Life Cycle Assessment Studies Pertaining to Textiles and the Clothing Sector

The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) is the rst international body that stood as the umbrella for the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA). The efforts made by the organization started from 1989, in which year the rst workshop on LCA was held in Smugglers Notch, Vermont. This workshop was followed by the next one in Leuven, Belgium, and acted as the basis for opening two different schools for LCA: one in North America and the other one in Europe. SETAC has also developed the “Code of Practice” for LCA, which was the rst initially accepted technical framework for the modern LCA concept. In this chapter, an introduction on LCA, denitions, different phases of LCA, organization involved in LCA studies, and the standards developed to monitor LCA that are provided for LCA model, which can be used for textile materials, have been described. Various studies performed on LCA of natural bers such as cotton and wool, regenerated bers such as viscose and its blends, and synthetic bers such as polyester and its blends have been discussed in detail. LCA of recycled textile materials has also been discussed. Finally, LCA of other textile processes and limitations of LCA have been presented in this chapter.