Analysis of Textile Circularity Potential
CONECT 2023: XVI International Scientific Conference of Environmental and Climate Technologies: Book of Abstracts 2023
Megija Valtere, Terēza Bezručko, Dagnija Blumberga

Global annual textile consumption has doubled in the last two decades and is expected to keep increasing [1]. Since the textile system operates primarily in a linear way, it is highly polluting and creates a lot of waste. But nevertheless, it has a high potential for circularity since most textile products can be recycled or reused. Today most of the waste ends up in landfills, and less than 1% is recycled back into textiles [2]. This study aims to gather information and evaluate which textile product group has the highest potential for circular economy growth. It covers three main textile product streams: fashion, home, and technical textiles. The groups were compared using eleven criteria: environmental impact, washes, market demand, technology energy efficiency, social aspect, production, export/import, landfilled waste, recycled waste, synthetic materials, projected lifetime. Indicative values have been found for each sustainability indicator by using and mathematically transforming data from the scientific literature. The evaluation method used in this study was multi-criteria decision analysis. The results indicated that the fashion textile group has the most significant potential for circular economy development.


Keywords
Apparel; circular economy; home textiles; multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA); technical textiles; TOPSIS
DOI
10.7250/CONECT.2023.104
Hyperlink
https://journals.rtu.lv/index.php/conect/article/view/CONECT.2023.104

Valtere, M., Bezručko, T., Blumberga, D. Analysis of Textile Circularity Potential. In: CONECT 2023: XVI International Scientific Conference of Environmental and Climate Technologies: Book of Abstracts, Latvia, Riga, 10-12 May, 2023. Riga: Riga Technical University, 2023, pp.135-135. ISBN 978-9934-22-898-8. e-ISBN 978-9934-22-899-5. ISSN 2592-9704. Available from: doi:10.7250/CONECT.2023.104

Publication language
English (en)
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