Abstract

Megatrends are global changes in individual, social and technological structures that shape our lives. The aim of this paper is the identification of trends that will shape laundry washing by 2030, and their effects on it, based on the expert judgment of the members of the Board for Washing Excellence. The conclusions indicate that the demand for washing will rise; laundry hygiene will be a major issue; laundry machines will be technologically advanced and interconnected; textiles will be more functional, based on not only new fibre blends but also on nano- and micro- technologies, and will have electronic tags interacting with the laundry machines; the share of bio-based detergents and textiles will increase as an answer to the resource restrained World.

INTRODUCTION

The term ‘‘megatrend’’ was coined by Naisbitt in 1982 (1) to describe the significant social, economic, political and/or technological movements that shape our lives. Megatrends are global changes in individual, social and technological structures which are thought to have a major impact on the future markets (2). Megatrends are larger in magnitude, longer in duration, and deeper in their effects than normal trends, fads or fashion. Mittelstaedt et al. (3) treat megatrends as social science constructs, because they: (I) are complex combinations of economic, political, cultural, philosophic, and technological factors, in their origin, (II) are seismic in their effect, both in time and space, and (III) emerge in the context of their times, as a product of the residue of previous megatrends. Since the introduction of the original megatrends (1), v ... ...