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Input materials in remanufactured fashion garments
Post-consumer waste from second-hand clothing is used as the input material for the remanufacturing process. In Sweden, the collection of second-hand material is taken from different sources such as charities, waste collectors, second-hand retailers and sorting facilities. Another waste is the pre-consumer waste, which in the fashion industry refers to products that are not sold. In plenty of business models, companies have their own return station where they receive their own products that are no longer in use, in exchange for a value check.
Sorting – In the report “Feasibility of Fashion Remanufacturing” authored by Rudrajeet Pal et al. the sorting process for a charity, which is one of Sweden’s largest, was described. Their process started with the supply of input material that in this case were second-hand clothes. The second-hand clothes are sourced from sorting plants, but they also receive donations from fashion retailers. When the clothes arrive, they undergo a quality check. A large amount of what is received returns to the sorting plant. What is left is then sorted into different categories such as fabric material, size, style, the degree of how complicated it is to acquire the input material. Another factor that is important is which level of degree required for conducting the remanufacturing operations where the most difficult, according to this report, is the disassembly and reassembly stages (Pal et al. 2018).
Home textiles – TAUKO is a design company in Finland working with upcycling. Their strategy to maintain a continuous material flow for the production is to work in close collaboration with Finnish and German textile service companies. Up to 60% of TAUKOs input material is flat home textile materials such as bed linen or tablecloths. In an article written by Mila Moisio, TAUKO arguments that home textiles are made to withstand heavy use yet feel silky and soft.
During the home textiles first life, the quality diminishes due to permanent stains, and/or the textile is worn out in certain parts. The defect textile is then considered discarded. The first life is considered shorter by hotels, restaurants and healthcare systems where they do not reach the quality needed for their service. This results in tons of waste of still high-quality material.
During their upstart of collecting materials, TAUKO discovered quality differences between textiles produced before and after the year 2000. A conclusion drawn by the two designers and entrepreneurs of TAUKO design was: the older the textile the better the quality and also, it fits better for fashion (Moiso 2018).
Quality standards and labelling remanufacturing garments
In the traditional clothing industry or any industry, there are certain quality standards that can be required to ensure the customer of the quality of the material. One example is furniture clothing that usually goes through a Martindale test. The test determines the abrasion resistance of fabrics. The test is conducted with a Martindale abrasion testing apparatus in the pre-production process (SIS 1999). Currently, the quality standards for remanufacturing are a bit difficult do implement. It is up to the designer and operator to have the knowledge and expertise of remanufacturing in good quality. Therefore, there is no guarantee that can give consumers the security of quality in remanufacturing garments. As a remanufactured clothing company, going from a small remanufacture market to a bigger mass market, the quality inspection must be standardized. This because quality is the key factor in the industry and that many remanufacturing companies today not fulfill the same standards as in the quality traditional industry (Sinha et. al 2016c).
Garment labeling is one of the most used quality standards in the textile industry and has the same base requirements for every country. It contains an identification of the garment fiber content, country of origin, and instruction of wash and care. Some countries have more strict requirements of the garment information than other countries, this because of the consumer protection purposes. Countries with more strict rules are United States, United Kingdom, and Canada (Sewport 2020). There are also EU labeling requirements that have certain mandatory (Your Europe 2020).
One organization that is working with garment contents is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), they have their own labeling standards that companies need to follow to get a certification on their product (Sewport 2020). GINETEX is a wash and cares labeling system with universal symbols for the textile industry. This system is for international use and has 22 members from Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia. They provide correct information care treatment of the textile products for the consumer and textile companies (GINETEX 2020).
A remanufacturing company requires the same rules of having garment labeling as for the traditional clothing industry. According to P, Sinha et al. (2016a), there is some confusion regarding the definition of “remanufactured fashion” and how to develop a significance for that kind of fashion. The problem today is that it is a complex regulation system when it comes to the license and quality standards for a remanufactured garment. A protentional way is to have some sort of international eco-label for a remanufactured garment (Sinha et. al 2016a).
OPEN AND CLOSED LOOP SYSTEMS
An open loop system means a supply chain for a company that works with a “straight line” of producing textile products. This leads to a negative effect on the environment because of not reusing the waste. Instead, emissions and energy are released to the environment. Other factors that affect the environment, as a consequence of the open loop system, are the chemicals, waste of water, landfill problems, toxicity to humans and animals, and other resources (Batelier 2018). A discarded textile product can go to the landfill or incineration, meaning that the product is burnt, with or without making use of the generated energy. If possible, the product can be recycled, resold for reuse, used for internal reused, remanufactured, or be used for refurbishing (Sinha et. al 2016b). In the textile industry, many companies are trying to take care of its own material- and energy waste, called a closed loop system. A closed loop system is simply the opposite of the open loop system (Batelier 2018).
Companies that are working with this type of system result in a more sustainable way of producing textile products. In a closed loop system, the waste (water, energy, textile, and more) that comes from making the products are carefully taken care of. For example, the fashion remanufacturing industry collects garments from their own company or other suppliers and organizations and remake it to new fashionable garments.
Clothing companies have experimented to put their non-sold garments into a remanufacturing process to create a closed loop system and save energy and waste. One example is Lindex AB, one of the leading European fashion companies that have women- and kids wear and lingerie. In March 2017, they launched a collection of six garments for women, upcycled from their own Better Denim jeans from earlier seasons. The collaboration and remaking of the denim were made with Re:textile at The Swedish School of Textiles in Borås (Lindex 2017). This type of action and others are one of many examples that clothing companies are trying to implement in the fashion industry.
TRADITIONAL GARMENT MANUFACTURING PROCESS
In the manufacturing chain for a fashion clothing industry, there are several steps from the start of design to the finished product (see Figure 5). Some steps in the chain may vary, for example, the manufacturing process looks different depending on what materials to use, for what purpose, for what using area, the characteristics of the finished garment, production place, and so on (Sarkar 2013). The garment manufacturing process is divided into three steps, briefly described below.
Pre-production process – Different samplings are done for the buyer, so it fulfills the requirements. Examples of samples are fit sample, size set sample, salesman sample, production sample, shipment sample. The next step is production planning. After receiving the order, the sourcing of the right raw materials starts. The raw materials include the main fabrics, sewing threads, packing materials, hang tags, and accessories. FOB price (Freight On Board price) includes direct labor cost, finishing cost, raw material cost, overheads cost, profit, and margin. The last step is process planning and is the schedule of cutting and sewing the materials to garments (Texhour 2018). Production processes – In this step, the production process can start. That includes cutting and sewing the garments (see Figure 6). In this part, it is decided how the production set-up line it is going to be and what quality tests should be performed (Sarkar 2017).
Post-production process – This part is the finishing part of thread trimmings, ironing (if required), folding, last inspections, packing, and shipment shown in Figure 7 (Sarkar 2017).
Figures 5, 6, and 7 are a major flowchart for a fast fashion garment manufacturing process. This flowchart can be described as an open loop system (see Figure 4) (Sarkar 2017).
COMMUNICATION TOOLS FOR TRADITIONAL PRODUCTION
As a buyer/consumer, it always starts with the pre-production process that includes the research, design development, collection planning, line selection, and marketing of the product at their head office. After the product research, Tech Packs for the planned product is developed. A Tech Pack is the sheet of all the technical package. This document is necessary to have all the sources for the needs of creating an apparel product. The other communication tool is the Specification Sheet and this sheet gives more detailed information from all parts of the production chain. So, for a company in big or small quantities, there is a requirement for production to provide a Specification Sheet at the first step, followed by a Tech Pack (Fashion Insider 2017).
The Tech Pack includes:
• Styling details (front and back flat sketches of the product with and without color).
• Fabric and trims details (what materials that are going to be used and in what quantity).
• Color combo details.
• Stitching details.
• Graded specifications (that means the sizes of the product).
• Embellishment details (if required).
• Accessories details (buttons, zip strap and more).
• Labelling information and fabric details.
• Quality control of fabric and garment.
XV Production
Based in Borås, Sweden. XV Production runs an in-house production. In-house production enables full control, a fair and just production environment, and minimizes the impact on the environment. They offer local design and production services for other fashion and textile brands where a close relationship is created and where both parts are involved in the development of the idea and prototypes. XV Productions (XVs) work seek to promote a circular textile industry by repairing, remaking old textiles instead of producing new ones (XV Production 2020).
Björkåfrihet
Based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The organization is the first nonprofit second-hand organization with quality- and environmental management certifications. Björkåfrihet works with social responsibility, sustainable development and international solidarity. Their main mission is to develop better methods of recycling and reuse of textiles. Besides that, the association is supporting organizations that are working for countries around the world against poverty and oppression. In Sweden, Björkåfrihet is giving support for asylum movements and working opportunities for people that do not have that possibility to apply for a job (Björkåfrihet 2015).
Rave Review
The company is a sustainable Stockholm based high fashion brand that works with upcycling. The brand has been recognized with awards and press attention for their designs. They aim to change the fashion scene and show the combination of high-end fashion and remake. Their input material is second-hand clothes and fabrics, this to enable them to work with creating clothes without contributing to bigger changes in the environment nor socially (Rave Review 2019).
SIPTex
A Swedish innovation platform project for textile sorting that started 2016 in the lead of the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL 2020). The project is funded by Vinnova. An industrial-scale fully automated textile sorting plant is built within the project with Sysav (municipal waste management company in the south of Sweden) as an operator. The SIPTex facility is using NIR (near-infrared) and VIS (visual spectroscopy) technology, which enables to sort textiles according to fiber type and color (Vinnova 2017).
Table of contents :
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
1.2 RESEARCH GAP
1.3 RESEARCH PURPOSE
1.6 DELIMITATIONS
2 THEORY
2.1 REMANUFACTURING PROCESS
2.1.1 Input materials in remanufactured fashion garments
2.1.2 Quality standards and labelling remanufacturing garments
2.2 OPEN AND CLOSED LOOP SYSTEMS
2.2.1 Reversed supply chain
2.3 TRADITIONAL GARMENT MANUFACTURING PROCESS
2.4 COMMUNICATION TOOLS FOR TRADITIONAL PRODUCTION
3 METHODOLOGY
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.2 COLLECTION OF DATA AND THEORY
3.2.1 XV Production
3.2.2 Björkåfrihet
3.2.3 Rave Review
3.2.4 SIPTex
3.3 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
4. RESULT
4.1 INTERVIEW WITH XV PRODUCTION
4.1.1 Manufacturing for Rave Review
4.1.2 Manufacturing for other designers
4.2.1 Sourcing materials
4.2.2 Design development
4.2.3 Production meeting
4.2.4 Manufacturing
4.2.5 Quality inspection
4.3 INTERVIEW WITH BJÖRKÅFRIHET
4.3.1 Collection of textile waste
4.3.2 Sorting of textile waste
4.3.3 Sorting of textile waste for Rave Review
4.3.4 Björkåfrihet own upcycling from waste
4.4 INTERVIEW WITH SIPTEX
4.5 COLLECTED INFORMATION FROM INTERVIEWS IN THE STUDY
5 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
6 CONCLUSIONS
6.1 FURTHER WORK
REFERENCES
