Reverse logistics network design in circular economypromoting sustainable collection and reuse for post-consumer textile and clothing

Resumen

This doctoral thesis has been framed to contribute to the evolving fields of reverse logistics, sustainable development and circular economy. It focuses on the sustainability of post-consumer textile recovery management. The recovery of used textile and garments has been receiving more and more attention from researchers, professionals and legislators, due to the social, economic and environmental benefits behind it. The “fast fashion” industry faces severe challenges to overcome the need for social and environmental sustainability along the entire product lifecycle. The increasing trend of waste generation, resulted from the rapid increase of population and the irresponsible production and consumption of materials and products among producers and consumers, has forced policy makers in many developed countries to regard the waste recovery and management among the top issues that need to be addressed in their agendas. This study addresses the recovery of post-consumer textile and clothing aiming to provide valuable insights and recommendations to improve the current textile collection and recycling in a sustainable manner. It provides original findings that benefit both academic and practical domains. Textile waste is relatively small in terms of weight as compared to other waste streams, but it has a large impact on human health and environment, and its rate is increasing due to the “fast fashion” model. Previous studies on textile recovery management are limited, which prevent our scope from improving current practices in this sector. This study examines the recovery of post-consumer textile and clothing in both France and Germany identifying similarities and differences in the practices of recovering used textile and clothing. To date, France is the only country in the world implementing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy for end-of-use clothing, linen and shoes. The case highlights the benefits of using EPR policy and provides interesting insights about the challenges faced by the textile waste sector. For instance, the EPR policy has contributed to the increase of the collection and recycling of post-consumer textile since 2006. More specifically, the amount of textile collected now in France is three times more than the amount collected before enforcing the policy. The material recovery rate of the post-consumer textile has proven a high recovery rate (90%), 50% of which can be directly reused. However, the research shows that both France and Germany export a large amount of the recovered textile to Africa for “re-use” and many African countries are considering banning the used textile import to encourage a competitive textile industry locally and internationally. The EPR policy demonstrates a great potential to identify other markets for “re-use” to increase the demand for the collected textile by supporting innovation and new product development. It can thus be regarded as a legal instrument that drives societies to maintain sustainable finance for supporting technological innovation and research development to support fashion producers for adopting eco-design and design for recycling practices as well as improving the processes for closing the material loop. In our discussion, we propose improving the EPR policy to allow for achieving higher productivity and carbon emission saving. The adoption of linear programming method to examine the current textile recovery practices in France has revealed potential savings of transportation cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the quantitative case study in chapter five, transportation cost and GHG emissions of textile collection in Paris have been analyzed using a simple linear programming (LP) model. The study shows that by collectively managing the textile collection and recycling, societies can cut 70% of both transportation cost and carbon emissions. Thus, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model has been proposed in chapter five to provide textile recycling managers with the decision-making tool to optimize their reverse logistics networks to reduce their logistics costs and GHG emissions. The dissertation highlights the need for better measures and policies for improving the current collection and reuse of textile and clothing in Europe, while addressing critical sustainability issues that need to be considered for the circular economy (chapter 6). The circular economy transition advocated by the European Union focuses primarily on material recovery aiming for improving economic, social, and environmental development, throughout the member states. However, the circular economy policies do not address the sustainability of the current supply chain networks from a global perspective and only collaterally intends to approach the sustainable development goal of realizing sustainable production and consumption. Despite the current focus of the new Circular Economy Package to increase the material collection and recycling targets, the objective of reusing these materials within the European economy, to reduce importing similar products and materials, is hardly addressed. This dissertation discusses some of the metrics required for circular economy transition and contributes to the understanding and knowledge on circular economy and resource efficiency by providing valuable insights on sustainability issues in the fashion industry.