Explore by topic

A Romanian case study of clothes and accessories upcycling

Last updated: Aug 29, 2021

Summary

After the primary life of a garment ends, that product is normally used for secondary purposes that do not take full advantage of the material and its economic value. Unfortunately, upcycling is often seen as a non-feasible activity, leading to the ultimate waste, landfilling and incineration of clothes and accessories. Thus, the research conducted in Romania aims to prove just the opposite through the use of semi-structured interviews as well as visits to remanufacturers in the country. The study’s relevance comes from the fact that upcycling, remanufacturing and reusing materials would allow society to meet its increasing demand for new garments while reducing its dependence on virgin material inputs. In a society that is constantly longing for new products and that has been recording unprecedented shopping rates every year, it’s imperative to create business and manufacturing models that allow all stakeholders to retain materials and their value, as failing in this mission would symbolize the ultimate destruction of natural resources and the environment.

Problem

- Upcycling process is economically less feasible due to high labour cost in Western Europe, and is therefore seen as an obstacle rather than an opportunity.

- Creating business and manufacturing models that allow remanufacturing and redesign to be more profitable and thus gain more attention and investment.

- Showing the benefits of upcycling, remanufacturing and reusing materials using a triple-bottom-line approach, where social, economic and environmental aspects will be considered.

- There are no standard processes for remanufacturing and upcycling, which means that it’s hard to predict which garments will come to the hand of these remanufacturing facilities and in which condition. Often post consumer garments are collected from collection bins, where you end up having a wide range of different materials and categories of clothes. All of these variations slow down the process, making it very labour-intensive and long.

Solution

- Invest in demand-based upcycling. One of the organizations interviewed had a stable income due to the fact that it worked on-demand only, and it also produced items that have a good market performance.

- Advertising more on social media and educating customers on the value of upcycled clothes and accessories.

- Allowing these organizations to have access to new and modern machinery.

- Creating partnerships between these organizations and retailers.

Outcome

- Forging partnerships between remanufacturing organizations and retailers can help establish a constant flow of materials and ensure a regular income for the manufacturers, who can then invest that money in better machinery and tools to improve their processes and capacities.

- Educating consumers on upcycling and the environmental benefit it has can create more demand for upcycled products as well as ensure that consumers are directing clothes they don’t wear anymore to collection points and remanufacturers.

- As a result, remanufacturers could then establish a more efficient business and increase their productivity, resulting in less resource extraction, less water waste, less use of energy and reduced textile waste.