10,000 tonnes of corporate wear are distributed in the UK annually. All your high street companies, utilities, service, transport industries - you name it. If they're in a uniform they fall under this category. And only 5% of these garments is recollected for reuse or 'downcycling' (shredded and used in the automobile or furniture industries for wipers or stuffing). The other 95% runs the risk of ending up in landfill. As in, you don't often see people sporting their Sainsbury's staff uniform on a night out. So chances are they are getting scrapped and causing undue stress to the mountains of landfill.
The current system relies on corporate wear clothing being made from cheap, 'disposable' raw materials such as polyester, which is made from oil, a rapidly depleting resource. The garments are perceived to have little value at they don't cost much and aren't the highest of quality. Once they've worn out, there is no incentive (for companies or employees) to do anything responsible with them. But because more and more companies are setting high environmental goals, such as 'Zero Operational Waste to Landfill by 2012', there is a growing imperative for a solution.
We believe that systemic change and a new approach is needed to solve this problem and are working towards creating a fully closed loop resource system where clothing is made from materials which, once recollected, can be repolymerised back down to their original chemical components, to be made back into clothing all over again, with no degradation in quality. This closed loop textile technology currently exists, but it relies a strong recollection system to recapture the materials before they go to be recycled again. We are currently working with companies to embed the returns of used uniforms into company policy, but we need to look for the triggers that will make it easy for people to do at little or no extra cost.
At present, very few companies have recollection systems in place for used staff uniforms, but what they do have is all the right ingredients for creating one: existing systems for distributing new uniforms excellent communications platforms for educating employees and management reverse logistics for back hauling the materials for recycling
To find a mechanism which makes the return of used uniforms:
For instance, as part of staff training you're told to wear your street clothes in on your last day of the job, but this relies on people remembering to do so. Or you won't get a new uniform unless you bring in your old one for a swap. But what's the incentive if they leave it at home? Companies aren't allowed to hold back pay or take a deposit for uniforms.
If they have a barcode system, where all garments have individual bar codes, and have to log uniforms coming back in it would be too time consuming and costly. Many companies don't have barcoding in the first place.
i.e. GPS trackers on all garments not feasible!
The end goal is a system which enables the flow of textile resources in a fully closed loop, with little or no loss of resources. In some ways, it's like a rentals system where companies hire the uniforms for their employees and return them when they are no longer needed. Many companies in the States have a similar model. They own the uniforms, recollect them daily from staff and then send them to the laundrette for cleaning. When employees return the next day, they grab a clean uniform, but not the same one they had the day before. We know we can't use this model in the UK because companies don't want to be responsible for cleaning staff uniforms, but is there something in the ownership of the resources model which might be useful?
If the goal is to reach zero waste... and we've already got the textiles solution... and understand the supply chain for reprocessing materials and manufacturing garments... How would you prototype a solution to ensure 100% of corporate wear garments (internally within companies) are recaptured into the system in a way that does not require massive investment?
Might the solution involve some sort of data-logging, matching and visualisation of the resources as they go around the loop? Please see image attached for reference of the system/ loop.
For further info, please contact cyndi@wornagain.co.uk.