Microsoft Word - Environmental benefits of recycling 2010 update.doc

3.7 Textiles

3.7.1 Presentation

In the UK, approximately 8% by weight of all household waste was composed of clothes or textiles in 2005
(Oakdene Hollins Ltd et al., 2006) and each person discards on average 30 kg of clothing and textiles per year
(Allwood et al., 2006). In addition, the current consumption trends encourage the public to buy more clothes and
to keep them for a shorter time. As a result, textiles are the fastest-growing sector in terms of household waste
(Oakdene Hollins Ltd et al., 2006). About 25% of the discarded clothes are currently collected separately.
According to Woolridge et al. (2006):

 47% of these collected clothes are reused as second-hand clothes;

 45% are recycled into wipers, filling materials or reclaimed fibres; and

 8% end up as waste.

The rest of the clothes are discarded together with household waste and end up landfilled or incinerated. In the
case that there is some evidence of the environmental benefits of recycling, there could be real potential for
developing textile recycling.

Literally, textile recycling should refer to the processing of fibres back to make new products. However a broader
definition is usually used and textile recycling refers to:

 Conversion to industrial cleaning wipers

 Processing back to fibers for use as filling materials for mattresses, car insulation, roofing felts or

furniture padding (mainly for natural fibres such as cotton or wool)

 Processing back to fibers which are then respun into yarns to make new fabric products, especially

for textiles made out of man-made fibers that are transformed into carpets or blankets

Textile reuse as second-hand clothes is also sometimes considered as a form of textile recycling while there is no
reprocessing. A fairly large amount of textiles is recycled into wipers or used as filling material but the actual
processing of recovered textile into new products is still relatively minor (Korhonen & Dahlbo, 2007).

The literature review revealed a large gap in terms of LCAs conducted over the end-of-life of textiles.
This finding was confirmed by the small amount of literature on the subject in which the lack of studies
concerning the environmental impacts of textile recycling is highlighted. Several LCAs or LCA-like studies (e.g.
Allwood et al., 2006; EDIPTEX, 2007) deal with the assessment of the environmental impacts of clothing but little
emphasis was placed on potential benefits from recycling. There has been more discussion on the effects of
changes in terms of manufacturing and consumers’ choices before the garment is discarded. Indeed, the use
phase is usually found to represent more than half of the impacts of the total life cycle of clothes (see Table 84)
thus most benefit could be achieved by addressing this stage. Therefore, a comparative study regarding the end-
of-life alternatives could not be conducted as for the other fractions. Nevertheless, the studies dealing with the
environmental assessment of textile waste were reviewed in order to realise a qualitative comparison of the
environmental impacts associated with the various possible end-of-life options.