Remanufactured fashions: A pathway to sustainability

There has been a significant increase in volume of new clothing sales over the last ten years; indeed it is the fastest growing waste in household waste stream, raising the potential for a similar increase in volume of textile waste dispose in landfill sites and the resultant harm to the environment. As volume of throwaway fashion increases and quality of fabric decreases, there is a need for an innovative approach to generating and managing this type of waste. Prior work on managing post-consumer textiles concurs with the Waste Hierarchy, ie, that reusing and remanufacturing fashion items makes the least impact on energy use. A number of fashion designers have developed businesses using this approach but are usually niche market, and the environmental benefit may not be as significant as the mass markets that are currently catered for by the large retailers using the current conventional design processes and supply chains. This paper will present and examine empirical data regarding design and remanufacturing processes as practiced by fashion designers in the niche market and the design processes within the large mass market retailers and manufacturers. The paper will then consider the current fashion supply and value chain, particularly issues around design and the use of technology within it to explore opportunities for incorporating remanufacturing approach within the conventional supply chain, identifying issues and providing recommendations. This examination will identify issues around design for social sustainability and design for sustainable behavior. The paper concludes with suggestions for future areas of study