final report a case study on management of leftovers from ... study on clothing manufacturing waste...
TRANSCRIPT
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Final Report
A case study on management of
leftovers from garment
manufacturing in Sri Lanka
Project code: REC900-0D1 Date: February 2019
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WRAP’s vision is a world in which
resources are used sustainably.
Our mission is to accelerate the move
to a sustainable resource-efficient
economy through re-inventing how we
design, produce and sell products; re-
thinking how we use and consume
products; and re-defining what is
possible through re-use and recycling.
Find out more at www.wrap.org.uk
Document reference (please use this reference when citing WRAP’s work):
WRAP, 2019, Banbury, A case study on management of leftovers from garment manufacturing in Sri Lanka, edited
by Cecile Martin and Jennifer Decker
Quality Assurance: The case study results were peer reviewed by WRAP’s technical team and have been compared
with data and reports that WRAP have separately reviewed; we can confirm that the wastage rates in the case study
are consistent with, or higher than, wastage rates seen elsewhere in the industry.
Study conducted by: Ann Runnel & Nin Castle, Reverse Resources
Front cover photography: Photo taken from a textile sorting area in Dhaka, Bangladesh 2017
While we have taken reasonable steps to ensure this report is accurate, WRAP does not accept liability for any loss, damage, cost or expense incurred or
arising from reliance on this report. Readers are responsible for assessing the accuracy and conclusions of the content of this report. Quotations and case
studies have been drawn from the public domain, with permissions sought where practicable. This report does not represent endorsement of the
examples used and has not been endorsed by the organisations and individuals featured within it. This material is subject to copyright. You can copy it
free of charge and may use excerpts from it provided they are not used in a misleading context and you must identify the source of the material and
acknowledge WRAP’s copyright. You must not use this report or material from it to endorse or suggest WRAP has endorsed a commercial product or
service. For more details please see WRAP’s terms and conditions on our website at www.wrap.org.uk
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WRAP - A case study on management of leftovers from garment manufacturing in Sri Lanka 1
Contents
1.0 Overview of project .........................................................................................4
1.1 Study conducted ....................................................................................... 4 1.2 Sri Lankan factory background and current leftovers management process ..... 4
2.0 Total volume of Jersey garments and leftovers traced in Sri Lanka ..............5 3.0 Insights into different types of fabric waste generation ...............................5
3.1 Roll ends .................................................................................................. 6 3.2 Cutting scraps .......................................................................................... 6 3.3 Overbooking of fabrics............................................................................... 6 3.4 Overproduction ......................................................................................... 7
4.0 Remanufacturing ............................................................................................7 4.1 Introduction to remanufacturing ................................................................. 7 4.2 Sri Lankan factories case study 1: Jeans (invisible remanufacturing) .............. 9 4.3 Sri Lankan factories case study 2: Denim Jacket (invisible remanufacturing) . 10 4.4 Sri Lankan factories case study 3: T-shirt (invisible remanufacturing) ........... 10 4.5 Sri Lankan factories case study 4: Fleece jacket (invisible remanufacturing) .. 11 4.6 Other remanufacturing examples .............................................................. 11
5.0 Observations from the study ....................................................................... 12 5.1 Inventory of roll end pieces ...................................................................... 12 5.2 Other comments ..................................................................................... 12
6.0 Recycling ...................................................................................................... 13 6.1 Overview of textile traders in Sri Lanka ..................................................... 13 6.2 Handling textile leftovers ......................................................................... 14 6.3 Main problems in handling textile leftovers ................................................ 14 6.4 Potential for improved materials efficiency ................................................. 15
7. Summary ...................................................................................................... 16
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WRAP - A case study on management of leftovers from garment manufacturing in Sri Lanka 2
Glossary
WORD DEFINITION
GSM Fabric grammage, in grams per square metre
Leftover Any material in or outside factory that has not been used
within a garment.
P.O. Purchase Order
Remanufacturing The process of using leftover cut end pieces in
subsequent purchase orders, thereby reducing the
volume of leftovers and consumption of virgin fabric.
Cross Match Matching materials from different purchase orders for
remanufacturing.
Alternative marker A marker plan with the removed patterns taken out.
Created for remanufacturing to analyse fabric savings.
Removed marker The marker plan created for the removed pattern pieces,
to calculate the volume of roll end pieces needed.
Roll end pieces Leftovers from the cutting room: full roll width, and
lengths varying from 18 inches to 5-10 yards (5-10 yards
depending on the factory length category for deadstock
fabrics).
Rejected Fabric Fabric that is not accepted into the factory because it has
failed quality control.
Stock Lot The company’s central storage point for collected
leftovers from all 23 factories
Traders The groups and individuals who collect and sort the
leftovers from the factories.
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WRAP - A case study on management of leftovers from garment manufacturing in Sri Lanka 3
Executive summary
This case study reviews opportunities to make more efficient use of fabric
leftovers from garment manufacturing through remanufacturing and recycling. It
is the result of a site visit in early 2018 to two factories operated by a major
clothing manufacturer in Sri Lanka, in order to identify, trace and analyse their
production leftovers.
A sample of data from four factories, covering the production of 300,000 garments
for nine purchase orders, showed that out of the fabrics reaching the cutting
room, on average:
• 14% became cutting scraps;
• 0.5% became larger pieces of surplus fabric 0.5 to 10 yards in size; and
• 0.5% became roll ends.
The cutting scraps are sold for recycling, although their end-destination often
cannot be traced. Some of the roll end fabric is used to replace defective panels in
garments. However, the majority of fabric pieces and roll ends are not reused; this
case study estimates their potential for use in making additional internal sections
for garments. For example, fabric leftovers from a production run of 25,000 jean
garments could generate enough garment pieces (over 500 yards of fabric) to
replace the internal sections of another 5000 pairs of jeans.
Better management of fabric leftovers could enable such remanufacturing.
Likewise, better management of cutting scraps (e.g. segregation by colour and
fibre composition in the factory) could enable recycling at higher value. However,
the potential for savings is variable:
• Designs with stripes and prints produce more waste and it can be
difficult to find remanufacturing opportunities;
• Lycra content and blended materials lower the value of leftovers for
recycling.
There is a decrease in transparency of the end-destination of waste fabrics as
factories and traders pass on the low value leftovers to the informal market.
Better data on the quantities and types of waste fabrics would be needed to
inform investment in recycling facilities.
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WRAP - A case study on management of leftovers from garment manufacturing in Sri Lanka 4
1.0 Overview of project
1.1 Study conducted
Reverse Resources (RR) conducted site visits to a knit factory and woven factory,
part of a group of 23 factories in Sri Lanka, between 26 February 26 – 9 March 2018.
The following tasks were undertaken:
• Leftover analysis on 5 purchase orders: partial data was received from
factories, so some of the numbers were estimated to provide a baseline
scenario;
• Remanufacturing cross-match analysis: all incoming orders over a six-
month period were compared and analysed to understand what leftovers
could feed into subsequent orders;
• Alternative marker plans: alternative marker plans were developed for four
products to suggest where new fabric could be saved and how much
leftover fabric could be used to replace new fabric.
1.2 Sri Lankan factory background and current leftovers management process
• The 23 factories are consolidated in a group, producing a wide range of knit
and woven garments. There is no fabric production within the Group.
• Key buyers: Tesco, M&S, H&M, Patagonia, Levi’s, PVH, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo
Boss.
• Total volume of cutting scraps: 200-300 tonnes per month.
• Scraps that don’t find a market (20-30% of leftovers) are sent to incineration
at a cement kiln which means the fabric value is lost.
• Roll ends over 10 yards in length are collected in each factory and may be
used in sampling, future styles, or get sold as fabrics to local markets. If the
factory cannot find a user or buyer for the fabrics, these are sent to a
centralised Stock Lot which receives leftover fabrics from all 23 factories in
the Group. Only a very small amount of the fabric received at the Stock Lot
is easy to sell at a fair price.
• The Stock Lot also deals with garment overproduction: labels are removed
and replaced before these garments are sold to secondary markets.
• Those products from which labels and identifiers cannot be removed are
either cut into four pieces (lower parts of trousers can be reused) or
shredded. From the group of 23 factories, approximately 60,000 – 70,000
thousand pieces of garments per month get shredded.
• The knit factory uses mostly polyester fabrics (95% of production). Cutting
scraps, around 12,000 kg per month, are not segregated by colour and are
sold to local textile traders.
• The knit factory mainly deals with a small group of textile traders, checking
if they have an environmental protection licence and asking where
materials are shipped, but they do not trace leftovers, or volumes shipped
etc.
• The knit factory is investing in projects to find better means of fabric
optimisation both independently and in cooperation with their key buyers.
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WRAP - A case study on management of leftovers from garment manufacturing in Sri Lanka 5
2.0 Total volume of Jersey garments and leftovers traced in Sri Lanka
Data collected from the factories gives a snapshot of the flow of leftovers at that
point in time. Some information was only partially received; therefore, some
numbers are based on estimates to provide a baseline scenario.
Figure 1 - Total volume of Jersey garments and leftovers traced in Sri Lanka
In one month, the knit factory received 7.4t of fabric and manufactured 5.9t of
garments. 19% of fabric was “lost” in the manufacturing process; 15% as scraps,
1% as fabric pieces up to 10 yards in length, 2% as roll-ends (deadstock), and less
than 0.5% in over-production. The over-production was sold to the original buyer
and the roll-ends remained in stock in the factory. The scraps and fabric pieces
were sold, and their final destinations could not be traced. This case study had a
particular interest in the opportunity to use the pieces and roll ends (2-3% of
fabric purchased) in producing future orders.
3.0 Insights into different types of fabric waste generation
An analysis across four factories, (woven and knit products: shirts, trousers,
jackets and t-shirts in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, nine purchase orders, 300,000
items) showed that out of the fabrics reaching the cutting room, on average:
• 14% becomes cutting scraps (min 11%, max 23%);
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WRAP - A case study on management of leftovers from garment manufacturing in Sri Lanka 6
• 0.5% of fabric becomes bigger fabric pieces 0.5 to 10 yards in size (min
0.13%, max 2.6%);
• The volumes of leftovers vary between products, however the data
sample in this study is too small to provide averages for different
product groups;
• Comparing similar products (e.g. fleeces) gives as much variation as
comparing different types of products (fleece vs trousers);
• The volume of leftovers depends more on other causes (marker
efficiency, fabric width, possibility to apply lay slip method1) and
cannot be clearly related to product type. However, it can be
assumed that shading and shrinkage issues in case of denim/twill
trouser products generates higher volume of roll ends on average,
than in jersey production.
3.1 Roll ends
The average proportion of roll-end pieces was 0.5% of fabric reaching the
cutting room (up to 1.5%). In the factories studied, roll-end pieces are
discarded as waste alongside cutting scraps. Some are used to replace
defective panels, however only a small proportion of the roll end pieces
gets used in this way. Often the end pieces cannot be avoided due to fabric
shade and shrink differences, and this must be a consideration in
determining their potential for reuse.
3.2 Cutting scraps
Only a small proportion of cutting scraps are currently segregated by colour
or composition in the cutting rooms despite this being easy for factories to
do. Cutting scraps are mixed up and sorting is done manually by the
traders. Recyclers depend on receiving segregated scraps from traders. A
lack of segregation at the factory means recycling plants lose valuable
information on fabric types, have lower quality of feedstock and higher
contamination rates. Segregating leftovers by colour and composition in
the factory may have some cost implications which would need to be
balanced against the expected increased value of sorted leftovers.
3.3 Overbooking of fabrics
Overbooking for fabrics received into the factory warehouse can vary from
a minimum 0.06% to maximum 4.9%. Variation is due to the producing
country, whether there are repeat orders forecasted, how exact the
planning methods used in a factory are and how monitoring of fabric usage
is carried out by the buyers. Woven products may require a higher volume
of extra fabric to be booked due to shrinkage and shading issues.
1With certain softwares like ‘intellocut’ it is possible to increase efficiency by overlapping
the ends of fabrics in the middle of the lay. It then calculates how many pieces are
unusable due to being cut from two different rolls.
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WRAP - A case study on management of leftovers from garment manufacturing in Sri Lanka 7
Some of the overbooked fabrics and roll end pieces could provide a great
opportunity for remanufacturing if the data on available fabric was
managed and shared effectively at factory warehouse level.
3.4 Overproduction
Overproduction is usually not considered as waste, as the volumes and use
of such products depends on case-by-case tolerance agreements between
factories and buyers.
At the same time, overproduction can be difficult for the factory to deal
with if there is no tolerance in the agreement for overproduction (or
seconds) and when products have brand-specific characteristics (e.g.
overprinted logos, branded fabrics) that cannot be removed from the
garments to allow sale in aftermarkets.
4.0 Remanufacturing
4.1 Introduction to remanufacturing
Remanufacturing is the process of using leftover cut end pieces in new
garment purchase orders. Most large factories specialise in producing
specific garments. A factory typically has a large number of very similar but
slightly varying fabrics going through production. Variations include weight,
colour shade, fabric composition, construction etc. Consequently, leftovers
produced are of similar but varying types.
It is estimated that about a quarter of all leftovers are cut end pieces, that
is fabric pieces the full roll width and ranging in length from 18 inches to 5 -
10 yards. The limit of 5-10 yards depends on the categories individual
factories have set for deadstock fabrics.
Reverse Resources has designed remanufacturing methods for large scale
production. By selecting small sections of existing designs to use
remanufactured fabric, a higher level of efficiency can be achieved in the
cutting room. There are three approaches to remanufacturing illustrated
below. The invisible remanufacturing technique was identified as
potentially suitable for the Sri Lankan factories’ production and quality
processes i.e. using leftover fabrics on internal sections of garments.
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4.2 Sri Lankan factories case study 1: Jeans (invisible remanufacturing)
Pattern Pieces Removed: Front pocket facings
Fly facings x2
Inside Waistband
Original Marker (5 pieces) 7.10 yards
Alternative Marker (5 pieces) 6.59 yards (marker not inc. removed pieces)
Removed Marker (16 pieces) 1.64 yards (marker only including removed pieces)
SAVINGS
Per 5 garments saving 0.513 yards
Per 1 garment saving 0.1026 yards
For 5,000 garments 513 yards
By taking out the inside sections of a pair of jeans e.g. waistband, pocket facings
(jeans do not often have front pocket facings, but this particular design did) and
fly facings and cutting them out of leftover roll end pieces from another
production, 513 yards of virgin fabric could be saved from a run of 5,000 jeans. On
an order of 3,000 jeans, 66.5 yards of roll ends were created. The assumption is
that larger production runs of around 25,000 garments could produce enough roll
ends to replace all the internal sections of another 5,000 jeans.
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4.3 Sri Lankan factories case study 2: Denim Jacket (invisible remanufacturing)
Pattern Pieces Removed: Under collar
Front chest pocket lining
Pocket flap facings
Main pocket bag
Original Marker (4 pieces) 5.09 yards
Alternative Marker (4 pieces) 4.47 yards (marker not inc. removed pieces)
Removed Marker (16 pieces) 1.3 yards (marker only including removed pieces)
SAVINGS
Per 4 garments saving 0.62 yards
Per 1 garment saving 0.155 yards
For 5,000 garments 775 yards
By taking out the inside sections of a denim jacket (e.g. under collar, front chest
pocket lining, pocket flap facings, main pocket bags) and cutting them out of
leftover roll end pieces from another production, 775 yards of virgin fabric would
be saved on an order of 5,000 jackets. On an order of 3,000 jeans, 66.5 yards of roll
ends were created.
From this we could assume that larger production runs of around 35,000 jeans
could produce enough roll ends to replace all the internal sections of another
5,000 denim jackets. The use of a jeans production example and not a jacket was
chosen, as the volume of jeans produced daily is so large that it is most likely that
leftovers for a jacket would come from jeans production.
4.4 Sri Lankan factories case study 3: T-shirt (invisible remanufacturing)
Pattern Pieces Removed: Back neck tape
Original Marker (77 pieces) 11.34 yards
Alternative Marker (66 pieces) 11.24 yards (marker not inc. removed pieces)
Removed Marker (48 pieces) 32 inches
(marker only including removed pieces)
SAVINGS
Per 5 garments saving 0.035 yards
Per 1 garment saving 0.007 yards
For 5,000 garments 35 yards
By taking out the back-neck tape from a t-shirt and cutting it out of leftover roll
end pieces from another production would save 35 yards of virgin fabric on an
order of 5,000 t-shirts. A very small saving but considering the volumes of t-shirts
produced, the potential impact could be significant. On an order of 2,900 t-shirts,
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2.3 yards of roll ends were created. It is assumed that larger production runs of
around 50,000 t-shirts could produce enough roll ends to replace the back-neck
tapes of another 5,000 t-shirts. T-shirt cuttings are generally quite efficient unless
being cut from striped or printed fabric. However, the volumes of roll end pieces
from other jersey items like leggings can be bigger and these would also provide a
good feedstock for remanufacturing back neck tapes.
4.5 Sri Lankan factories case study 4: Fleece jacket (invisible remanufacturing)
Pattern Pieces Removed: Pocket bags
Original Marker (6 pieces) 8.27 yards
Alternative Marker (6 pieces) 6.86 yards (marker not inc. removed pieces)
Removed Marker (3 pieces) 22 inches (marker only including removed pieces)
SAVINGS
Per 6 garments saving 1.41 yards
Per 1 garment saving 0.235 yards
For 5,000 garments 1,175 yards
By taking out the pocket bags from a fleece jacket and cutting them out of
leftover roll end pieces from another production would save 1,175 yards of virgin
fabric on an order of 5,000 fleece jackets. On an order of 4,000 sleeveless fleece
jackets, 66.5 yards of roll ends were created. It could be assumed that larger
production runs of around 70,000 pcs could produce enough roll ends to replace
the pocket bags of another 5,000 fleece jackets.
4.6 Other remanufacturing examples
Jersey – Invisible
remanufacturing
Potential saving of
new fabric used in
production
100 yards of leftover fabric
could replace details of this
amount of items
Fleece to fleece: hood lining 2.8% of shell fabric 2,608 pcs
Jersey from t-shirts, leggings
or dresses to replace side
pockets of a fleece jacket
59% of lining fabric 485 pcs
Wovens – Invisible
remanufacturing
Potential saving of
new fabric used in
production
100 yards of leftover fabric
could replace details of this
amount of items
Chino trouser: fly facing 1.5% 4,824 pcs
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5.0 Observations from the study
• A list of defective fabrics was maintained in the warehouse and contained
the following information: style number, fabric composition, colour, batch
number, roll number, length and cause of rejection (e.g. low GSM). These
fabrics are not planned to be used in production.
• In most cases such defective fabrics are not returned to the mill but sold
locally.
• The project could not collect data on defective fabric volumes. However, as
an example, in one instance, a total of 498 yards of fabric was rejected due
to low fabric weight (GSM).
• There is potential to use defective fabrics for remanufacturing depending
on the nature of the defect. Fabrics can be rejected due to colour or weight
differences, warping, stretching or damage to roll. Using a fabric with these
types of faults for remanufacturing may be feasible, depending on the final
product’s quality specifications. Any failures in fabric performance will limit
opportunities for remanufacturing.
5.1 Inventory of roll end pieces
• Roll end pieces are reported to be used for re-cut for damaged pieces. This
study could not access the re-cut data report breakdown by purchase order,
but comparison was made of the total yardage going through cutting per
day and average yardage of fabric re-cut per day.
• The comparison found that 0.18% of all fabric going through production
needed re-cut, using a small proportion (5.8%) of fabric roll ends and end
pieces. Therefore, it is worth measuring and keeping an inventory of the
end pieces for other remanufacturing opportunities.
5.2 Other comments
• If the fabric width could be decided by the garment factory there would be
less wastage. While developing marker plans the factory can calculate the
optimum width for that design. If fabric was made to this predefined width
a higher marker efficiency could be obtained.
• Fabric compositions can impact on the fabric waste. For example, when a
designer chooses to use cotton with elastane (Lycra) content the value of
that cotton for recycling is reduced by up to 15 times.
• Designs with stripes and prints, especially with matching stripes or
placement prints produce a lot more cutting scraps and roll end pieces than
plain fabrics.
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6.0 Recycling
6.1 Overview of textile traders in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has only one large corporate trading/recycling solution provider. The
rest of the traders are informal workers and small groups going from one pick up
to the next, so the corporate trader is unable to build up long term relationships
with them. Many of these informal traders sort the leftovers and sell them on to
the corporate trader who can deal with overseas logistics.
The Sri Lankan corporate trader’s main business is paper and cardboard, they only
started trading textiles two years ago in cooperation with Brandix, one of the
three biggest garment production corporations. Textiles are collected from
various factories but mainly from Brandix. Collecting from factories usually comes
with the obligation (based on the agreements made) to pick up all the leftovers
that the factory has.
The Sri Lankan corporate trader is only able to export certain textile leftovers, like
cotton. Hence the trader segregates the collected textiles to extract the highest
value leftovers.
Photo: the corporate trader’s sorting area, Colombo, Sri Lanka 2018
Approximately 160-175 tonnes of knits in cotton and cotton-polyester-lycra mixes
and 200 tonnes of woven mixed fibre leftovers are collected per month.
The biggest export market is India which is the largest buyer of textile scraps in
the world as they have wide acceptance criteria. The corporate trader has about
fifteen customers (both traders and recyclers) in India. They are also able to
export to Pakistan and Europe. European buyers have strict specification on the
fabric leftovers they accept and penalise sellers for errors as low as 0.05% in fibre
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composition. They also typically request at least one tonne of a specific colour. At
the time of this study, China was not accepting any textile leftovers.
6.2 Handling textile leftovers
All exported materials need to be segregated by composition to be sold forward.
In exports, the highest price is received for 100% white or off-white cotton
materials. The price difference between 100% cotton and 95-99% cotton leftover
can be 10-15 times. This price difference also accounts for different colours. White,
black and other bright colours have higher values. Printed material has no value
at all.
Light colour shades of the same colours will give an extremely low value.
Woven/twill coloured fabrics with Lycra and polycotton content are extremely
difficult to sell. This is due to the fact that current recycling technology cannot
process these materials. Although blended fabrics can be shredded into shoddy,
the abundance of these fabrics results in a low market value. Knit fabrics are
preferred to woven fabrics which create high quantities of fibre dust in the
recycled weave. Textile leftover prices also fluctuate depending on cotton market
prices.
Current deals with buyers allow the shipment of other material with the
requested 100% cotton, because recyclers have the capacity to produce low-
quality materials from the low-value scraps and sell it cheaply. Such deals are
created to move on the lower value material which would end up in incineration,
which is costly. Landfilling (dumping) is not an option based on the agreements
with factories.
Textiles composition is determined mostly by look-and-feel and by burning tests
(where the colour of the flame suggests content of polyester for example). There is
little or no data available on the fabrics collected from the factories. The
responsibility to determine the fabric composition is fully on traders, who may
have to pay high penalties if the fabric is not as specified when the recycling plant
conducts tests.
6.3 Main problems in handling textile leftovers
There are stringent agreements from brands to factories that no leftovers should
go to landfill or incineration and the factory passes on the same agreement to the
trader. Traders can only sell a small amount of the total leftovers for profit and
the remaining fabrics have to be disposed of at a cost.
At this point a trader will sell the non-profitable leftovers to local traders who are
typically small family-run businesses who make a small amount of money from
maximising the use of these materials. The responsibility has been passed on as
far as the brand, factory or trader is concerned, but the leftovers are still at risk of
being burned in the backyard or put into landfill.
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This problem arises as the recycling plants have no interest in buying the low
value leftovers. There is also no visibility and knowledge about their final
destination or the possibilities that could arise.
Even high value leftovers, e.g.100% cotton, are sometimes downcycled or sent to a
lower level recycling facility when the trader cannot collect enough of that specific
colour and so sells it on at a lower price mixed with other colours.
Lack of transparency and data on leftovers’ final destination hinders the
development of a business case for any new recycling plant. The Sri Lankan
corporate trader is looking into opening a recycling plant, but lack of information
hinders planning.
6.4 Potential for improved materials efficiency
Collaboration across all stakeholders is needed to maximise the use and value of
textile leftovers. The most important issue to solve is data transparency and
accessibility.
There are several recycling pilot plants being set up in Europe, Hong Kong, China
and the USA to test and scale up new alternative recycling solutions (chemical
fibre-to-fibre recycling, chemically separation of fibres for recycling etc.). Most of
these recycling solutions lack data on the material flows and volumes available
for recycling and the excess of certain types of fibres in some areas. Some
chemical recycling processes and all mechanical recycling methods are cost-
sensitive to the input fibre composition and colour or some other aspects of the
feedstock which makes data and market transparency a priority to bring down
the cost of recycling in the long term.
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7. Summary
The table below summarises the findings for the leftovers studied at garment
stage.
Table 1 - Summary of leftovers at garment stage
Type of
leftover
Mixed cutting
scraps
Fabric pieces
0.5 - 10yds
Roll ends
(deadstock)
Overproduction
Average % of
fabric reaching
cutting room
14%
(11% - 23%)
0.5%
(0.13% - 2.6%)
0.5%
(up to 1.5%)
Case by case
Potential
action for
reduction
Better lay plan Better lay plan TBC case by
case
Better planning
Current
destination
Trader, sorting
for export, final
destination
unknown
Trader, sorting
for export, final
destination
unknown
Stock Lot, some
used in
production
Stock lot, then
shipped to
retailers or
prepared for
sale to
secondary
market where
possible
Potential
improved
destination
Higher value
recycling for
sorted scraps
Evaluate
potential for
remanufacturing
Evaluate
potential for
remanufacturing
More flexible
agreements with
buyers as /
where needed Implications
for improved
destination
Sorting by composition and colour + storage with data
management for traceability
This work has been conducted to inform both the baseline of garment production
waste and to investigate reuse and higher value recycling opportunities for
leftovers. Further study would be needed to draw more representative
conclusions on the opportunities to reduce waste in the supply chain.
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www.wrap.org.uk/sustainable-
textiles