Textile waste is only matter out of place : Antecedents of value creation in reverse textile value chains

Abstract: The current waste management system of Post Consumer Textile Waste (PCTW) in Sweden leads to vast amounts of incinerated or exported textiles. The amount of PCTW reused or repurposed within the country is small in comparison to the amounts of textile products consumed every year. Hence, there is an observed problem in terms of low value creation from textile waste. A system that allows for more textiles to be kept and reused in Sweden could create more economic value in a resource-efficient way. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate value creation from PCTW for reuse and redesign in Sweden, and to establish a framework for the antecedents of value creation in reverse textile value chains. A pre-study was conducted to map the PCTW industry structure, and served as the basis for sampling cases. Data collection consisted of multiple case studies from 4 charity organisations, 3 clothing brands and 3 redesign brands. The interviews were performed in a semi-structured manner in order to discover the state-of-art in value creation and to identify the key enabling attributes. The findings were analysed to adjust the deductive framework to the textile industry context. Results and findings shows that the state-of-art for value creation among the selected cases varies depending on its mission. Charity organisations are facing a new competition of resources from clothing brands, who have realised a potential of new differentiation by engaging in value creation from PCTW. This has led to a new mind-set among the charity organisations to work more strategically in all their activities. Redesign brands are a relatively new actor and want to work symbolically with redesign to communicate the values in textile materials. Enablers and disablers to value creation from PCTW were found in the interviews and led to the development of an empirical framework. As a whole, this thesis provides rich descriptions of the current preconditions and challenges within the field. Furthermore, it presents a framework for the antecedents of value creation along the recovery processes involved in reuse and redesign value chain. The empirical framework confirms the themes in the theoretical framework, and concludes that there is a set of generic antecedents for value creation in reverse textile value chains. However, there are also category specific antecedents, which need to be considered. The specific experiences of one actor category might as well be valuable knowledge to another, which is why increased collaboration is suggested to enhance value creation from PCTW.