Life Cycle Payback Estimates of Nanosilver Enabled Textiles under Different Silver Loading, Release, And Laundering Scenarios Informed by Literature Review

Abstract

Silver was utilized throughout history to prevent the growth of bacteria in food and wounds. Recently, nanoscale silver has been applied to consumer textiles (nAg-textiles) to eliminate the prevalence of odor-causing bacteria. In turn, it is proposed that consumers will launder these items less frequently thus, reducing the life cycle impacts. While previous studies report that laundering processes are associated with the greatest environmental impacts of these textiles, there is no data available to support the proposed shift in consumer laundering behavior. Here, the results from a comprehensive literature review of nAg-textile life cycle studies are used to inform a cradle-to-grave life cycle impact assessment. Rather than assuming shifts in consumer behavior, the impact assessment is conducted in such a way that considers all laundering scenarios to elucidate the potential for reduced laundering to enable realization of a net life cycle benefit. In addition to identifying the most impactful stages of the life cycle across nine-midpoint categories, a payback period and uncertainty analysis quantifies the reduction in lifetime launderings required to recover the impacts associated with nanoenabling the textile. Reduction of nAg-textile life cycle impacts is not straightforward and depends on the impact category considered.