Ongoing material research
guided by Cao in collaboration with Cobb includes work funded by a trade
organization grant looking at remanufacturing cotton waste. In that
project, students experiment with ways to use the shoddy produced by the
shredding machine, including as stuffing for toys and quilts, attaching
it (with another special machine) to backing to create tufted material
that can be used in making purses and new pieces of clothing, or weaving
it into rugs or tapestries.
In a new grant, in collaboration with the Department of Plant and
Soil Science, Cao and Cobb are exploring ways to recycle waste material
into landscaping fabric or geotextiles — sheets that are often made of
plastic and spread on the ground to control weeds and help soil retain
moisture.
Some of the RAD Lab projects are partnerships with small companies in
the Delaware and Philadelphia area that want to become more
sustainable. At Lobo Mau, a
Philadelphia designer of printed knitwear, textile waste from
manufacturing is being shredded in Cobb’s lab at UD for the company to
use in other products.
“Instead of trashing our fabric scraps, we started researching ways
in which we could downcycle or reuse these leftovers,” the company said
in a Facebook post announcing the partnership with Cobb’s lab, adding
that it is striving to be a zero-waste manufacturer.
Lobo Mau is just one example of how Cobb thinks the research from her lab can be widely used.
“We’re lucky that we have a lot of small companies that are focused
on sustainability in the region,” she said. “We’re defining a
sustainability model. It’s the process of discovery in the research lab,
but it’s also discovery in the community.”
In addition to the work with shoddy, students in the lab are
experimenting with environmentally friendly ways of dyeing fabric and
with reusing waste from food, agriculture and construction.
“We’re really trying to look at every facet of textile use — apparel
and beyond apparel — from creating second-generation textiles and
products to engaging the community,” Cobb said. “And we want to be
hyper-local, to demonstrate that local production [using waste] can be a
sustainable development strategy with economic, environmental and
social benefits.”