Design a high value application for textile out of non-wearable second hand clothing

Abstract

KICI is a non-profit clothing collecting company, the third largest in The Netherlands. For over 30 years, KICI’s core business is organising the collecting of used and unwanted clothing. This is mostly done via the 800 KICI containers in the public space. Additionally, clothing can be collected during collecting events or directly via retailers. The collected clothing is sold to sorting companies which sell the wearable and fashionable clothing to Africa and Eastern Europe. The non-wearable clothing is processed by other companies and currently used in low grade applications such as cleaning cloths, non-woven sheet material and insulation material. The second hand clothing which can be worn again (wearable) is the most profitable activity, but the amount of wearable is decreasing for years. The non-wearable part is increasing, but is barely profitable. This trend threatens the existence of KICI in the long term. The assignment was to examine the options for higher grade applications which could eventually lead to an increase in demand for non-wearable clothing and secure the future of KICI and its partners. The solution must found with sustainability in mind. Early on the option of constructing a composite out of textile materials was identified as a promising possibility. Producing and strength testing material samples revealed that Acrylic based composites perform equally or better than the main competitor: non-woven hemp based composite. A Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) showed that the eco-impact (so-called eco-cost) of such a material is lower than glass fibre, but slightly higher than the hemp composite. The ecocost is largely determined by the choice of resin. Most commercially available resins consist entirely or partly of oil based monomers. Better, so-called bio-based resins are under development and will reduce the impact of composites considerably. An estimation of the material cost price revealed that the non-woven textile composites are slightly more expensive than the non woven hemp variant but the composites with woven textile fibres are cheaper, while offering better tensile strength. A new indoor collecting container was chosen as the product which will demonstrate the material. . This container can counter the trend of decreasing wearable clothing temporarily, while demonstrating the material and convincing partners for future products. Alternatively, if KICI can find a committed partner, another product could take the role of material demonstrator. NPSP, a composite manufacturing company, has shown interest in such a product in the form of a counter for a clothing shop. In combination with the other KICI innovation projects, such as the pressed non-woven sheet material and the development of the Identitex automatic sorting machine, the textile based composite can provide the needed stimulus to increase the value of the recycled fibres and ultimately secure the future for KICI.