Woven Together: Strengthening Cross-Disciplinary Efforts in Textiles

To achieve circularity, the debottlenecking of recycling is of uttermost importance. However, the interpretation of recycling is different for different stakeholders. Recycling as one of the R-strategies represents collecting, sorting and reuse of materials. On the other hand, consumers’ recycling behaviour includes buying or selling second hand clothing and disposal of clothing in the proper waste bin. Therefore, a more circular textile system needs the attention and cooperation from all stakeholders from producers, processors to consumers.

In this project, researchers from Wageningen Economic Research (WEcR), Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR), and Wageningen Food & Biobased Research (WFBR) come together to define pathways for a more supportive recycling system that takes into account the technological, safety, and societal perspectives, including both consumers and policies. Our key objective is to ensure that recycling does not become a bottleneck for achieving circularity.

To be able to achieve these goals, it is important to map the current status of the textile recycling system in the Netherlands. This is typically done by a so-called Material Flow Analysis (MFA), in which all material flows and their quantities are identified. Although several textile MFAs are published^{1. 2.}, they either address only a portion of the recycling chain or lack sufficient details to fully comprehend and resolve the bottlenecks in textile recycling.

Therefore, the multidisciplinary team of researchers in this project provides a unique opportunity to fill some of the data gaps in the current MFAs. By integrating technical studies (waste characterisation), often explored in MFAs, with insights from consumer studies and citizen science, the team gained a more comprehensive understanding of the Dutch textile recycling system.

Consumer studies were conducted to gain deeper insights into consumer behaviour regarding textile purchases as well as disposal and underlying motives, providing a clearer understanding of how and why individuals choose to purchase and discard clothing items. This helped the team to better define the waste and recycling streams. Citizen science was applied to obtain better insights into the Dutch wardrobe, ultimately enabling a more comprehensive understanding of the material flows. Through this research and future collaborations, we will not only define the number of materials in each flow but also know more about its composition. This knowledge will ultimately enable us to develop more effective recycling technologies, better policies regarding safety, and targeted interventions for specific groups of consumers and categories of clothing.