In 2012, 14.33 million tons of textile waste was generated in the United States, which represented 5.7% of total municipal solid waste. Of these textile waste, 15.7% was recovered and 12.08 million tons were discarded. The apparel giant Nike (2013) defines waste as any product or material purchased anywhere in the supply chain that does not ultimately end up in the consumer’s closet. This definition includes non-product waste (such as packaging), manufacturing waste (such as scrap material in contract factories) and product waste such as samples. In addition to textile waste from the cutting room and post-consumption, apparel sampling can also generate a huge amount of textile waste. A major apparel brand would easily have millions of product samples each year, which may become textile waste. The purpose of this project was to focus on using virtual prototyping as an alternative to waste generated in physical apparel sampling. Many types of materials are used in apparel products, and each material has different environmental impact. Sustainable Apparel Coalition has developed material sustainability index (MSI) that can help companies choose the most sustainable textile materials. We sought to mesh the possibilities of virtual prototyping with MSI data, using version 2 of the MSI tool. Waste Reduction in Product Development Phase: We hypothesized that waste reduction in apparel production can be achieved through increased efficiency in the product development phase by the utilization of 3D technology, the benefit of using 3D technology is that problems can be solved prior to generating physical waste. Virtual Prototyping enables designers to quickly visualize how a material will ultimately appear on a product. If it is not the desired look, the developer can try different materials until the perfect match is found. The virtual/visual data help in transcending the technical aspects of fabric composition and improve tactility. Virtual prototyping saves time and money and allows the designer to explore and experience hundreds of options before making a final choice (Bux, 2014). The MSI assesses material impacts in the areas of energy, chemistry, water and waste. The current process of fabric selection in apparel product development does not take into consideration the environmental impacts of chosen materials. With a lack of access to information regarding material sustainability, developers and other decision makers cannot make informed, sustainable decisions (Nike, 2013). By embedding MSI data into the 3D prototyping system fabric library, we can educate product creation teams to use environmentally better materials and further improve sustainability.