1. Introduction

1.1 Background and motivation

The consumption and production of textile products is extremely globalised, and involves producers and consumers across the world (European Topic Centre Waste and Materials in a Green Economy 2019). Across Europe, an average of 26kg of textiles is consumed per person per year (European Topic Centre Waste and Materials in a Green Economy 2019), with the number in Sweden being around 13kg per year per person (Naturvårdsverket 2016). On the other hand, the production of clothing has doubled in the last few decades, and the average number of times a garment is used has decreased by 36%. Furthermore, less than 1% of all materials are recycled into new garments, with a total of 75% of all materials processed in the fashion value chains are lost in landfills (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2017, Global Fashion Agenda and The Boston Consulting Group 2018).

From an EU consumption perspective, the supply chains of clothing, footwear and household textiles are the fourth highest pressure category in terms of the use of primary raw materials and water. Furthermore, it is the second highest for land use, and fifth highest pressure category in terms of greenhouse gas emissions (European Topic Centre Waste and Materials in a Green Economy 2019). While some environmental and societal problems are already being addressed by the industry, most of the efforts are focused on reducing the impact of the current linear system. Some of the examples include using more efficient production techniques or reducing the impact of materials (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2017). However, systematic change towards circularity is crucial to facilitate the reduction of environmental and climate pressures and impacts while sustaining economic and social benefits (European Topic Centre Waste and Materials in a Green Economy 2019).

As the production stages have the highest environmental impact (Roos et al. 2016), the aim in transitioning towards circularity should be on keeping fibres, textiles and garments at their highest value during use and re-entering phases (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2012; 2017). By doing so, closing and slowing the resource loops will be facilitated, thus making a connection between post-use and production (Bocken et al. 2016). Furthermore, some of the key actions identified to access and maintain clothing by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017) are related to emphasising the advantages of durability, and further boosting clothing utilisation through policy and extended producer responsibility. Therefore, a strategy such as fashion remanufacturing facilitates recirculating materials for added value, and highlights the importance of exploring alternative solutions related to operations, business models and structures for remanufacturing (Pal et al. 2018).

The following work is resulting from Re:textile’s project focusing on the investigation of remanufacturing form a holistic perspective, and includes local stakeholders in Sweden, forming a collaborative network. The project has been carried out in three sub-studies, aiming to examine the implementation of remanufacturing activities for slowing the resource loops from different stakeholder perspectives in the whole value chain.

1.2 Purpose and research questions

The purpose of the first sub-study is to gain an understanding of the enabling conditions and challenges for transitioning towards circular business models, by implementing strategies such as remanufacturing. The understanding aims to provide practitioners with preliminary knowledge facilitating the transition to circularity through remanufacturing. Thus, the research questions for the first sub-study are the following: RQ1 Which enabling conditions and challenges are most probable to occur, and which of them have the most impact from the practitioners´ perspective?

RQ2 What is the relative order of importance of the enabling conditions and challenges when transitioning to circularity through remanufacturing practices?

The purpose of the second sub-study is to gain understanding of which values consumers perceive as most relevant when purchasing remanufactured garments (i.e. refurbish, recouple and reconstruct), in comparison to newly manufactured garments. This understanding aims to provide an understanding about the relationship between the customer profile and consumer perceived value for remanufactured apparel, helping the textile and apparel industry to target the right customers, and to decrease demand for newly manufactured garments. Thus, the research questions are defined as following: RQ3 How do consumers perceive values (i.e. emotional, social, price, quality, environmental) when purchasing: –newly manufactured apparel, and –remanufactured (i.e. repaired and redesigned) apparel?

RQ4 Is there a statistically significant relationship between the consumer profile, shopping habits, knowledge related to environmentally friendly apparel, and consumer perceived values (i.e. emotional, social, price, quality, environmental) when purchasing: –new apparel, and –remanufactured apparel?

The third sub-study examines the economic feasibility of implementing remanufacturing activities within collaborative networks. The evaluation of the economic feasibility is aimed at various stakeholders in the textile and fashion industry, such as fashion brands, retailers and remanufacturers, interested in exploring circularity through remanufacturing.

RQ5 Is remanufacturing of customer claims and deadstock economically feasible?

The following section will provide an overview of the remanufacturing concept and its definition, along with benefits and challenges that have been identified in literature.