The supply chain of Textile Upcycling

This thesis identifies the supply chain of industrial fashion upcycling of post-consumer waste as well as differences to regular textile production based on the use of meter fabric. It finds that the supply chain of textile upcycling can be modelled generically, independently from what type of textile waste is being used. The differences to regular textile production that can be identified are, on the one hand, the dependency of design on sourcing respectively the interrelatedness of both phases. On the other hand, upcycling can require some additional steps such as sorting, cleaning and disassembly. These differences largely result from upcyclers usually entirely reworking (reconstructing) the material, and result in industrial fashion upcycling being more complex and costly than textile production using meter fabrics. Furthermore, this paper identifies challenges along this supply chain that industrial fashion upcyclers face as a result of sourcing this type of material from industrial textile recycling. It finds that serial upcycling of post-consumer textile waste (PCTW) from recyclers is confronted with a number of challenges in the supply chain and expectations on behalf of other actors in the chain. The low degree of standardisation can be identified as the most dominant factor in causing challenges, as non-standardisation also affects quantity and quality. Price does not reflect a particular problem. The basic problem that explains the lack of upcyclers co-operating with recycling companies, it that the former are quality-oriented in sourcing while the latter are quantity-oriented in selling. Based on the findings, and by taking a supply-chain perspective, solution approaches to the issues are sketched. If upcycling of PCTW is ever to become scalable to industrial numbers of production, upcyclers and recyclers need to approach each other in order to identify suitable waste streams for industrially upcycling post-consumer textiles, and enhance existing or develop other business models that are more suitable to the use of post-consumer textiles on an industrial scale. One solution could be to focus on less complex upcycling techniques like for example embellishment and try to develop scalable, semi-standardised products for low-price mass markets. As a necessary but still additional task in this research project, the concept of upcycling in fashion design, as a form of sustainable textile production, is theoretically embedded into the context and concepts of sustainability and recycling. As a result, upcycling in fashion design is described as an eco-efficient, alternative approach to the prevailing concept of waste management according to the waste hierarchy.