense portion of climate change causes and brings catastrophic impacts on the environment, including but not limited to the rises in sea level and global temperature, extreme weather, the devastation of habitats of species, etc.
In our project, the degradation of textile and fabric waste is exceptionally energy-saving and reduces carbon emissions significantly; according to studies accomplished by the Bureau of International Recycling, an international recycling and regeneration organization, recycling 1 kg of waste textiles can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.6 kg, save 6,000 liters of water, and reduce the use of 0.3 kg of chemical fertilizers and 0.2 kg of pesticides. Along with the rudimentary research, we are inspired by team Marburg (https://2021.igem.org/Team:Marburg/Sustainable), which aims to develop engineered crops with an increased fixation rate of carbon dioxide. Building on them, we intend to quantify and compare carbon dioxide emissions of different textile waste treatment methods and have calculated the exact numerical values regarding carbon dioxide emissions, following the fascinating example provided by LINKS_China 2021 (https://2021.igem.org/Team:LINKS_China/Sustainable) and have come up with our own solution and results provided below.
The total CO2 emission calculation in our project can be split into two different sections: hardware emission and raw materials emission.
The hardware emission is calculated by rating the power of each component in our hardware device and multiplied them by the usage time separately (W=Pt), thus deriving the electrical energy of each components required to degrade one batch of waste synthetic fiber. Next, we determined how much coal is needed to burn to produce that much energy and multiplied that value by CO2 emitted by burning that amount of coal. It is determined that 14.85 kg of CO2 is emitted per batch of waste synthetic fiber.
Our approximate estimation based on the volume of YPD solution and the total volume of our machine is that 20 m2 of synthetic fibers is the optimal amount of material to be processed in a batch. This is attributed to the high capability of our cellulosome complexes. After calculation, the value of CO2 emissions is 0.74 kg per m2 of synthetic fibers in the hardware section.
Filling 75% of our machine will be optimal considering the costs of extra YPD solution. Thus, 48.6 L of YPD is used in our fermentation module whose volume is 64.8 L. The raw materials emission is calculated by rating the CO2 produced by manufacturing each kind of raw materials for 1 g and the number of raw materials required in our project [9][10][11]. The CO2 emissions calculated for raw materials for a batch is 3 kg and is 0.15 per m2. As a result, the total CO2 emissions per m2 synthetic fiber is 0.89kg [12].
Our project was developed around sustainability of the textile industry and the circular economy of fashion. After realizing the massive textile waste generated by the fashion industry, we developed the scientific solution based on the cellulosome degradation complex, hoping to increase the efficiency of cellulose and synthetic fiber degradation, providing new insights into the textile recycling industry. This method is biological and environmentally sounding, in contrast to the greenhouse gas emission and soil pollution brought by incineration and landfills. Our solution also decreases the need to exploit raw materials, furthermore, fitting to goal 13 of “climate actions”. Aiming to reduce waste generation through recycling and reuse, and renovating the textile industry, our project also contributes to goal 9 on sustainable “industry” and goal 12 of “responsible consumption and production”. In all, the method increases resource-use efficiency and provides new insights to relevant SDG stakeholders by upcycling clothing instead of one-way use that leads to landfills and incineration.
Fig 10: Deduction of CO2 emission in the raw material section
We then wanted to compare our result with the CO2 emissions for incinerating and landfilling synthetic fibers. According to existing studies, incinerating 1 kg synthetic fiber emits 1.9 kg of CO2 After calculation, it is determined that incinerating 1 m2 of synthetic fiber emit 2.185 kg of CO2, which is about 2.5 times of the result of our approach, 0.89kg [13]. Our project was developed around sustainability of the textile industry and the circular economy of fashion. After realizing the massive textile waste generated by the fashion industry, we developed the scientific solution based on the cellulosome degradation complex, hoping to increase the efficiency of cellulose and synthetic fiber degradation, providing new insights into the textile recycling industry. This method is biological and environmentally sounding, in contrast to the greenhouse gas emission and soil pollution brought by incineration and landfills. Our solution also decreases the need to exploit raw materials, furthermore, fitting to goal 13 of “climate actions”. Aiming to reduce waste generation through recycling and reuse, and renovating the textile industry, our project also contributes to goal 9 on sustainable “industry” and goal 12 of “responsible consumption and production”. In all, the method increases resource-use efficiency and provides new insights to relevant SDG stakeholders by upcycling clothing instead of one-way use that leads to landfills and incineration.
In the future, we will contrive to land our project in the real world beyond laboratory conditions to actively combat climate change and its impacts and implement our solution in response to sustainable development Goal 13. We plan to contact local government officials and environmental protection organizations to obtain support or subsidization and facilitate the integration of climate change combat measures into national policies, strategies, and planning. Furthermore, OXFAM, a British charitable organization, estimates that 70% of their clothing donations end up in Africa, as developed countries have exported vast amounts of textile waste to developing or impoverished countries[14]. Our project demonstrates its potential as a low-cost textile treatment method that yields products with economic values – glucose and bacterial cellulose; its unparalleled characteristics enable it to substitute for traditional treatment methods in less-developed countries and societies.
References
[1]United Nations. “Goal 4 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs.” Sdgs.un.org, United Nations, 2021, sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4.
[2]United Nations. “Goal 9 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs.” Sdgs.un.org, United Nations, 2021, sdgs.un.org/goals/goal9.
[3]Rosenberg, Daniel. “Burned: Why Waste Incineration Is Harmful.” NRDC, The Natural Resources Defense Council, 19 July 2021, www.nrdc.org/experts/daniel-rosenberg/burned-why-waste-incineration-harmful.
[4]Saha, Soumyadeep. “Textile Recycling: The Mechanical Recycling of Textiles Wastes.” Online Clothing Study, 23 Aug. 2020, www.onlineclothingstudy.com/2020/08/textile-recycling-mechanical-recycling.html.
[5]United Nations. “Goal 12 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs.” Sdgs.un.org, United Nations, 2022, sdgs.un.org/goals/goal12.
[6]Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “Redesigning the Future of Fashion.” Ellenmacarthurfoundation.org, 2021, ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/fashion/overview. “Get Educated.” Redress, www.redress.com.hk/geteducated. Accessed 11 Oct. 2022.
[7]Baraniuk, Chris. “Will Fashion Firms Stop Burning Clothes? | BBC Earth.” Www.bbcearth.com, www.bbcearth.com/news/will-fashion-firms-stop-burning-clothes.
[8]United Nations. “Goal 13 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs.” Sdgs.un.org, United Nations, 2022, sdgs.un.org/goals/goal13.
[9]Yuttitham, M., et al. “Carbon Footprint of Sugar Produced from Sugarcane in Eastern Thailand.” Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 19, no. 17-18, Nov. 2011, pp. 2119–2127, 10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.07.017. Accessed 16 Oct. 2019.
[10]Braun, Michelle, et al. “Sustainability of Soy Protein from Life Cycle Assessment.” Semantic Scholar, 2016, www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Sustainability-of-Soy-Protein-from-Life-Cycle-Braun Mu%C3%B1oz/69c05c16305671c2574c0e65e3a5d5e9993f3d28, 10.1096/FASEBJ.30.1_SUPPLEMENT.894.5. Accessed 12 Oct. 2022.
[11]Adom, Felix, and Jennifer B. Dunn. “Argonne GREET Model.” Anl.gov, 2020, greet.es.anl.gov.
[12]Emission Factors in Kg CO2-Equivalent per Unit.
[13]Payet, Jérôme. “MDPI - Publisher of Open Access Journals.” Mdpi.com, 2017, www.mdpi.com.
[14]Poerner, Bárbara. “Where Does Clothing End Up? Modern Colonialism Disguised as Donation.” Fashion Revolution, 3 Sept. 2020, www.fashionrevolution.org/where-does-clothing-end-up-modern-colonialism-disguised-as-donation/#:~:text=Where%20do%20they%20end%20up.