Carbon footprint and energy use of textile recycling techniques

Abstract

consumed textile and garments are incinerated with the aim of energy recovery. 20% is collected by charity organizations with the aim of reusing and the rest is either stored in closets or treated by other waste management methods [2]. Since there is no existing textile recycling plant in Sweden, from sustainability perspective it would be beneficial to explore different textile recycling techniques and to investigate their feasibility. An ongoing research program aims at developing sustainable waste management strategies. It is called Towards Sustainable Waste Management and is directed by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute. This study is conducted with the aim of quantifying the energy usage and global warming potential of different textile recycling techniques in order to evaluate the environmental benefits of the different options. An LCA with restricted scope is applied for quantifying the carbon footprint and energy use of suggested textile recycling techniques and comparing the results with incineration as the base case. Evaluating sustainable textile recycling techniques can contribute to the goals of the research program at IVL.