Orange Waste Films as a Raw Material for Designing Bio-Based Textiles: A Hybrid Research Method

Abstract

Bio-based textiles are an emerging area of cross-disciplinary research, involving material science and design and contributing to textile sustainability. An example of a bio-based textile is an orange-waste film, which is plant-based and biodegradable and possesses mechanical properties which are comparable to some commodity plastics. The research project presented in this article aimed to explore orange-waste film as a new material for textile and fashion design and highlights how experimental co-design processes and innovation involving orange waste film as a textile material adds a new layer of material understanding to both textile design and technology-driven material research. Material-development methods were used to develop the orange-waste film, as were textile design methods with a focus on surface design. The results show that material variables such as tensile strength and elongation are dependent on the grinding process and drying temperature used for the raw material, as these determined the quality and durability of the orange-waste film and its applicability to the field of textile design. The use of orange waste in the creation of textiles opens up for more ways of thinking about and working with materials, and orange waste could become a desirable raw material for textile design on the basis that it introduces certain aesthetic and functional possibilities through its visual and tactile expression and material behaviour, in addition to defining methods of producing textiles.