University Of Delaware: From Trash To Treasure

Wilmington DE

09 May, 2022

12:58 PM

Description

Press release from the University of Delaware: May 6, 2022 Research at UD explores ways to transform, reuse textile waste Kelly Cobb stands on a stepstool to reach the square opening atop a tall blue machine in the Sustainable Textile Research through Applied Discovery (RAD) Lab at the University of Delaware. Carefully, she feeds in lengths of fabric that have been left over from the process of making clothing. The machine chews up the scraps, creating a multicolored pile of shredded cloth known as "shoddy." (You can see the machine in action in this Instagram post.) Cobb's and Cao's research and the RAD Lab projects have this same focus, working with what she terms "textile innovation through applied materiality, [which is] a way of thinking about material and how it might inform how we relate to each other and the world around us." For Savannah Goff, a junior majoring in energy and environmental policy, her work as a research assistant in the lab has included a range of topics, from factory pollution to waste from commercial dyeing processes. "With this information [collected by researchers], we can better understand how to combat some of these issues on a localized scale, like the UD campus," said Goff, who calls sustainability "the most crucial issue of our time" and is especially concerned about the fashion industry's contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions. This press release was produced by the University of Delaware. The views expressed here are the author's own.