KINGSTON, R.I. – Nov. 25, 2024 – Amid the flurry of fall fashions and the arrival of “sweater weather” at the University of Rhode Island’s Kingston campus, a collection of faculty and students have been eyeing the season’s fashion parade, but more for eco-minded reasons.

URI and the Rhode Island Textiles Innovation Network (RITIN) will soon be launching a Future Textiles Council at the University.

The collaborative effort invites participation from industry, academia, government, and K-12 and vocational education. The council will meet for the first time this January and then once or twice annually to discuss, promote and share information between members and URI faculty on Rhode Island textiles, research, needs and recommendations for workforce development and opportunities.

The fledgling coalition is starting to gather a formidable array of expertise to join local business knowledge focused on the future of textile production in the state, with conversations ranging from textile know-how to wide-ranging discussions of the philosophy of consumerism and the need to be competitive with other regions, like France, which recently legislated the mandatory inclusion of microplastic filters in washing machines.

URI faculty working in textiles and engineering say they welcome participation from additional programs at URI, to help shed light on the topics raised in their preliminary discussions.

Vinka Oyanedel-Craver, associate dean for research in the College of Engineering, is one who is working with the new council. Oyanedel-Craver is leader of the Plastics: Land to Sea initiative at URI. Her career started in wastewater engineering, which she terms — with a chuckle — a transparent medium. “You see everything in wastewater, despite what people report for habits.” Oyanedel-Craver calls the amount of waste she’s seen in her career appalling, having seen it up close. This summer, she went to the Atacama Desert in Chile where 60,000 tons of clothing has been dumped from around the world.

Those kinds of visuals make an impression.

“It’s hard to understand what you don’t see,” she says.

She and others on the council are hoping to bring the topic into better view in Rhode Island.

Last year, students from URI’s Honors program shared eye-opening findings with guests and community visitors at the council’s first forum:

• Up to 100 billion new garments are made each year.
• Sixty percent of new clothing materials are actually plastic.
• Textile production creates 42 million tons of plastic waste each year and contributes 9% of the annual microplastic pollution added to the worlds’ oceans.
• The Rhode Island landfill in Johnston (predicted to reach capacity in the next 15-20 years) holds an estimated 28,000 tons of textile waste.
• The average U.S. consumer discards more than 70 pounds of clothes every year; the average U.S. household, 326 pounds of clothing annually.
• The U.S. generates more than 17 million tons of textile waste each year.

While Rhode Island played a role in the launching of the American Industrial Revolution, Karl Aspelund, of URI’s textiles, fashion merchandising and design department, says the council hopes to initiate change earlier in the process. He is facilitating the new council with Michael Woody of RITIN, CEO of Trans-Tex in Cranston, a leading U.S. manufacturer of lanyards and pet leashes. They invite participation and interest from community members at URI and beyond.

Disparate threads

Izabela Ciesielska-Wrobel is one joining the council’s work. After moving to the U.S. from Europe, Ciesielska-Wrobel can now often be found at the water’s edge in Rhode Island, finding plastic that she’s testing for use as viable waste, giving her ample time and concrete examples as she’s thinking about her newfound home’s water waste problem.

“URI is weaving together disparate threads and departments,” she says. “We’re here to serve the textile industry in Rhode Island. URI has the capacity to help you, just call us and reach out for a conversation.”

Woody says student ideas and involvement are key as they are inheriting these issues and can bring new energy and ideas to effect change.

He calls the situation a puzzle, as the higher cost of manufacturing in a more responsible manner often dissuades businesses and consumers from pursuing a more responsible path.

“There exists a natural tension between the ideal and the practical,” he says. “When students interact with folks from our textile companies, we push each other in both directions. The future is almost always someplace between the two extremes, and when we interact, it certainly helps me to figure out what that middle ground is. When listening to the student point of view, it makes me breathe a little easier about the future, whether I agree or disagree.”

Today’s students, already leading the way with re-wearing fashion, are on board with that.

Recent graduate Jared Hewitt ’24, one of the students who presented research at last year’s forum, says, “Solutions are out there. It’s just a matter of getting the message to consumers.”

The council also brings in insight from faculty like Kunal Mankodiya in the College of Engineering, who laughs that his contribution to sustainability is the well-known white shirt he frequently wears to work. The focus is on smart textiles, not fast fashion, in the Wearable Biosensing Lab. He invites anyone to follow his sartorial example but also says that bold moves are needed for the industry as a whole.

Mankodiya creates smart textiles with sensors for healthcare, like a smart glove to help patients with Parkinson’s disease or a smart belt for babies being monitored for vital signs in the NICU at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence. He hopes that those babies, once grown, will see a smarter fabric future when they grow up. Mankodiya says we should learn from history and work together to change behavior. He’d like to see a movement to smart textiles to bring businesses to Rhode Island that solve problems, not contribute to them.

“What if someone decided to establish their startup here at URI,” he says, “bringing together the state’s considerable background and resources in health care, education and textile history?”

Council members are careful to inject a realistic note of caution into the conversation.

“There are many bankrupt sustainable companies,” Ciesielska-Wrobel notes. “We can offer solutions to the textile industry, but plans must be carefully crafted. And legislation is key.”

The new Rhode Island Future Textiles Council is slated to next meet Jan. 24 in Providence. If interested in joining or working with the council, contact Karl Aspelund at URI at aspelund@uri.edu.