Smart clothing and e-waste: Design heuristics oriented to life cycle extension

Abstract

With the advancement of emerging technologies in fashion and the development of smart clothing, the perspective of a new waste in the sector arises, the e-waste, or electronic waste. Therefore, it becomes relevant to investigate ways to mitigate the environmental impacts of WEEE from smart clothing still in the conceptual stage of the design of these products. In this way, this research aims to identify in the literature the main concepts, emphases and challenges of sustainability in smart clothing, as well as to relate the specificities of this type of product with existing heuristics focused on the extension of the life cycle. For this, the Systematic and Unsystematic Bibliographic Review method was used. As a result, three tables were obtained with heuristics focused on reuse, repair and recycling and the implications of each one of them in smart clothing. It is expected that these results provide bases for further research on WEEE from smart clothing, as well as verification and validation of the investigated heuristics.