Overview
The global trade in second-hand clothing increased tenfold between 1990 and 2004. It correlates with the increased volume of used textiles collected and continues to grow with the ever-faster pace of fast fashion. Today, a small, high-quality proportion of the used textiles collected remains mainly in Western European markets. The more significant proportion of medium- and low-quality textiles is sold to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, from which it is sent to Asia and Africa via a global supply chain with negative social and environmental impacts. In the Global South, the textile waste often ends up in illegal landfills or uncontrolled incineration.
In order to utilize the resource of used textiles in a value-adding and local system and to take greater responsibility for waste, the City of Zurich (Waste Disposal + Recycling) and the Canton of Zurich (Office for Waste, Water, Energy & Air) commissioned the research group Product & Textile of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts to conduct a study to analyze the initial situation and design circular collection, sorting, and recycling processes.
The Zürcular project made it possible to work on the following topics:
- State of the Art textile reuse sector: Literature and desktop research were used to investigate the sector's social and environmental impact, EU regulations, and innovations.
- Local textile reuse sector: The existing reuse sector in Zurich was described through stakeholder mapping and qualitative interviews.
- Local reuse systems: Internally developed scenarios for a future, local reuse system for textile waste were discussed and reflected with experts in focus groups.
Based on the findings, the research group Products & Textiles developed recommendations to outline a circular reuse strategy that considers ecological, social, and economic aspects. These recommendations should minimize the impact of environmental damage on the Global South.
The recommendations were compiled in a guideline. The guideline provides municipalities, cantons and businesses with concrete suggestions on how circular recycling of used textiles can succeed. The guideline can be downloaded from the following link: https://zenodo.org/records/14040175
Possible solutions for implementing a circular recycling system were discussed and evaluated in the form of three forward-looking scenarios. The report on the scenarios can be downloaded from the following link (german only):https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12548221
