Linear, reuse or recycling? An environmental comparison of different life cycle options for cotton roller towels

Abstract

The environmental impacts of current, predominantly linear, life cycles of textiles are widespread and substantial. Although applying circular economy (CE) approaches offers the potential to support the transition to more sustainable textile value chains, there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting the choice of individual CE strategies for different types of textiles. The aim of this paper is to study and compare the environmental impacts of introducing different CE strategies (reuse, recycle) into the life cycle of cotton roller towels in terms of climate change impact and water consumption. According to the results, a linear life cycle of a cotton roller towel causes a climate change impact of 12.4 g CO2e/hand-drying and water consumption of 2.4 l/hand-drying. Combining different CE strategies (reuse and recycling), the roller towel's impacts could be reduced to as low as 8.9 g CO2e and 0.5 l water/hand-drying. The results indicate that the key to reducing the climate change impacts and water consumption of the towel is the increase of use times of the product, but the impacts are more ambiguous for recycling. The benefits of recycling, and even the prioritization between different CE strategies depends on the type of recycling technology and substituted material. For gaining clearer benefits from CE of cotton roller towels or any cotton textiles, there is a further need for technology development and support for selecting the correct strategies and processes.