Overview
Greenhouse gas emissions caused by the textile industry must be drastically reduced by 2030 in order to achieve the globally set 1.5-degree target (COP 21). According to the ‘Fashion on Climate’ report (Berg, 2020), this requires new consumption patterns, the development of circular business models and a reduction in production-related emissions. The circular economy model offers key strategies for the sustainable management of used textiles. In order to achieve this in the field of workwear, comprehensive transformations are needed in all process steps, as well as close cooperation between stakeholders along the entire value chain.
Workwear is an ideal starting point for investigating circular product systems. The textiles are designed as robust goods with little variation in material composition, and the usage phase is uniform, controlled and documented. Nevertheless, every year, considerable volumes of workwear are incinerated or downcycled because there are no closed material cycles.
The CWW research project investigated recyclable design strategies, reuse practices, washing and usage processes, and product life cycle data. Major challenges included high functional demands on workwear, non-existent processes in reverse logistics, and untapped potential in terms of digital product data usage. The project consortium enabled an in-depth examination of circular value retention strategies. The following main results from the project support the transformation towards recyclable workwear:
- 49 recommendations for supporting circular resource flows for development and production, product and service consulting, laundry and care, return and product data use of workwear. Link: 10.5281/zenodo.18298633
- The Circular Workwear Indicator Tool supports the assessment of workwear in terms of its circularity. The tool supports product development and procurement. It takes into account the complex aspects of manufacturing, use and disposal. Link: 10.5281/zenodo.18374581 (available in German)
- For the nursing sector, four textile prototypes were developed and tested from used flat linen and workwear with a recycling content of up to 39%.
- A series of interviews was used to create a process diagram illustrating the complex processes involved in workwear. This was used to develop a future scenario for circular value creation that involves all stakeholders in the responsibility.
- Data-supported sorting of old clothes enabled the exchange of product data along the value chain to be tested. Practical sorting experiments were carried out with chipped workwear to examine the user interface, digital interfaces and implementation, and to improve sorting quality.
