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 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.

Fashion and textile upcycling is currently considered a time-consuming and labour- intensive process. Since textile waste materials are not readily available as a secondary raw material, the process of sourcing pre- and post-consumer textile waste usually requires a lot of time and effort, and often results in a high inconsistency in input materials. In consequence, upcycling operations are generally difficult to scale up. In order to address this issue, this research study aims to explore the current sourcing process of secondary raw material as well as the opportunities and challenges this sourcing process implies for a B2B trading platform of secondary raw material. In order to serve the purpose of this research study, semi-structured interviews with experienced professionals from five small and medium-sized fashion and textile upcycling companies have been conducted. The empirical data collected through the semi-structured interviews was analysed using an inductive approach of qualitative content analysis. The overall findings suggest that concerning the sourcing process of post-consumer textiles for upcycling, the identified opportunities for a B2B trading platform outweigh the challenges. However, pre-consumer textile waste is often provided in the form of an already upcycled yarn from fabric or garment suppliers which gives the impression that a B2B trading platform is less relevant in this case. Nevertheless, the empirical results might have been impacted by the small sample size and the strong focus on post-consumer textiles. Therefore, more research is necessary in order to understand how SMEs working with pre-consumer textile waste source their input materials for upcycling and which opportunities and challenges this potentially different process implies for a B2B trading platform of secondary raw material.

The average Swede consumes 14 kilos of textiles every year and disposes of 10 kilos, of which 8 kilos end up in the household mixed waste. When disposed of in the household mixed waste, the textiles will be incinerated. Sweden has adopted the EU’s Extended Producer Responsibility policy as a national policy after which all Swedish provinces, as late as 2025, are obliged to collect and treat textile waste separately from other waste to make better use of it through processing for re- or downcycling instead of energy recovery through incineration. This puts waste management companies at risk of facing larger textiles waste masses than they may be able to handle. Hence, waste management companies must prepare for this imminent challenge by engaging the public, influencing them towards textile waste reduction. However, to engage (with) the public, these organizations must first learn about the citizens’ perceived knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy concerning textile waste reduction alongside the current barriers and enablers they experience regarding reducing consumption and correct disposal of textile waste. Qualitative data was gathered by employing a questionnaire and focus groups, and through thematic analysis, survey data from roughly 430 respondents and three focus groups were evaluated. Significant findings of this study were that citizens face substantial barriers such as lack of information and infrastructure, which leads them to resort to inappropriate disposal. While they are aware of their wrongdoings, they are, on the one hand, incapable of acting differently and, on the other hand, uninformed about waste prevention, generation, and disposal. However, they are open to education and collaboration with waste management companies. Furthermore, the study concludes that, while the individual has a significant role in implementing policies, a systems view must be employed not to overload the individual with responsibility.

Upcycling of textiles is a well-known method to remake worn textiles and decrease the environmental impact coming from the textile industry. Many fast fashion companies have tried to implement upcycling in their own textile value chains to become more circular. Although the effort is good in theory, there is more to be done to get better efficiency when it comes to upcycling textile fashion products. The purpose of this report was to study the obstacles in the textile upcycling chain for small-scaled actors that are engaged in design driven upcycling. This report partly investigates a specific textile value chain that is based on redesigning home textiles that comes from textile consumer waste. The report investigates the collaboration between supplier, designer and manufacturer in this specific value chain. This was by outlining their current communication and process steps. The report intends to form a ground for creation of communication tools for actors working similarly. Re:textile at Science Park Borås is a project that is working towards developing new design principles, business models and production systems in the textile industry for a better circular flow system. The cooperation with Anna Lidström, Artistic Director at Re:textile, made it possible to investigate the upcycling industry and identify the obstacles in the pre-production and production process. For collecting information for this report, data research and interviews with Swedish companies have been done. The companies that attended the interviews were from different companies in the textile upcycling industry, that were provided with as much information as possible for the analysis. The companies that attended the interviews were from different companies in the textile upcycling industry. The companies were Rave Review, XV Production, Björkåfrihet and SIPTex. The information from the interviews contributed a ground for the analysis. The semi-structured interviews varied from telephone interviews and visits. The compilations from the interviews have been carefully used to answer the reports research questions. Conclusions are presented as obstacles for the textile upcycling chain at design driven small-scaled actors. One obstacle is to cater bigger quantities of textile consumer waste that keeps the same quality. Another obstacle is the way of ensuring the quality of the product through the value chain to consumers. The third obstacle is that the communication tools are not written according to any principles which contribute to mistakes in the manufacturing process. / Återbruk av textilier är en väl omtalad metod för att ta vara på använda textilier för att minska på miljöpåverkan som kommer från textilindustrin. Många snabbt modeväxlande företag har försökt implementera återbruk i deras egna värdekedjor för att bli mer cirkulära. Även om tanken är god, så är det mer som behöver göras för att få en bättre effektivitet när det kommer till att återbruka textila modeprodukter. Syftet med rapporten var att undersöka hinder i den textila återbrukskedjan hos småskaliga aktörer som ägnar sig åt designdriven återbruk. Rapporten utreder dels en specifik textil värdekedja som grundar sig på att omdesigna hemtextilier som kommer ifrån textilt konsumentavfall. Rapporten utreder samarbetet mellan leverantör, designer och tillverkare i denna specifika värdekedja. Detta genom att redogöra för deras nuvarande kommunikation och processteg. Studien avser att ligga till grund för skapandet av kommunikationsverktyg för aktörer som arbetar liknande. Re:textile på Science Park Borås är en verksamhet som jobbar med att utveckla nya designmetoder, företagsmodeller samt produktionssystem i textilindustrin för ett bättre cirkulärt flödessystem. Samarbetet med Anna Lidström, Konstnärlig Ledare på Re:textile gjorde det möjligt för författarna att undersöka återbruksindustrin och identifiera bristerna i förproduktion och produktionsprocessen. För insamling av information till denna rapport har datainsamling och intervjuer med svenska företag gjorts. Företagen som ställde upp på intervju var ifrån olika verksamheter i den textila återbruksindustrin. Företagen var Rave Review, XV Production, Björkåfrihet och SIPTex. Information från intervjuerna bidrog till underlag för en analys. De semi-konstruerade intervjuerna varierade med både telefonintervju samt platsbesök. Sammanställningarna från intervjuerna har med aktsamhet använts för få svar på rapportens frågeställningar. Slutsatser redogörs som hinder för den textila återbrukskedjan hos designdrivna småskaliga aktörer. Ett hinder är bland annat att tillgodose större kvantiteter av textilt konsumentavfall som håller samma kvalitet. Ett annat hinder är att säkerställa kvalitén av produkten genom värdekedjan till kund. Ett tredje hinder är att kommunikationsverktygen inte är skrivna enligt några principer vilket bidrar till misstag i tillverkningsprocessen.

Idag förbränns tonvis med textil i Sverige som aldrig har blivit använd. Detta som en effekt av att dagens textilindustri är uppbyggd som en linjär modell där nya råvaror ständigt går in i systemet och avfall lämnar det. Krav ställs nu på nationell nivå i Sverige att textilindustrin måste ställa om och bli cirkulär som en del i att klara klimatmålen. Detta ställer stora krav på svenska företag att hantera det textila restmaterial som uppstår i deras processer på helt nya sätt. För att textilt restmaterial ska kunna bli råvara till en annan produkt behövs nya system och ibland branschöverskridande samarbeten där den enas avfall blir den andres råvara. Denna studie bidrar med insikter om de utmaningar som svenska företag står inför när textila restmaterial ska bli råvara samt hur möjligheter kan tas tillvara genom nätverkande och kunskapsutbyte. Med observationer, en enkät och intervjuer undersöktes textila produktutvecklings- och produktionsföretags behov och hinder för användning av textila restmaterial som råvara. I studien har också de behov av resurser och nätverk företagen har för att kunna öka användandet av textila restströmmar utforskats. Studien visar på att attityden till att samla in textila restströmmar bland producerande företag är positiv och att det finns goda möjligheter för ökad insamling av industriella textila restmaterial med en hög grad av spårbarhet. Den visar också att det för företag som vill använda restmaterial efterlyses möjligheter för effektiv insamling samt bearbetning eller förädling av materialen. Alla delar i värdekedjan behöver ses över och för att möta utmaningen och det finns ett behov av att tänka annorlunda och våga prova nya vägar och samarbeten. Resultatet av denna studie visar på att en plattform för enbart handel av textila restmaterial inte är tillräckligt, företagen behöver också kunna knyta nya kontakter, få se på goda exempel och samverka kring logistiken kring insamling för att uppnå effektivitet. / In today’s textile industry, tons of textiles are incinerated every year without being used once. This because the textile industry today is built like a linear system, in which raw materials enter the system and then leave it in the form of waste. Requirements are now set on a national level in Sweden that requires the textile industry to change its direction and become circular as a part of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. This poses massive requirements on Swedish textile companies to handle their textile waste material in their processes in new ways. For textile waste material to become the raw material in a new product, new systems are necessary and sometimes cross-industry collaborations are needed. This study aims to contribute with knowledge about the challenges that Swedish textile companies face when textile waste materials are becoming the raw material in new products, and the opportunities to take advantage of through networking and knowledge sharing. With observations, a survey, and semi structured interviews the challenges and opportunities of Swedish textile product developing companies and textile production companies for collecting and using textile waste material was studied. The study also investigates the need for resources and expanded networks that the companies have, to increase the use of textile waste as a raw material. The study shows that the attitude among the production companies to sort and collect their textile waste is positive and that there are great opportunities for an increased collection of textile industrial waste material with a high level of traceability. The study also shows that for the companies that want to use textile waste material as a raw material in their products, new systems for effective collection and processes for refining the materials are asked for. To meet these requirements all parts of the value chain need to be reconsidered and new ways of thinking needs to be applied to try new collaborations and find new paths. The result of the study shows that a platform for just trading materials is not good enough, the companies are also in need of new contacts, inspiration, and solutions for efficient logistics in sorting, collecting, and distributing materials.

<p>Biodegradation of untreated cotton, linen, and hemp textiles as three substrates – measured through biogas production – was studied to compare digestion yield and the ability of anaerobic sludge as inoculum to utilize the sugars in these textiles without pretreatment. Digestion of these textile substrates was carried out over a 26-day study, with daily sampling of biogas production, to measure biogas production rate and accumulation. The flasks were maintained at 37 °C and 150 RPM with a substrate to inoculum ratio (SIR) of 0.5 g sugars from substrate g-1 VSinoculum from anaerobic sludge. Biogas samples were analyzed through gas chromatography (GC) to determine general biogas composition produced by each textile. Biogas production was notable after the four-day mark; with first peaks occurring on day five (hemp, cellulose), day seven (cotton), and day nine (linen). Production of biogas in the control largely outperformed trials with no added substrate, but overall the methane fractions of the gas was lower than expected, indicating that pretreatment is likely necessary for more complete biodegradation of natural textiles. </p>

Textilindustrin präglas av en snabb produktionstakt som genererar stora mängder textilavfall. År 2025 träder Avfallsdirektivet bestämmelser om separat textilinsamling i kraft, vilket innebär att den svenska avfallsindustrin står inför en stor omställning. Studien syftar därför till att utforska aktörernas ansvarsområden och positioner inom textil avfallshantering. För att kunna öka förståelsen för hur nya direktiv kan implementeras på ett effektivt sätt belyser studien även utmaningar och möjligheter. Målet är således att främja övergången till en cirkulär ekonomi och förbättrad avfallshantering i Sverige. För att samla in data har en kvalitativ metod tillämpats, där fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer med relevanta aktörer verksamma inom den textila värdekedjan genomfördes. Empirin analyserades genom en tematisk analys som resulterade i tre huvudteman och åtta tillhörande subteman. Studien visar på en omogen marknad som möts av utmaningar i form av otillräckliga volymer, bristande infrastruktur och konsumenters okunskap. Det finns dock möjligheter som ponerar ett samordnat avfallssamhälle med medvetna konsumenter där avfall ses som resurs. Studien bidrar således med kunskap inom den svenska avfallshanteringens omställningsarbete mot en cirkulär ekonomi. / The textile industry is characterized by a rapid production pace that generates large amounts of textile waste. In 2025, the Waste Directive’s regulation on separate textile collecting will come into force, which means that the Swedish waste industry is facing a major transition. Therefore, this study aims to explore the responsibilities and positions of actors within textile waste management. To increase understanding of how new directives can be implemented effectively, this study also highlights challenges and opportunities. The goal is therefore to promote the transition to a circular economy and improved waste management in Sweden. For data collection, a qualitative method has been applied, where four semi-structured interviews with relevant actors involved in the textile value chain were conducted. The empirical data was analyzed through thematic analysis, resulting in three main themes with eight belonging subthemes. The study reveals an immature market facing challenges such as insufficient volumes, inadequate infrastructure and consumer ignorance. However, there are opportunities that suggest a coordinated waste society with informed consumers where waste is seen as a resource. The study therefore contributes with knowledge to the Swedish waste management’s transition towards a circular economy.