The current waste management system of Post Consumer Textile Waste (PCTW) in Sweden leads to vast amounts of incinerated or exported textiles. The amount of PCTW reused or repurposed within the country is small in comparison to the amounts of textile products consumed every year. Hence, there is an observed problem in terms of low value creation from textile waste. A system that allows for more textiles to be kept and reused in Sweden could create more economic value in a resource-efficient way. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate value creation from PCTW for reuse and redesign in Sweden, and to establish a framework for the antecedents of value creation in reverse textile value chains. A pre-study was conducted to map the PCTW industry structure, and served as the basis for sampling cases. Data collection consisted of multiple case studies from 4 charity organisations, 3 clothing brands and 3 redesign brands. The interviews were performed in a semi-structured manner in order to discover the state-of-art in value creation and to identify the key enabling attributes. The findings were analysed to adjust the deductive framework to the textile industry context. Results and findings shows that the state-of-art for value creation among the selected cases varies depending on its mission. Charity organisations are facing a new competition of resources from clothing brands, who have realised a potential of new differentiation by engaging in value creation from PCTW. This has led to a new mind-set among the charity organisations to work more strategically in all their activities. Redesign brands are a relatively new actor and want to work symbolically with redesign to communicate the values in textile materials. Enablers and disablers to value creation from PCTW were found in the interviews and led to the development of an empirical framework. As a whole, this thesis provides rich descriptions of the current preconditions and challenges within the field. Furthermore, it presents a framework for the antecedents of value creation along the recovery processes involved in reuse and redesign value chain. The empirical framework confirms the themes in the theoretical framework, and concludes that there is a set of generic antecedents for value creation in reverse textile value chains. However, there are also category specific antecedents, which need to be considered. The specific experiences of one actor category might as well be valuable knowledge to another, which is why increased collaboration is suggested to enhance value creation from PCTW.

The primary aim of this practice based project is to promote debate and alter perceptions of second-hand materials and ReFashion concepts. The work is positioned between the developed world business model extremes of overproduction, and over-consumption, in clothing manufacture. Practical work which represents 80% of this thesis, pitches discarded clothing as an untapped commodity. The investigation poses questions and possibilities with respect to applying the ReFashion concept to a potential business model. By developing prototypes through deconstruction and reconstruction processes, reflection upon current practices of the secondary textile industry has been possible, highlighting ReFashion as a potential ‘Materials Recovery’ process. The second outcome for the research is to provide contextualised information for the fashion manufacturing industry and government agencies, in order to develop innovative applications for new markets.

The primary aim of this practice based project is to promote debate and alter perceptions of second-hand materials and ReFashion concepts. The work is positioned between the developed world business model extremes of overproduction, and over-consumption, in clothing manufacture. Practical work which represents 80% of this thesis, pitches discarded clothing as an untapped commodity. The investigation poses questions and possibilities with respect to applying the ReFashion concept to a potential business model. By developing prototypes through deconstruction and reconstruction processes, reflection upon current practices of the secondary textile industry has been possible, highlighting ReFashion as a potential ‘Materials Recovery’ process. The second outcome for the research is to provide contextualised information for the fashion manufacturing industry and government agencies, in order to develop innovative applications for new markets.

In 2015 the global fibre consumption was 96.7 million tonnes, which is an increase of 3.1% from the year before. Our high textile consumption has led to an increasing demand of raw materials and generation of textile waste. Only in Europe, a total amount of 4.3 million tonnes of apparel waste each year is sent to either incineration or landfills. Approximately 50% of the clothes we discard and donate are composed of cotton. In the future, the cotton production is predicted to stagnate since the world population is increasing and arable land to greater extent will be needed for food production. Thereby, it is important that we utilize the cotton waste generated. One of the most commonly used processes for recycling textile waste is the shredding process. In this method, textile waste is shredded back into their constituent fibres. The drawback with the shredding process is that the fibre length is reduced. The fibre length is an important property since it has a high influence on textile processing such as yarn production and final product quality. The aim of this thesis was to investigate how post-consumer cotton garments with different degree of wear affects the fibre length obtained in the shredding process. This was performed by analysing the input fibre length as well as the output fibre length. Additionally, several parameters were investigated: fabric construction and yarn structure. Degree of wear was categorized into two levels: low and high degree of wear. The fabric constructions used in this study were single-jersey and denim. The yarn structure were analysed in terms of yarn count, yarn twist and manufacturing process.  The result showed that the fibre length before shredding was statistically significant longer for the materials with low degree of wear compared to high degree of wear. After shredding, it was shown that the fibre length reduction was lower for the materials with high degree of wear. This indicates that longer fibres give higher fibre length reduction. In addition, it was found that finer yarn gives higher fibre length reduction. The result also showed that the yarn manufacturing process has a great influence on the ease of shredding and the fibre length obtained in the end.  Based on the result in this thesis it can be concluded that the shredding process needs to be improved in order to preserve the fibre length. The area of post-consumer textile waste is complex and the result showed that there is many underlying parameters that need to be taken into account to further develop the shredding process.

The value consumers attach to their clothing creates a high demand and frequent consumption of fast fashion. This results in the increase of post-consumer textile waste that ends up on landfills, which has a negative impact on the environment. This raises the critical issue of disposal methods and necessary education to create awareness and equip users to contribute to a circular economy that aims to extend the lifecycle of each garment. This study aims to design for the facilitation of a circular economy driven by post-consumer textile waste that encourages sustainable consumption. The short lifecycles of commercial interior due to the influence of societal taste results in the frequent alteration of these interiors, increasing building waste which has a negative environmental impact. This study explores how the lifecycle of an interior environment can be extended through the design principles derived from the design informants identified through the investigation of the theoretical framework, site, precedents, users and programme, and proposed brand. The result is the design of sustainable interior environments that encourages sustainable consumption. The design for multi-use programme allows for users to learn and contribute on various platforms to empower the local community and close the loop for fast fashion to generate a new fashion culture at 012 Central. Through the alteration of the identified interior environments the design intervention aims to reinvigorate the underutilised buildings at 012 Central to support a circular economy driven by post-consumer textile waste. The design intervention aims to provide an informative spatial experience that encourages interaction with space and object, empowering users to contribute to a circular economy driven by post-consumer textile waste. The technical resolution of the proposed design intervention is concerned with the design of sustainable interior environments and components that considers their environmental impact through a closed-loop design approach. / Mini Dissertation (MInt (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Architecture / MInt (Prof) / Unrestricted

Background: A sustainable economy becomes more and more important for most parts of the society. Especially the fashion industry is being criticized for wasting resources and being non-sustainable. Therefore, some textile producers started to implement programs that are aiming on a reuse of garments. Aims of research: The purpose of this research is to discover how customers can be motivated to return unwanted garments, also considering possible hindering factors. To gather this information it is necessary to build a theoretical framework with customer-based theories. The thesis explored how a second hand multi-brand retailer can take active action in encouraging customers to return unwanted textiles. Method: This research was conducted as an inductive qualitative research. The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with several second hand retailers. The analysis was carried out following the Giogia method. Results: The thesis revealed that the garment disposal behavior is affected by various influences. Influences on the disposal behavior of garment consumers are personal values and believes. The dispose of unwanted garments is often influenced by an ease of handling and the same behavior is followed over the years simply because individuals are used to a certain garment disposal behavior. The largest hindering factors why customers do not return garments to retailers are caused by a lack of information as well as insufficient transparency. This behavior can be affected by second hand retailers by providing improved communication and a motivation to return garments by offering benefits for the customer. The size of the company does not play a major role.