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Gaining Benefits from Discarded Textiles

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Gaining Benefits from Discarded Textiles Gaining benefits from discarded textiles LCA of different treatment pathways Gaining benefits from discarded textiles LCA of different treatment pathways Anders Schmidt, David Watson, Sandra Roos, Cecilia Askham and Pia Brunn Poulsen TemaNord 2016:537 Gaining benefits from discarded textiles LCA of different treatment pathways Anders Schmidt, David Watson, Sandra Roos, Cecilia Askham and Pia Brunn Poulsen ISBN 978-92-893-4658-0 (PRINT) ISBN 978-92-893-4659-7 (PDF) ISBN 978-92-893-4660-3 (EPUB) http://dx.doi.org/10.6027/TN2016-537 TemaNord 2016:537 ISSN 0908-6692 © Nordic Council of Ministers 2016 Layout: Hanne Lebech Cover photo: David Watson Print: Rosendahls-Schultz Grafisk Printed in Denmark This publication has been published with financial support by the Nordic Council of Ministers. However, the contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views, policies or recom- mendations of the Nordic Council of Ministers. www.norden.org/nordpub Nordic co-operation Nordic co-operation is one of the world’s most extensive forms of regional collaboration, involv- ing Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland. Nordic co-operation has firm traditions in politics, the economy, and culture. It plays an im- portant role in European and international collaboration, and aims at creating a strong Nordic community in a strong Europe. Nordic co-operation seeks to safeguard Nordic and regional interests and principles in the global community. Common Nordic values help the region solidify its position as one of the world’s most innovative and competitive. Nordic Council of Ministers Ved Stranden 18 DK-1061 Copenhagen K Phone (+45) 3396 0200 www.norden.org Contents Contents .............................................................................................................................................................. 5 Summary............................................................................................................................................................. 7 Summary of the critical review ........................................................................................................ 9 Preface ...............................................................................................................................................................11 Abbreviations .................................................................................................................................................13 1. Introduction and objectives ............................................................................................................15 1.1 Background ...............................................................................................................................15 1.2 Goal of the project ..................................................................................................................17 1.3 Scope and outcomes of the project ................................................................................17 2. Overview of flows of textiles in Nordic countries .................................................................19 2.1 Recycling options ...................................................................................................................22 3. Chemicals in used textiles ................................................................................................................25 3.1 Legislation concerning chemicals in textiles.............................................................26 3.2 Literature survey of chemicals in textiles problematic for recycling ..........28 3.3 Current situation in the Nordic countries ..................................................................30 3.4 Future outlook .........................................................................................................................32 4. The general framework for the life cycle assessment ........................................................35 4.1 The functional unit ................................................................................................................35 4.2 The scenarios............................................................................................................................36 4.3 Life Cycle Impact Assessment methodology .............................................................42 4.4 Reporting the results ............................................................................................................43 4.5 Limitations of the calculations .........................................................................................44 5. Common elements in all or most scenarios ............................................................................47 5.1 Collection, sorting and distribution of sorted textiles .........................................47 5.2 Marginal energy considerations......................................................................................52 6. Modelling of scenarios for treatment of textile waste ........................................................57 6.1 Guidance for readers ............................................................................................................57 6.2 Scenarios 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A: Incineration of textile fibres: 1) 100% polyester, 2) 100% cotton, 3) 100% wool and 4) average Nordic fabric mix ...............59 6.3 Scenarios 1B, 2B, 3B & 4B: Reuse of textile products in Nordic countries substituting new products from 1) 100% polyester, 2) 100% cotton, 3) 100% wool average Nordic fabric mix and 4)) average Nordic fabric mix 64 6.4 Scenarios 1C, 2C, 3C and 4C: Reuse of textile products in the ROW substituting new products from 1)100% polyester, 2) 100% cotton 3) 100% wool and 4) average Nordic fabric mix ..........................................................72 6.5 Scenario 1D: Polyester recycling ....................................................................................77 6.6 Scenarios 2D, 2E, 2F – Recycling of cotton, substituting cellulose pulp, virgin cotton and flax ............................................................................................................80 6.7 Scenario 3D Recycling of wool .........................................................................................87 6.8 Scenario 4D and 4E Recycling of mixed fibres as a substitution for cellulose-base industrial wipes and low-quality flax-based filling material .......................................................................................................................................89 7. Results ....................................................................................................................................................... 93 7.1 Fibre scenarios ....................................................................................................................... 93 7.2 Polyester fibres ....................................................................................................................... 94 7.3 Cotton fibres........................................................................................................................... 101 7.4 Wool fibres.............................................................................................................................. 107 7.5 Mixed fibres ............................................................................................................................ 112 7.6 Upscaling of results – an example ............................................................................... 113 8. Data sources ......................................................................................................................................... 117 9. Data quality assessment ................................................................................................................. 121 9.1 The Pedigree approach ..................................................................................................... 121 9.2 Scoring of data quality ...................................................................................................... 122 10. Interpretation ...................................................................................................................................... 125 11. References ............................................................................................................................................. 127 12. Sammenfatning ................................................................................................................................... 133 Appendix A – Fibre mixes ...................................................................................................................... 137 Stage 1 – Identifying product types .......................................................................................... 137 Stage 2 – Gathering import, export and domestic production data .......................... 138 Stage 3 – Calculation of total quantities of each textile put on the market............ 139 Stage 4 – Aggregating into totals of each fibre type put on the market .................. 140 Stage 5 – Calculating shares of fibres in total weight ....................................................... 140 Appendix B – links to results ............................................................................................................... 143 Appendix C – Critical review ...............................................................................................................
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