The purpose of this study is to explore remanufacturing as a sustainable waste management strategy for discarded clothing that may otherwise be directed to landfill. The central notion is that this is a response to the EU Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC which encourages the application of the 'waste hierarchy' - preference to eliminate waste at source, then, to reduce, reuse or recycle waste, and if impossible or impracticable, disposal in a responsible manner. Remanufacturing retrieves a product's inherent value when the product no longer fulfils the user's desired needs. The use of discarded clothes in a remanufacturing process could decrease clothing waste and contribute to resource conservation. Despite this, there has been little research into what is actually involved in the fashion remanufacturing process and how the process could be up-scalable to the mass market in order to have bigger environmental impact. A conceptual network consisting of textile sorters and recyclers, fashion remanufacturers and fashion retailers is examined through qualitative research. Experiential research and in-depth interviews were used to understand the process of fashion remanufacturing and the relationships that needed to be developed to up-scale the process in to mass market level. The fashion design process, as experienced by the designer, was described and the process models for individual processes were constructed and compared. The results of the comparison indicated a generic design process in fashion remanufacturing, showing the key phases. The generic remanufacturing process was compared with the mass market fashion design process to identify issues inherent when considering developing the process for mass market level and the potential for developing the conceptual framework was also examined. The originality of the investigation is that it identified the relationships between three key players in the conceptual network. A key factor that could account for business growth is the collaboration among key players along the reverse supply chain. The extent of business growth is dependent on the commitment and involvement of large fashion retailers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:727784 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Dadigamuwage, Geetha |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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