Donation: Nylon Scraps

A sure bet for keeping nylon scraps out of a landfill is to donate it to a local design school. It is guaranteed to get additional use. In fact, if it truly is art, it might never make it to a land fill at all. 

Zoë Bikini has been gracious enough to donate nylon scraps to our Grad Design department at the California College of the Arts. If our department finds it has no need for the material, it can be passed on to the next discipline, for example the fashion department. 

Thanks Zoë!

http://www.zoebikini.com/

Recycling Nylon?

I've contacted the Sierra Club and Earth911 for information regarding the recycling of knit nylon, neither one had any suggestions. When I contacted DuPont about their product Sorona, they claimed that knit nylon had to be separated from the lycra in order to place each plastic in their proper stream for recycling. If recycled as is, the plastics would contaminate each other and decrease the value of each other. It seems that the best thing to do is shred them and use them for filler in furniture or as insulation in walls.

Another suggestion was given, that knit nylon could be donated to SCRAP (Scroungers' Center for Reusable Art Parts. They do take printed cottons, upholstery, corduroy, muslin, canvas, denim, and fleece pieces larger than 12" x 12", but other knit fabrics must be no smaller than one yard. So, no help there either.

Still, SCRAP is a great source for materials. 

www.scrap-sf.org

Scrap House

Scrap House: Built for the 2005 World Environment Day
http://www.scraphouse.org/home

Bacteria: Polystyrene Foam

Another species of bacterium, Pseudomonas putida, naturally found in soil, has been modified in a bioreactor to consume styrene. Actually, they remove the pollutants and converts the styrene into the plastic polymer PHA (polyhydroyalkanoates). PHA can be used as a biodegradable plastic in the use of eating utensils, and have a wide range of industrial and commercial uses such as medical implants or scaffolds for tissue engineering. The process starts by heating up styrene foam and converting it into styrene oil and then feed to the bacteria. PHA is heat, grease, and oil resistant and biodegrades in soil and water. But, if it is sent to a landfill, it will most-likely fossilize under the compressed layers of garbage and dirt.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodegradable_plastics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioplastics

Alternative: Corn

Sorona is an alternative to petrochemicals by using corn sugar instead. It requires 40% less energy to produce than an equal amount petroleum-based Nylon. Also, producing Sorona reduces CO2 emissions up to 60% over an equal amount of petroleum-based Nylon. 

Sorona fibers begin accepting dye pigments below the boiling point of water, full depth of color is achieved at the boiling point compared to PET which is well above. The stress/strain ratio is much less compared to Nylon and PET, where the applied strain/total recovery ratio and the percent elongation/load g/den is much higher than Nylon and PET. 

All around it seems better, but what about the genetic manipulation of corn and the treatment of farmers? To learn more about that, see Rachel Silverberg's blog about corn at  www.cornbloat.wordpress.com.

Cold Drawing: Part 3

After the completion of spinning Nylon, the molecules are not aligned, making the Nylon yarn really thick. Cold drawing is the application of tension to allow the molecules to align, shrink the diameter, remove its elasticity, and increase its tensile strength. From the picture below, you can see the tension applied to the five wraps around the two pulleys that move in and out.

Spinning Nylon: Part 2

The diagram below shows DuPont's original process of spinning Nylon. The method seems more like an extrusion process rather than spinning. The molten Nylon is forced out of the stainless steel block through tiny holes and gravity carries the filaments down to a bobbin. This bobbin with the spooled Nylon will then go to the cold drawing process.