Pre-consumer waste

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. 

Tertiary recycling involves chemical breakdown of nylon or PET for repolymerisation. This requires either clean, sorted pre-consumer waste or post-consumer waste, sorted by fibre type, as a feedstock. In quaternary recycling, the embedded energy of textiles can be reclaimed through incineration (Wang, 2010). This final approach is not addressed in this chapter. 

OLR of pre-consumer waste also has environmental benefits. An LCA conducted by Muthu et al. (2012a) concluded that the recycling of pre-consumer textile waste, or process waste, would directly lower the carbon footprint of the product However, not all textiles have the same environmental benefits when recycled. In developing their RecyclabiUty Potential Index assessing both environmental and economic benefits to recycling, Muthu et al. (2012b) found that polyester and polypropylene are ranked highest in recyclability with nylon 6,6 ranked last... 

Garment life cycle Pre-consumer waste recycled to fibre... 

Figure 6.2 Pre-consumer waste from the manufacturing process is collected for mechanical processing for use in apparel...

As described above, collection of pre-consumer waste is advanced in apparel manufacturing, with an estimated 75% of offcuts collected. While this waste may be open-loop recycled into other products, it is less common to find apparel companies utilising the recycled waste in apparel. The clothing brand Esprit, stocked in... 

Pre-consumer waste such as offcuts from the cutting process results in relatively clean and sortable fabrics, as one type of fabric can be reclaimed over a production mn and will be of a uniform colour and fibre type/blend. For this reason, recycled yams that are then returned into the apparel product cycle are more likely to be manufactured using pre-consumer textile waste. This also applies in the case of upcycling whole fabric pieces into new apparel. 

Figure 13.5 Schematic representation of the internal recycling of pre-consumer waste.

Production All process steps included, except for packaging and distribution. Sensitivity analyses for (i) production at customer s site and (ii) direct production from starch. All process steps included. The following options are distinguished for starch polymers and EPS Starch polymers EPS - Corn (maize) - Virgin PS - Potato - PS pre-consumer waste (industrial waste) - Potato with - PS post-consumer waste from MC/CD effluent use covers - Wheat, intensive - PS post-consumer waste from EPS - Wheat, extensive packaging - PS post-consumer waste from DSD (cups)... 

In apparel production, primary recycling is the collection of pre-consumer offcuts of fabric from production. The nature of cut-and-sew manufacture of apparel means that there is significant textile waste resulting from the leftover fabric between individual pattern pieces. Rissanen (2008) estimates this as up to 15% of the yield required for each garment. 

The range of applications for OLR yams varies considerably depending on the quality of the feedstock. It is important to distinguish between pre-consumer textile waste... 

Chen and Bums (2006) estimate that up to 75% of pre-consumer textile waste is collected by industry. It is then sold as a raw material to other industries and thus diverted from landfill. In contrast, collection and recycling of post-consumer textile waste is a more difficult proposition, and recycling rates vary considerably from country to country. 

It is important to note that there are challenges in calculating the benefits of OLR using LCA methodology. Chief of these are how to determine the parameters of the assessment. For example, when pre-consumer textile waste ( Product System A ) is collected for use in housing insulation ( Product System B ), the LCA must account for how the environmental benefits of recycling are allocated to both Product System A and Product System B (Klopffer and Grahl, 2014). 

OLR has proved feasible in the fashion context, both in collection of pre- and postconsumer textile waste for use in other products, and in collection of used bottles for recycling into textiles. Garments are suitable as a feedstock for products of lesser value, for example carpet underlay or insulation, with many applications possible. However, the varieties of fibre types and colours mean that the resulting shoddy is in unattractive greys or blacks that are unsuitable for spinning into apparel-quality yam. The wide variety of products that utilise pre-consumer textile waste and even post-consumer textile waste demonstrates that the recycling of textiles works when entering product streams of lesser value. 

In the case of pre-consumer textile waste, fibre blends such as cotton/elastane (also known by as spandex or Lycra) are a problem for effective recycling as the highly elastic fibres have very different characteristics from other fibres. As such, firms may send textiles with spandex to the landfill rather than attempt recycling (Langley and Kim, 2006). 

This standard establishes the different options for the recovery of plastics waste arising from pre-consumer and post-consumer sources. It also establishes the quality requirements that should be considered in all steps of the recovery process, and provides general recommendations for inclusion in material standards, test standards and product specifications. Consequently, the process stages, requirements, recommendations and terminology presented in the standard are intended to be of general applicability. 

In Australia, a total of 167, 673 tonnes of plastics were recovered for recycling. Of this, 74 percent was processed domestically, and the remainder was exported, mostly to Asia. Plastics recycling has increased significantly in the last decade, with the 2000 amount 180 percent higher than that of 1992 and 80 percent higher than in 1997. While some of this may be due to better accounting, much of it is due to increased recycling. This amount includes both pre-consumer and post-consumer industrial and domestic waste materials. 

Waste management Included Specific aspects - MSWI plants No credits for coproduction electricity/heat - Composting plants No credits for composting - Pre-consumer recycling Taken into account - Post-consumer recycling Not taken into account Included Specific aspects - MSWI plants No credits for electricity/heat... 

However, current forms of LOAC devices have many components external to the microfluidic chip such as valves, pumps, power supplies, electronic circuitry, and reagent/waste storage units. While these devices are a major advance on pre-existing autonomous instruments and could be deployed on a reasonable scale, they are typically too large, consume too much power and are too expensive for high-density deployment. 

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