Environmental sustainability through recycled polythene textile art

ABSTRACT

Polythene bags, more commonly referred to as single-use plastics, are lightweight, non-biodegradable materials that pose numerous environmental threats. Recent research conducted by researchers and textile artists has sought to raise awareness about their effects. This studio practice recycled polythene bags into polythene weft yarns, interlaced with polyester warp yarns on a broadloom to create fabrics. This studio practice took place on the campus of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Polythene bags were converted into yarns in continuous strands using soldering and knotting techniques. The studio creative process was guided by studio-based practice in accordance with the qualitative research design. The findings from the exploration phase and prototyping stage provided invaluable insight into creating the final woven fabrics. This study demonstrates the possibility of combining polyester warp yarns with recycled polythene bags as weft yarns into textile art. It also created the needed awareness to reduce the consumption of polythene bags in the country. Assessments from the study participants on the wearability and comfortability of the woven fabrics revealed that they are stiff and rough, making them only suitable as textile art.

KEYWORDS:

• Polythene bags
• weaving
• recycling
• textile art
• sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alex Osei Afriyie

Alex Osei Afriyie is an MFA Textile Design degree holder from the Industrial Art Department at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. His research interests include computer aided design, textile design, innovation and art, traditional textile production methods.

Benjamin Kwablah Asinyo

Benjamin Kwablah Asinyo (Ph.D.) is a Senior Lecturer of Textiles in the Industrial Art Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. His research interests include textile design, ICT, curriculum development, textile printing and art education. He is an Executive member of the Institute of Textiles and Fashion Professionals – Ghana.

Raphael Kanyire Seidu

Raphael Kanyire Seidu is currently a PhD student at the Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC) at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University with Fashion and Textile Design as his area of specialization. His research interests include computer aided design, textile design and traditional textile production methods.

Charles Frimpong

Prof. Charles Frimpong (Ph.D.) obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Industrial Art Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 1991 with a specialization in Textiles and went on to pursue a post-graduate diploma in Art Education. He subsequently fulfilled a heartfelt dream of pursuing further studies in Textile Technology at the University of Ghent, Belgium, between 1994 and 1996 culminating in his involvement in preliminary studies on carpet performance; an EU-sponsored project. His concentration was on Pile Yarn Related Influences on Carpet Resilience. He has since then published in several reputable scholarly journals. His areas of specialization have been Fabric Construction, Dyes and Dyeing Technology, and Textile Testing. In 2005, he partnered with a Kenyan consultant to undertake consultancy work for UNESCO on the conservation of traditional textiles. In 2010, he was awarded a Ph.D. after completing research in developing ‘A User-Friendly Color Matching System for Tie-dye/Batik producers’. The laboratory work for this study was wholly executed in the wet labs of the School of Textiles, NC State University during the summer of 2005. In 2014, he was awarded the ITAA Janet Else Visiting Scholar Award in Charlotte, North Carolina for his dedication and excellence in the teaching and training of students in the area of Textiles and Fashion