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Congrès International sur l’Analyse du Cycle de Vie Lille, Novembre 2011
LCA : a tool to eco-design in textile industry
Sandrine Pesnel 1 , Anne Perwuelz 1,2
1 ENSAIT, GEMTEX, F-59056 Roubaix, France
2 Univ Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, France
sandrine.pesnel@ensait.fr ; anne.perwuelz@ensait.fr
Keywords: life cycle assessment, textile, production, recycling, lifetime
Introduction
The purpose of this study is to present several options to eco-design a bed-sheet. These studies
were realised as part of the ACVTEX project (Interreg IV; France – Belgium) and focused on three stages
of the life cycle of the bed-sheets: choice of the raw materials, production of the item and end of life.
Materials and methods
- Life cycle assessment
The life cycle assessments are realized thanks to the software GaBi 4 (software and database for
Life Cycle Engineering, PE INTERNATIONAL AG, Stuttgart). The data come from the GaBi software
database in general. However, for the textile processes, such as the cotton cultivation, the production
(weaving, easy-care treatment…) and the use of the bed-sheets, specific sources are used [1, 3]. The
CML 2001 method (updated in November 09) is used to calculate the environmental impacts.
- Influence of raw material and production phase – influence of lifetime
Two bed-sheets are compared to study the influence of raw material: a 100% cotton bed-sheet
(n°1) and a bed-sheet of 50% cotton and 50% polyester (n°2). The influence of the production is also
studied through the application of an easy-care treatment (which facilitates the care of textiles). An
untreated bed-sheet (n°3) is compared with an easy-care treated bed-sheet (n°4). These choices (for the
raw material and the production) affect the quality of textiles and thus their lifetime. So this parameter is
evaluated from abrasion tests. For both studies, the functional unit is “use and wash a bed-sheet for a
year” (size of sheets: 240 x 300 cm). The system boundaries included the production of the raw material,
the production of the bed-sheet and the use.
- Influence of the end-of-life
To study the influence of the end-of-life, three possibilities are compared for a post-consumer bedsheet:
the mechanical recycling (production of a nonwoven thermal insulation for building sector, this
textile nonwoven replaces classic insulation which is glass wool), the energy recovery approach and the
landfill. The functional unit is “the treatment of a post-consumer 100% cotton bed-sheet”. The system
boundaries are the treatment of the bed-sheet. The item is studied with the system expansion method to
avoid allocation.
Results
- Raw material and production
The results show that the cotton/polyester bed-sheet is less impacting than the cotton bed-sheet.
Moreover, the easy-care treated bed-sheet is less impacting than the untreated one (cf. FIG. 1).
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