Abstract
Circular economy initiatives aim to re-define growth to bring society wide benefits while inspiring research of natural alternative textiles and introduce new approaches in manufacturing. The creation of innovative ice-straw wool yarn and cloth is the focus of this paper. Entrepreneurs Bernadette Casey (Wellington) and Sally Shanks (Gisborne) of The Formary, wanted to make a difference in the environment and conceptualised the idea of transforming rice straw waste and strong NZ wool into yarn proposing the woven fabric had the potential to help reduce China’s massive air pollution problem caused by burning waste straw after the rice harvest and to use all of NZ’s mid 26 to 30 μ range wool [1]. The fibre blend development was facilitated with Beef and Lamb New Zealand, and NZ government funding and research and design at Textile Design and Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, and yarn engineering at WoolYarns, 2011–2014 [2].
Textile innovations using waste fibre feedstock from other industries are important [3]. The world’s first woven wool rice straw upholstery fabric enhances different qualities of each fibre [4]. The Formary presented it to Chinese clients during a WCC 2014 mayoral delegation to advance the commercialization process [5]. Mibu® was launched at the 2015 World Exposition in Milan [6] and subsequently exhibited in Korea and France.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Casey, B.: Optimism in problem solving (2013). www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1jrTKz5oHM
Crossley, J.: Boundaries ‘limitless’ for new eco-fabric (2012). http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8011114/Boundaries-llimitless-for-new-eco-fabric
Boztas, S.: Nice threads: the waste based fibres cleaning up fashion (2018). https://www.theguardian.com/business-to-business/2018/feb/12/nice-threads-the-waste-based-fibres-cleaning-up-fashion?CMP=share_btn_link
Fibre2Fashion: New Zealand company unveils wool-rice straw yarn on world stage. At Fibre2Fashion news desk India (2015). https://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=172234
Burgess, G.: Building bridges to Japan and China. Business. Dominion Post. Fairfax Media, Wellington (2014)
Peters, M.: New fabric product from waste launched to world (2015). http://gisborneherald.co.nz/localnews/1753923-135/new-fabric-product-from-waste-launched
Baker, G.: Weaving ideas from waste streams. Exporter Today (2013)
Grohnert, S.: The Formary (2012). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlfI_IdHF0Q
Ellen MacArthur Foundation: A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future (2017). http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications
Casey, B.: Textile Solutions. Pure Advantage (2015). https://pureadvantage.org/news/2015/07/07/textile-solutions/
Kentish-Barnes, C.: Company takes waste and wool blend idea to China (2011). https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/rural/80311/company-takes-waste-and-wool-blend-idea-to-china
Tianjie, M.: China’s clampdown on stalk burning shows limits of command-and-control (2015). https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/8251-China-s-clampdown-on-stalk-burning-shows-limits-of-command-and-control
Rotherham, F.: Trading places with China. Sunday Star Times. Fairfax Media New Zealand Ltd. (2012)
Abraham, N.: Compendium of Natural fibres in Commonwealth Countries. Commonwealth Secretariat, London (2010)
Chhiber, N.: Origins: Ikea + Industree Partnership (2018). https://industreefoundation.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/origins-ikea-industree-partnership/
Tahir, P., Ahmed, A., SaifulAzry, S., Ahmed, Z.: Retting process of some bast plant fibres and its effect on fibre quality: a review. BioResources 6(4), 1–22 (2011)
Laitala, K., Grimstad Klepp, I., Henry, B.: Does use matter? Comparison of environmental impacts of clothing based on fiber type. Sustainability 10, 2524 (2018)
Bowers, M.: New Zealand’s Nu-Yarn. MDes thesis. X University (2015)
Abou-El-Enin, O., Fadel, J., Mackill, D.: Differences in chemical composition and fibre digestion of rice straw with, and without, anhydrous ammonia from 53 rice straw varieties. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. 79, 129–136 (1999)
Heffernan, S.: Rice straw an evaluation. Massey University, Wellington (2012)
Beltran, R., Wang, L., Wang, X.: A controlled experiment on yarn hairiness and fabric pilling. Text. Res. J. 77(3), 179–183 (2007)
Heffernan, S.: The value of textile education and industry partnerships. J. Text. Des. Res. Pract. 3(1–2), 65–85 (2016)
Macky, M.: Waste to textiles the exploration of potential application of rice straw waste in the development of eco textile design solutions. MDes thesis. Massey University (2014). https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/5531?show=full
Dombroski, G., Harding, D.: Ricicle Project. Massey University: Palmerston North (2013)
YNFX: Formary, a textile design and development company has developed a new yarn. YNFX. Yarns and Fibers News Bureau, June 2015. http://www.yarnsandfibers.com/news/textile-news/formary-launches-first-mibu-yarn-blended-wool-and-rice-straw-world-expo-milan#.W5RNtZMzZbU
Acknowledgments
The research work reported here was made possible by support from X University, Beef and Lamb New Zealand, and NZ government (MBIE Callaghan Innovation).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Heffernan, S. (2019). Innovative Natural Yarn Manufactured from Waste. In: Gapiński, B., Szostak, M., Ivanov, V. (eds) Advances in Manufacturing II. MANUFACTURING 2019. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16943-5_41
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16943-5_41
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16942-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16943-5
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)