Experience with Life Cycle Assessment in Woven Textiles, 1997 Nonwovens Conference Proceedings

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has taken prominence over the last several years as a tool for evaluating system-wide effects of product and process design options. As part of the American Textile Partnership (AMTEX), LCA software applications are being developed to help streamline and reduce the cost of conducting LCAs in the US integrated textile industry. The Textile Resource Integration Model (TRIM) software is a leading example of an environmental decision support tool developed by the AMTEX Partnership. Applications of TRIM build off of experience gained to date with LCAs of textile products, such as the inventory analysis of a woman’s 100% polyester blouse conducted in 1993 by the American Fiber Manufacturers’ Association. The types of product evaluations envisioned for TRIM include analysis of proposed eco-labeling systems being considered overseas that may pose trade barriers to the import of US textiles. Other uses of TRIM include analysis of the cost of resource losses and opportunities for improving the system-wide cost-effectiveness of the integrated US textile industry.