Understanding the textile and apparel recycling process

Western lifestyle is a significant contributor to landfill waste. Not only are products consumed at a high level, but Western goods are often over-packaged, contributing even more to the waste stream. As landfill capacity continues to be scarce, the costs of dumping will continue to rise. These rising costs are of concern for businesses as they seek ways to reduce their overhead costs. 

To compound the notion of over-consumption is the notion of fashion itself The 

It is well established that recycUng is economically beneficial, yet much of the discarded clothing and textile waste in the USA fails to reach the recycling pipeUne. The US textile recycling indnstry annnally diverts approximately 10 pounds per capita or 2.5 billion pounds of post-consumer waste from the waste stream. These pounds represent only about 30% of the total post-consumer annual textile waste (Brill, 1997). As an example, althongh there are several well-established uses for denim waste, the denim industry still deposits more than 70 million pounds of scrap denim in US landfills annnally (McCurry, 1996, p. 84). Furthermore, analysis of municipal solid waste indicates that unrecovered textile waste contributes to approximately 4.5% of the US landfills (Hammer, 1993). 

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