Background: Swedish textile waste management ecosystem is recognized to be a multi-actor ecosystem as opposed to a single-actor scenario whereas actors tend to perform their activities single-handedly and in a fragmented manner. Participating actors, each play a significant role in handling and treating the textile waste but this fragmented system renders certain drawbacks. The main treatment of textile waste in Sweden is incineration which addresses environmental damages. This in particular is more worrying when textiles are used as a fuel. This highlights the necessity for the actors to perform in a network and expand their collaboration, thus move more efficiently towards development of a sustainable innovation and find an alternative for the current treatment of textile waste. Purpose: This study strives to investigate the challenges and at the same time opportunities of implementation of a collaborative business model for sustainable innovation. This has been achieved through taking benefits of value mapping tool and actor-mapping. The core values of actors have been identified which was continued by identification of their shared and conflicting values. Methodology: Pre-study was conducted in order to design and develop two mappings, “main actors mapping”, “actor’s activity mapping” which helped the authors and the interviewees to gain a better realization of the Swedish Textile Waste Management ecosystem through visualization. The process of data collection occurred through semi-structured interviews with Open-ended questions which resulted to rich detailed responses from the interviewees. Seven organizations as the representative of Swedish textile waste management ecosystem were reached and studied. The outcomes of the interview were analyzed by the aid of value mapping tool and led the authors to formulate the answer to the research question. Interview findings: Interview findings presents the outcome of the collected data in accordance with the purpose of the study and the answer to the proposed research question. Consequently, this chapter provides a description of the Activity classification in TWM eco-system in Sweden as an outcome of the pre-study, continued by expanding on the results of Actors mapping & their activities in TW eco-system and Activity mapping in relation to actors’ interactions, which were achieved by the aid of value mapping tool. This chapter is concluded by providing actors perspectives regarding the formation and the suitability of a collaborative business model for sustainable innovation on the basis of mapped values within textile waste scenario in Sweden. Analysis& Discussion: This study tends to present rich and comprehensive picture in a descriptive manner in regards with participating actors, their activities, collaboration and value-orientations within Swedish textile waste scenario and propose a solution to the identified short-comings of the system by investigating the potentials of a collaborative business model for sustainable innovation. The literature review confirm and support the interview findings and addresses the need for further dialogue and collaboration among actors while highlighting the need from moving from ego-centric business model to multi-actor business model. This chapter is concluded by the response to the research question.

The textile industry is considered one of the most challenging industries when it comes to environmental pollution just after the oil industry. It has a huge impact on water pollution and resource consumption in terms of fiber production. Recently sustainability in cotton fiber production is questioned due to the huge uses of land, water, a large number of pesticides, and a significant amount of energy during cultivation. When it comes to cellulosic pulp production, currently fibrous plant material is used which is mainly wood. So, recycling of cellulosic textiles is considered the only option to reduce this impact. The recycling company Renewcell is launching a large-scale plant for cellulosic fiber recycling which is located in Sweden and will use the post-industrial textile waste as one of its feedstocks. The purpose of this research is to analyze the barriers and drivers for collecting this post-industrial textile waste from the garment manufacturing countries to Sweden and analyze the available collaborative business model alternatives. This study was performed by a qualitative study where primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed by thematic analysis. The data was collected among four stakeholders within this value chain which are the fashion brands, recyclers, garment manufacturers, and waste handlers. The finding shows that this sector is very informal and is yet to be formalized. The external informal influence was identified throughout the value chain as a non-value-added activity.  And the involvement of fashion brands was identified as one of the drivers. Several collaborative business models are discussed considering their applicability in different contextual situations. This analysis was discussed based on the seven themes which were generated during the thematic analysis and later discussed with the current empirical study and theoretical background. Collaboration between the recycler, traders, brands, and the textile manufacturers were discussed in different dimensions such as direct collaboration and logistic partnership approach. Then the research limitation was discussed in both methodological and research contexts followed by future research recommendations.