Open Lab boosts textile sustainability

2024-12-08 15:41 Last Updated At：15:43

With the increasing awareness of environmental protection, people nowadays want to live a greener lifestyle, which makes the sustainable development of the textile and fashion industry that much more of a concern.

In the view of this trend, The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles & Apparel (HKRITA) partnered with a non-profit organisation to establish Open Lab, a 20,000 sq ft research and development space. Open Lab aims to develop solutions for the textile, clothing and fashion industry to address climate change by showcasing innovative solutions, providing a collaborative platform and contributing to problem-solving and resource optimisation.

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Eco-friendly farming: The Fashion Future Lab’s “Farm-to-Garment” project utilises a hydroponic cotton farming system, which significantly reduces water consumption by up to 90%. Source from news.gov.hk

Limitless opportunities: Different from traditional soil-based farming, hydroponic farms and related production lines can be located near cities, which in turn reduces carbon emissions from transportation. Source from news.gov.hk

Fibre-to-fibre recycling: The Pilot Plant, an industrial-scale recycling line, utilises the Green Machine 2.0 as a way to recover polyester fibres for re-spinning into new yarn products. Source from news.gov.hk

Fostering collaboration: The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles & Apparel Director (Business Development) Katherine Chan hopes the Open Lab will step up collective efforts and promote further advancements in sustainable practices across the industry. Source from news.gov.hk

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Eco-friendly farming: The Fashion Future Lab’s “Farm-to-Garment” project utilises a hydroponic cotton farming system, which significantly reduces water consumption by up to 90%. Source from news.gov.hk

Limitless opportunities: Different from traditional soil-based farming, hydroponic farms and related production lines can be located near cities, which in turn reduces carbon emissions from transportation. Source from news.gov.hk

Fibre-to-fibre recycling: The Pilot Plant, an industrial-scale recycling line, utilises the Green Machine 2.0 as a way to recover polyester fibres for re-spinning into new yarn products. Source from news.gov.hk

Fostering collaboration: The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles & Apparel Director (Business Development) Katherine Chan hopes the Open Lab will step up collective efforts and promote further advancements in sustainable practices across the industry. Source from news.gov.hk

The large space features two primary components, the Fashion Future Lab and the Pilot Plant.

The lab is a modular research space used for focusing on emerging and forward-thinking ideas. Its modular design is beneficial for the development of flexible and adjustable solutions to meet the market’s fast-changing needs.

The HKRITA highlights that the lab serves as a platform for innovations to be developed into scalable applications, ensuring that research outcomes are market-ready.

Eco-friendly production

The first project presented in the Fashion Future Lab is “Farm-to-Garment”, which is a location-independent production line consisting of a hydroponics cotton farming system.

Traditional cotton farming is a soil-based cultivation method which relies on soil to provide nutrients and water to plants. It uses significant amount of water for irrigation. The lab utilises vertical hydroponic techniques, which is a soilless cultivation method where plants are grown in nutrient-rich water solutions.

Nutrients are directly delivered to the plant roots through water. This means that any water that is not absorbed by the plants can be reused, which significantly reduces water consumption, by up to 90%.

In addition, the hydroponic farming method provides controlled environments for continuous cropping. Plus, this type of farm can be located near cities, thus reducing carbon emissions from transportation.

At the same time, the small production line was set up at the lab to showcases its strength at being a one-stop shop for the textile industry.

After the cotton is harvested, it undergoes various processes, such as opening and drawing, to produce yarn for making clothes.

Efficient upcycling

Another key feature of Open Lab is the Pilot Plant, which is an upcycling line featuring a smart garment sorting system for recycling, and the Green Machine 2.0, which separates mixed fibres.

The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles & Apparel Director (Business Development) Katherine Chan explained that cotton and polyester blended material is the most commonly used material in textile products.

“So we created Green Machine, using hydrothermal technology, to recover the polyester fibres in textiles. Then, we can do fibre-to-fibre recycling.

“The separated fibres are ready for re-spinning into new yarn products while the cellulose powders, decomposed from the cotton, can be reused for other purposes. As such, it forms a circular production system.”

With the upgraded Green Machine 2.0, the system has the capacity to recycle around a tonne of material daily. The research institute hopes that by demonstrating the feasibility and benefits of circular production, it can inspire and encourage the textiles and apparel industry to adopt similar practices to combat climate change.

Achieving sustainability

Open Lab officially opened in September. The HKRITA described the establishment of the lab as marking a significant milestone in leading the textile and fashion industry toward a more resilient future.

The organisation also stated that Open Lab drives collective efforts and further advancements in sustainable practices across the industry.

Louisiana's alligator farms raise the reptiles for meat, skins — and conservation

ABBEVILLE, La. (AP) — Jacob Sagrera unrolls an alligator skin and lays it flat on a metal table, brushing off flecks of salt. He holds it up to the light, looking for blemishes, and gives it a score. That score will help a tannery an ocean away prepare it to be used by a luxury designer — for items like boots, watch bands and handbags destined for fashion runways and posh shops.

Then he adds it to a pile of hides, each with a yellow tracking tag that allows authorities to enforce legal trade.

Advocates say commercial alligator farming has helped preserve a species often seen as scary, bothersome or good only for their skins. Not all conservationists think that's a good thing, but for the farmers and luxury brands seeking to market their products as sustainable, it's made sense to tie conservation to capitalism.

Some of the scientists who study them agree.

“These wetlands, these alligators ... it has to have some kind of monetary value,” said George Melancon, alligator research biologist for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “Otherwise, people just forget about them.”

Sagrera’s grading work at his family’s operation, Vermilion Gator Farm, is just one step in a decades-old system.

American alligators were once in peril of being hunted to extinction, and went on the Endangered Species List decades ago. Their numbers weren't too depleted to rebound in the wild if their habitat was maintained, say some experts, including Grahame Webb, director of Wildlife Management International and an adjunct professor at Charles Darwin University in Australia who has worked on reptile and crocodilian conservation since the 1960s.

But scientists with the state of Louisiana proposed a different way to boost their numbers: farmers would pay landowners for eggs, raise the gators to sell their meat locally and their skins on the luxury market and then release some back into the wild every year.

Now, Louisiana produces around 400,000 farmed alligators every year, according to the state's wildlife & fisheries department, which valued farmed skins in 2024 at over $56 million. The state decides how many young alligators to release annually on data from nest surveys and hunting tags, and estimates around 3 million alligators now in the wild in Louisiana. As wild numbers have grown, they've dropped the percentage of farmed gators returned each year, from almost 20% in the early 2000s to about 5% now.

American alligators were delisted as endangered in 1987 but are now a species of “Least Concern” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, though their trade is still regulated because of how similar they look to other, more vulnerable crocodilian species. Alligators can be found across the Southern U.S., but Louisiana is by far the largest producer, with farms also in Georgia, Florida and Texas.

Farmers and state officials say the trackers help ensure every product came from a legal operation. One company that sells alligator leather goods, Col. Littleton in Lynnville, Tennessee, keeps records of all its tracking tags, said Hayley Holt, their director of corporate and specialty sales. They mostly sell within the U.S., but many retailers log where they sourced their materials in case they want to ship products internationally, Holt said.

Alligator farming benefits from a large legal market and strong regulation, said Oliver Tallowin, senior program officer on wildlife use and trade for the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Some animal rights advocates question the ethics of raising alligators on farms. Beyond welfare concerns, some think the practice perpetuates demand for skins that can fuel poaching.

“That shadow trafficking industry is going to be there because you’ve rooted your system in profit,” said Sarah Veatch, principal for wildlife policy for the nonprofit Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society of the United States. “Trade not only meets the existing demand, but it normalizes it, it legitimizes it and it grows that demand for wild animal skins.”

When brands market high-end items, sustainability is often part of the pitch.

Brands have taken a more active role in sourcing alligator leather by buying shares in or acquiring family-operated farms, tanneries and manufacturers, said Christy Gilmore, a consultant who communicates between Louisiana alligator officials and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a trade agreement among global governments.

“The brands started asking questions and digging deeper and quite honestly, just doing things that those of us who were small family businesses didn’t think about,” said Gilmore, whose family has been in the hide business for over a century and owns an alligator and crocodile tannery in Georgia. “We’re not sitting around thinking about what our carbon footprint has been.”

Meanwhile, the state wildlife and fisheries agency has increased its marketing budget over the years, from a cap of $300,000 to $500,000. That money comes from the industry, including sales of hunting tags each year, and goes into a fund dedicated to alligator programs.

The budget has gone up as they've had more money to spend and because of competition with hides from other crocodilian species entering the market, said Jeb Linscombe, alligator program manager for Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. But there's also been concern that animal rights groups could push the luxury market away from alligator hides, Linscombe said.

A related industry, fur, has seen significant declines in recent years. Last year, Poland passed a law to end fur farming by the end of 2033 and New York Fashion Week announced it would ban fur for its fall 2026 shows.

Some animal rights groups think hides like gator and python could be the next target. Some smaller venues like London Fashion Week have already banned exotic skins.

The alligator program also drives research on a species that has long been a mystery.

Melancon, the alligator biologist, wants to better understand their biology to help ranchers — for instance, developing a vaccine against West Nile virus, which can cause skin lesions that damage the valuable hides.

Other researchers want to investigate whether alligators are a climate benefit. A study in the journal Scientific Reports last year found a strong correlation between the abundance of alligators in a wetland and how much carbon that wetland stores. That's important because when released into the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is a main cause of global warming. That team is developing another study to see whether gators directly contribute to carbon storage, possibly by eating animals that nibble carbon-storing vegetation, said lead author Chris Murray, an adjunct professor of biology at Southeastern Louisiana University.

“Alligators can’t stop climate change,” Murray said, but “there’s the chance they are participating in the global challenge of climate change for the good and not the bad.”

Murray said he's not doing the research to help the industry, but for conservation in general. He sees value in gators beyond luxury bags and he wants others to see it, too.

“It’s more than just this cool thing for kids to look at,” Murray said. “It’s, ‘hey, they have an important role in the functionality of the earth that you live in.’”

Associated Press visual journalist Joshua A. Bickel contributed.

Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social. Follow Joshua A. Bickel on Instagram, Bluesky and X @joshuabickel.

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Open Lab boosts textile sustainability

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