Hand-woven Persian CarpetsA Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Majid ALIAKBARIANUniversity of Dallas, Spring 2014Special Thanks to Aboozar Jameh for his valuable input

HistoryIn 1949 during an archaeological excavation in the Pazyryk Valley in Siberia the oldest known surviving Persian carpet was discovered. Radiocarbon testing indicated that the carpet was woven in the 5th century BC.

History of Hand woven CarpetPersian Carpet are the oldest carpets in history. It is estimated that Persian carpet has a 3500 years of history.

Carpet producing countries on mapThe manufacturing of handmade carpets mainly takes place on the indicated areas on the map (dark green).

LCA Overview Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a "cradle-to-grave"

approach for assessing industrial systems. "Cradle-to-grave" begins with the gathering of raw materials from the earth to create the product and ends at the point when all materials are returned to the earth.

The goal of life cycle assessment (LCA) is to: Quantify or otherwise characterize all the inputs and

outputs over a product’s life span Specify the potential environmental impacts of these

material flows Consider alternative approaches that change those

impacts for the better.

Benefits of LCA

Identify the whole environmental impact picture

Go beyond just the product “use” phase

Quantify environmental effects such as overall energy consumption or air emissions

Recognize inefficient or significant changes in the life cycle phases

Compare alternatives “apples to apples”

Reduce overall environmental impact and costs.

Challenges to LCA

Defining LCA boundaries and scope Where do I want to draw the line? What attributes am I interested in comparing against

one another? How far down the chain do I want to identify and quantify these material flows, and is that data even available?

Data availability Is data available to quantify material inputs and outputs at all stages of my defined

scope? Is this data from a direct source (ex.., manufacturer)?

Quantifying environmental impacts How can these material flows be quantified into environmental categories (e.g., global

warming)?

Weighting impacts across stakeholders What environmental category are we most concerned about (ex.., acidification, global

warming, energy use) and how does it compare to other environmental attributes?

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Overview

MaterialsWool, Kork, Cotton, Silk and Natural (or chemical) dyes are the materials used in Persian carpets. Usually, a combination of wool cotton and silk is used for weaving Persian carpets. Cotton is frequently used for the foundation. Silk carpets are more expensive. Fine Persian rugs tend to increase in value with age.

Production Tools Loom: a loom is the device used to weave the carpet. The main function of loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics has not changed significantly over centuries.

Production Tools (Continued) A weaver needs a knife for cutting the yarn as the knots are tied; a comb-like instrument for packing down the wefts; a pair of shears for trimming the pile; a hook to tie the knots which lets the weavers produce very fine rugs, as their fingers alone are too thick to do the job.

Production TechniqueKnot: The symmetrical Turkish and asymmetrical Persian knots are used in Persian carpets. The generally more accurate Persian knot is used for finer rugs. The knot count of a rug varies from 16 to 800 knots per square inch and the weaving process takes from a few months to several years depending on quality and size.

From Wool to Yarn

From Sheep to Carpet

From loom to retailer

Main carpet importing countriesNorth America: USA and CanadaEurope: Germany, Italy, Swiss, England, France and AustriaAsia: Japan and UAE

U.S. Department of Commerce: Statistics show 2010 imports of rugs and carpets rose significantly.

Country 2010 2009 % Change

India $250.18 $216.52 15.50%

China $87.74 $82.34 6.50%

Iran $71.40 $43.42 6.40%

Pakistan $51.21 $56.45 -9%

Turkey $22.49 $22.69 -1%

Nepal $18.63 $21.22 -12%

Thailand $15.07 $15.89 -5%

Wool rug and carpet export to U.S.A (Millions)

Largest Persian Carpet in the worldThe world's largest hand-woven carpet ‘World Palace’ has been designed by an Iranian artist on the order of King of Oman. The carpet was unveiled in Tehran, Iran in 2007.

References

http://www.nejad.com/consumer/ http://www.dol.gov/ http://www.irancarpet.ir/en-US/CMSCenter2mkDOTnet.aspx http://www.payvand.com/news/07/aug/1001.html http://www.carpetencyclopedia.com/ http://www.rugnews.com/ http://www.coroflot.com/Aboozar_JamehTahaf/THE-TRADITIONAL-

PERSIAN-CARPET-SUSTAINABLE-DESIGNING