Environmental and socioeconomic sustainability through textile recycling/Sustenabilitatea de mediu si socioeconomica prin reciclarea textilelor

• Published in: Industria textilă (Bucharest, Romania : 1994) Vol. 66; no. 3; p. 156
• Main Authors: Cuc, Sunhilde, Iordanescu, Marius, Girneata, Adriana, Irinel, Marin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bucharest The National Research & Development Institute for Textiles and Leather - INCDTP 01.01.2015
• Subjects: Consumption; Cost engineering; Economic impact; Economics; Environmental impact; Manufacturing; Marketing; Mathematical models; Natural resources; Recycling; Small & medium sized enterprises-SME; Socioeconomic factors; Studies; Sustainability; Sustainable development; Textile industry; Textiles; Wastes; Romania
• ISSN: 1222-5347

This paper examines the process of achieving environmental sustainability through recycling of textile wastes. It is organized as a review and editorial article, relating relevant research regarding sustainable development and recycling of textile waste, and outlining economic, environmental and social implications and suggested future actions. The recycling of textile waste can serve as a mean of providing solutions to financial, environmental and social problems such as high cost of waste disposal, and diminution of natural resources, create workplaces, opening opportunities for SMEs. The benefits and problems of this exercise are also highlighted. The conclusion drawn is that the recycling of waste brings benefits to all three aspects that define sustainability: economic, social and environmental, especially in solving the numerous ecological problems and boosting new economy sectors, but there are also negative aspects too. To quantify the potential ecological benefits, the economic and social effects of textile waste recycling, the paper proposes a framework model which makes tradeoff between costs of reverse network for textile waste establishing and operating, and its effects on the employment increase, and resold wearable textiles earnings. The main limit of the presented model is the fact that it is based on the premise that there is already a collecting infrastructure and a market for the recycled products. But, in Romania the textile waste collecting, especially the post-consumer one still remains an unsolved problem. In the conclusions, the paper presents several proposals whose solutions represent future research directions.