Interactive Waste: Exploring issues of waste in interactive textiles

TY - GEN

T1 - Interactive Waste

T2 - TEI '25: Nineteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction

AU - Nevay, Sara

AU - Robertson, Lucy

AU - Lim, Christopher S C

N1 - Conference code: 19th

PY - 2025/3/4

Y1 - 2025/3/4

N2 - Separately, textile and e-waste are among the largest and most complex waste streams globally [4]. Interactive textiles - which comprise raw materials from both these industries - are considered a 'novel waste category' [10], which increases their risk of contributing to landfill [19]. Challenges around identifying, sorting, disassembling and recycling are at the fore of recent studies in the domain of interactive textiles (ibid). Concurrently, biomaterials are being developed - including fully bio-based e-textile sensors [1, 5] - with the view to reduce impact on waste streams. Contributing to investigations in the field, this studio explores how we might begin to mitigate waste by discovering opportunities for re-use - of individual parts for example - and identifying green alternatives for problematic components. As a vehicle for this, participants are invited to deconstruct existing interactive textile works to reveal and reflect on their 'ingredients', before re-making them using sustainable alternatives. By examining current work, we aim to make challenges visible, better understand issues of waste specific to the field of interactive textiles and speculate on future sustainable ways of making. By the close of the studio, an active community with interest in sustainability and countering waste will have been brought together through rich discussion, reflection and re-making to support ongoing conversation and action towards future and sustainable practice.

AB - Separately, textile and e-waste are among the largest and most complex waste streams globally [4]. Interactive textiles - which comprise raw materials from both these industries - are considered a 'novel waste category' [10], which increases their risk of contributing to landfill [19]. Challenges around identifying, sorting, disassembling and recycling are at the fore of recent studies in the domain of interactive textiles (ibid). Concurrently, biomaterials are being developed - including fully bio-based e-textile sensors [1, 5] - with the view to reduce impact on waste streams. Contributing to investigations in the field, this studio explores how we might begin to mitigate waste by discovering opportunities for re-use - of individual parts for example - and identifying green alternatives for problematic components. As a vehicle for this, participants are invited to deconstruct existing interactive textile works to reveal and reflect on their 'ingredients', before re-making them using sustainable alternatives. By examining current work, we aim to make challenges visible, better understand issues of waste specific to the field of interactive textiles and speculate on future sustainable ways of making. By the close of the studio, an active community with interest in sustainability and countering waste will have been brought together through rich discussion, reflection and re-making to support ongoing conversation and action towards future and sustainable practice.

KW - Interactive Textiles

KW - Sustainability

KW - Waste

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105000429082

U2 - 10.1145/3689050.3708331

DO - 10.1145/3689050.3708331

M3 - Conference contribution

SP - 1

EP - 5

BT - TEI '25: Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction

PB - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

CY - New York

Y2 - 4 March 2025 through 7 March 2025

ER -