Apparel reuse

If the demand for used clothing continues to decline in developing nations due to low-cost imports of new clothing or import restrictions, developed nations will have to develop other alternatives for reuse in their own countries to prevent direct disposal of used clothing into waste streams. According to the US Department of Conunerce s Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA), more than 30 nations have already enacted bans or restrictions on the importation of used clothing. 

Thrift is enjoying a reemergence mainly via pop culture and new shopping formats enabled by technology. Thrift shops are also known as resale stores, along with consignment stores, and they can also be charity shops. There are more than 25,000 resale stores in the United States, and it is estimated that about 20% of Americans shop in one of these stores each year (www.narts.org). Thrift stores rely on donations to 

Online consignment services include Pose (pose.com), Threadflip (www.threadflip. com), ThredUp (www.thredup.com), and The Real Real (www.therealreal.com). These services allow consumers to post their items on the site or mail them into the 

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Apparel in general is reused until the end of its life in the sense that after the first user, it is donated or sold to a second user. In most Asian countries, it is still common that old textile garments are used by siblings (clothes of older ones in the family are then worn by the younger ones until they are tom). This is a scenario of reuse, which normally appears in end-of-life scenarios in LCA. This is not, however, the cmx of that which is dealt with in this chapter. 

Recycling refers to the breakdown of a product into its raw materials in order for the raw material to be reclaimed and used in new products. In contrast, reuse refers to an existing product being used again within the same production chain. Textile recycling may involve reclaiming pre-consumer waste or post-consumer waste. There are a number of ways to identify the kinds of recycling possible within the textile and apparel context. 

The recovery and use of plastic bottles into RPET yams has had strong uptake from a number of apparel companies. Currently, OLR of PET bottles to fibre has had the greatest success for reuse as a material in the fashion sector, with an open loop of waste from the first product (PET bottles) used as feedstock for the second product system (polyester fabric to garment). A common approach is to blend the recycled yams with virgin fibres to create textiles that are of apparel quality. 

There are a number of ways to define CLR practices in the apparel industry. This section describes three recycling apparel textile waste (pre- or post-consumer) in order for it to re-enter the apparel supply chain cradle-to-cradle (C2C) streams of biological and technical materials and reuse of existing garments. 

Options for apparel disposal and reuse are becoming increasingly sophisticated and thereby creating a secondary value chain for used clothing that includes carefully curated online selections and expertly merchandised stores that feature current fashion. 

Apparel and textiles are soiled during their normal use. From an economic point of view, these items must be cleaned and refurbished for reuse without substantially altering their functional and aesthetic properties. It is essential that the various processes to which the apparel is subjected should maintain and restore the desirable and functional properties. This is a joint responsibility of the textile and apparel industries, the textile care organizations and the consumers. 

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