Abstract
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 73% of used clothing is landfilled or incinerated globally and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fabric manufacturing in 2015 amounted to 1.2 billion tons. It must be reduced in the future, especially by reusing and recycling used clothing. Based on this perspective, researchers calculated the energy consumption and GHG emissions associated with reusing and recycling used clothing globally with a life cycle assessment (LCA). However, no study was conducted so far to estimate the total GHG emission reductions in Japan by reusing and recycling used clothing. In this study, the amount of used clothing currently discharged from households as combustible and noncombustible waste and their fiber types were estimated using literature. Then, the methods for reusing and recycling of used clothing were categorized into the following 5 types based on fiber type, that is, “reuse overseas,” “textile recycling to wipers,” “fiber recycling,” “chemical recycling” and “thermal recycling.” After that, by applying LCA, the GHG emission reductions by above 5 methods were estimated, based on the annual discharged weights of each fiber type. Consequently, the total GHG emissions reductions by reusing and recycling 6.03 × 108 kg of used clothing totally were estimated around 6.60 × 109 kg CO2e, to range between 6.57 × 109 kg CO2e and 6.64 × 109 kg CO2e, which depended on the type of “chemical recycling.” The largest contribution was “reuse overseas,” which was 4.01 × 109 kg CO2e corresponded to approximately 60% of the total reduction. Where, it was assumed that used clothing were exported from Japan to Malaysia which was currently the largest importing country. In this case, GHG emissions to manufacture new clothing in China, the largest country currently to export them to Japan, can be avoided, which are 29.4 kg CO2e and 32.5 kg CO2e respectively for 1 kg jeans and 1 kg T-shirts. Adding the GHG emissions for overseas transportation to this, on average, 32.0 kg CO2e per kg of used clothing was reduced by “reuse overseas,” which was 19.6 times larger than GHG emissions by incineration, 1.63 kg CO2e per kg, in which carbon neutrality for cotton was not counted. As the result, the total GHG emission reductions above mentioned, around 6.60 × 109 kg CO2e, corresponds to 70% of the GHG emissions by incineration of total household garbage in Japan.
Highlights
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation [1], greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fabric manufacturing in 2015 amounted to 1.2 billion tons and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change estimated that fashion industry GHG emissions were approximately 10% of total global GHG emissions [2]
As much of the used clothing discharged from households can still be worn and as it is difficult to separate the fiber combinations into each material type, it was assumed in this study that the collected used clothing, such as the 6.35 × 107 kg of T-shirts (1) in column (a) in Table 2, 2.01 × 107 kg of jean pants/skirts, 3.50 × 107 kg of child clothing and 6.83 × 106 kg of infant clothing were reused in Southeast Asia where there is high demand
In the case of chemical recycling, it is possible to produce the same quality of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from used clothing as new virgin products because recycled PET is obtained by repolymerizing the monomer that is derived from chemical recycling
Summary
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation [1], greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fabric manufacturing in 2015 amounted to 1.2 billion tons and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change estimated that fashion industry GHG emissions were approximately 10% of total global GHG emissions [2]. Sandin et al [6] reviewed 41 studies and reports and concluded that reusing and recycling textiles typically reduced the environmental impacts compared to incinerating and landfilling and that reusing was more beneficial than recycling. Farrant et al [8] conducted an LCA of used T-shirts (100% cotton) and pants (65% polyester and 35% cotton) in Sweden, which were reused or recycled into wipers and they reported that if the clothing was reused, GHG emissions were reduced by 14% for T-shirts and 23% for pants. No studies have estimated the total CO2 emission reduction due to reusing and recycling used clothing in Japan, consider the annual discharge amount of used clothing. Using an LCA, the GHG emissions that can be reduced by reusing and recycling used clothing discharged as combustible and/or noncombustible wastes in Japan were calculated
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