An Introduction to E-Textiles

🌱 What are e-textiles?

Electronic textiles or e-textiles are a combination of electronics – such as electric wires and sensors – and textiles. More specifically, the fabrics in e-textiles are “laced with circuitry”, which allows them to function within electronic systems. E-textiles can be used for heating, lighting, and sensing purposes, to monitor vitals and sensations, or to transmit and receive data. Wearers can, for example, use them for aesthetical reasons or to monitor their health.

🌱 Where are they used?

E-textiles are used for a wide variety of applications, such as fashion, heated clothing, home e-textiles, medical & healthcare, military & space, personal protective equipment & workwear, and sports & fitness. It is anticipated that the key areas in the future will be healthcare, occupational safety, and athletics.

🌱 What quantities are produced?

The commercial production of e-textiles has grown over the past 30 years, and it may become a mass market. E-textiles are “one of the fastest-growing segments of wearable [Internet of Things] devices”. Certain e-textile products, such as heated clothing and blankets, have been sold in the millions. Globally, e-textile products had an estimated “compound annual growth rate of 33.58% between 2015 and 2020” and the market likely exceeded USD 4.7 billion by 2020. By 2026, this is expected to reach USD 6.6 billion.

🌱 Why is recycling an issue?

E-textiles will likely “result in new waste problems”, as they create large quantities of “difficult-to-recycle products”. The combination of electrical components, fibres, and nano materials makes them difficult to recycle. They can contain a “wide range of materials (including metals, polymers, fibres, yarns, textiles (knitted, woven, embroidered, non-woven) and emerging materials) and components (sensors, connectors and the interface to traditional electronics, etc.)”. Moreover, the “valuable materials [in e-textiles] are dispersed in large amounts of heterogeneous textile waste” and “the electronic components can act as contaminants in the recycling of textile materials”.

🌱 Is their recycling regulated?

E-textiles “are partially covered by a myriad of directives and legislature from three very separate disciplines”. They are located at “the edges of WEEE and REACH legislation in the EU and UK”. This creates a real “potential for e-textiles to find their way into landfill”. Academics and developers are therefore “calling for action to clarify the position of e-textiles in legislature and to define related standards”. The creation of solid legislation in this field will require “cross disciplinary discourse with stakeholder and policy maker engagement”.

💡 I got the idea to write this column from Jessica Saunders’ brilliant presentation on e-textiles at the E-Waste World Conference 2023. You will find more on her work linked below.