Materials and Production, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark.
Traffic Analysis and Logistics, VTI, SE-402 78 Göteborg, Sweden.
Waste Manag. 2023 Mar 15;159:154-162. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2023.01.020. Epub 2023 Feb 8.
The textile industry is on its early steps towards circular economy. Being a highly resource-intensive and waste-generating industry, it is essential to embrace fiber-to-fiber recycling in addressing the increasing textile waste problem. Several innovative initiatives are happening within this area, not least in the Nordic countries, where automated sorting and fiber-to-fiber recycling technologies and capacities are developing. These large investments require economy of scale; however, this is challenged by the fractioned supply due to the specific fiber requirements of the recycling facilities. To ensure economy of scale and support strategic planning, it is important to investigate the balance of the demand of those capacities with the supply of recyclables generated in the region. Local and regional perspectives are needed in order to avoid unnecessary transportation of low value materials. Based on a synthetises of existing textile flow studies and interviews with relevant actors in four Nordic countries, this study investigates the balance between the supply of recyclable textiles and the sorting and recycling capacity. This is accomplished by estimating the volumes of recyclables and their fiber composition (based on developed weighting average method) and comparing these with the current and upcoming capacities in each country and in the Nordics as a whole. The findings indicate that the upcoming automatic sorting and recycling capacity will be sufficient to deal with the total recyclable fraction in the Nordic region, except for some of the synthetic fibers. However, there are imbalances between supply and demand within individual countries, highlighting opportunities for collaboration.
纺织业正处于迈向循环经济的早期阶段。作为一个高度资源密集型和产生废物的行业，在解决日益严重的纺织废物问题方面，必须采用纤维到纤维的回收利用。在这个领域内，正在进行一些创新举措，尤其是在北欧国家，那里正在开发自动化分类和纤维到纤维的回收技术和能力。这些大规模的投资需要规模经济；然而，由于回收设施对纤维的具体要求，供应分散，这对规模经济造成了挑战。为了确保规模经济并支持战略规划，调查这些能力的需求平衡与该地区产生的可回收物的供应之间的平衡是很重要的。需要从地方和区域的角度来看待这个问题，以避免不必要地运输低价值材料。本研究基于对四个北欧国家现有纺织物流研究的综合分析和对相关利益相关者的采访，调查了可回收纺织品的供应与分类和回收能力之间的平衡。这是通过估计可回收物的体积及其纤维成分（基于开发的加权平均方法）并将这些与每个国家和整个北欧地区当前和即将到来的能力进行比较来实现的。研究结果表明，即将到来的自动分类和回收能力将足以处理北欧地区的全部可回收物，但某些合成纤维除外。然而，个别国家内部存在供应和需求之间的不平衡，这为合作提供了机会。
