Contents
Fashion Renovation via Upcycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Thilak Vadicherla, D. Saravanan, M. Muthu Ram and K. Suganya
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Fast Fashion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3 Textile Waste and Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1 Classification of Textile Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2 Recycling Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4 Textile Upcycling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.1 History of Upcycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2 Global Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.3 Indian Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.4 Framework for Upcycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5 Case Studies on Textile Upcycling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1 Case Study 1—Conversion of Ladies T-shirt
into Kid’s Nightwear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.2 Case Study 2—Conversion of Ladies T-shirt
and Tank Top into Kid’s Frock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.3 Case Study 3—Conversion of T-shirt into Kid’s a-Line Skirt. . . . 16
5.4 Case Study 4—Conversion of Nighty and Frock
into Kid’s Frock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.5 Case Study 5—Conversion of T-shirt into Kid’s Frock . . . . . . . . 25
5.6 Case Study 6—Conversion of T-shirt into Baby Frock. . . . . . . . . 27
5.7 Case Study 7—Conversion of T-shirt into Kid’s Fancy Frock . . . 36
5.8 Case Study 8—Conversion of Ladies T-shirt
into Kid’s T-shirt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.9 Case Study 9—Conversion of Ladies T-shirt
into Teenage T-shirt with Lace Neck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.10 Case Study 10—Conversion of Ladies T-shirt
into Kid’s Night Pant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6 Customer Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
The Use of Recycled Fibers in Fashion and Home Products . . . . . . . . . . 55
Karen K. Leonas
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
2 The Textile and Apparel Industry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3 Textile Recycling Aligned with the Circular Economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4 Open- and Closed-Loop Recycling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5 Recycling and Reuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6 The Textile and Apparel Supply Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7 Recycling in the Textile and Apparel Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
8 Mechanical Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
9 Chemical Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10 Textile and Apparel Recycling Programs in the Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
11 Raw Materials—Fibers/Yarns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
12 Unifi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
13 Tenjin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
14 Aquafil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
15 Martex Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
16 Evrnu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
17 EcoAlf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
18 Timberland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
19 Nike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
20 Speedo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
21 Adidas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
22 Hanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
23 H&M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
24 The North Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
25 Patagonia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
26 Cone Denim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
27 Levi Straus & Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
28 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Denim Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Shanthi Radhakrishnan
1 The Denim Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
1.1 History of Blue Jeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
1.2 Interesting Facts About Blue Jeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
1.3 Soft Value of Denim Jeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
1.4 Social and Cultural Value of Denim Jeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
1.5 Individualistic Intimacy of Blue Jeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
1.6 Life Cycle of Denim Jeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
2 Problems with Textile Waste—Denim Waste and Associated Issues . . . 86
2.1 Types of Waste. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
2.2 Denim Waste and Associated Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
2.3 Indigo Dyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
2.4 Dyeing Pollution—Savar, Bangladesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
2.5 Pollution in Xintang, South West China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
2.6 Problems Associated with Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
3 Reuse and Recycling of Denim—Technology of Denim Recycling . . . . 93
3.1 Source of Denim Waste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.2 Repurpose and Reuse Denim Jeans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
3.3 Upcycling of Denim Jeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.4 Constraints in Denim Jean Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
3.5 Mechanical Recycling of Denim Jeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
3.6 Chemical Recycling in Denim Manufacturing Process . . . . . . . . . 101
4 Economics of Denim Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.1 Efforts for a Circular Economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.2 Evaluation of Jeans for Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.3 GSTAR—RAW Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.4 Iris Industries—Denimite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.5 Levi Strauss—Jean Manufacturing with Recycled Water . . . . . . . 106
4.6 Bonded Logic—UltraTouch Denim Insulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5 Scenario of Denim Recycling—Past, Present and Future . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
5.1 Latest Trends Toward Sustainable Denim
Jean Manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.2 Case Studies in Denim Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6 Challenges, Prospects in Denim Recycling—Roadmap
to Denim Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.1 Methods to Reduce Environmental Impact of Denim Jeans . . . . . 113
6.2 Roadmap to Denim Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Fashion Renovation via Upcycling
Thilak Vadicherla, D. Saravanan, M. Muthu Ram and K. Suganya
Abstract Sustainability in fashion is a big challenge, and textile waste can be used as the raw material for value-added products. A framework has been developed in the present chapter for the creation of upcycled products from garment waste. Ten case studies have been depicted pictorially. Indian and global current scenario on upcycled garments along with the challenges in upcycling is also discussed.
Keywords Sustainability _ Fashion _ Garment waste _ Framework _ Upcycling
1 Introduction
Of late, the term “sustainability” has become a buzzword across the globe. Sustainable is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “able to be maintained at a certain rate or level” or “conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources”.1 A first of its kind definition for the term sustainable development was suggested by Brundtland (formerly known as World Commission on Environment and Development), as “the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (United Nations 1987). The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) predicts that an enormous amount of stress is going to be witnessed on the depleting scarce natural resources, considering the rate of consumption that would become three times higher by the year 2050 with the present rate of consumption being taken into account (Annual Report 2011). The simplest understanding of existence of sustainability is that rates of natural resources generation and consumption should match. Classic 3R concept that comprises reuse, reduce and recycle is regarded as one of the widely acknowledged solutions in the sustainable development. 4R concept for the benefit of sustainable development has been evolving with the addition of the element named “rebuy” to the classic 3R concept. 4R concept highlights the significance of rebuying the products manufactured from the reused or recycled or reclaimed materials.