What happens to our textile waste? How can we turn it into a community resource? Circular economy, textile recycling chain, conscious citizenship and social entrepreneurship are complex concepts that come to us as answers. Yet this is possible only when they are turned into daily practices. This project will merge them and give life to a virtuous circle of concrete initiatives that contribute to the growth of a more inclusive and sustainable society.
Although the existing good practices and the introduction of a new Italian law on textile waste sorting by 2022, a joint effort is needed in Trentino to build a circular textile chain. An integrated system of collection, disposal and up/recycling of textile waste is missing as few best practices are available but as isolated projects. This project, inspired by the successful Australian model of Upparel, aims to bring a concrete improvement related to social and environmental sustainability. The project idea aims at developing a traceable local supply chain for the disposal and reuse of textile waste thus creating new opportunities for "social development" by involving local government, social enterprises, and citizenship in a supply chain that proposes new inclusive, beautiful and sustainable solutions.The project idea concerns the daily life of the Trentino community in a threefold direction:
- CITIZENS: through the design of concrete solutions to support them in adopting a more sustainable lifestyle both on an environmental level (separate collection and recycling) and on a social level (direct interaction with the players involved in the projects, meaning to become conscious changemakers).
- SOCIAL SECTOR: through the creation of new opportunities for entrepreneurial development of non-profit organizations through the sorting, upcycling, and sale of disused materials, thus giving new job opportunities to marginalized people.
- PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: through the design and prototyping of a bottom-up and participated solution, it offers to the local administration a system of separate collection of textile waste thus ensuring a lower production of waste to be disposed of and the opportunity to re-populate some areas of town centers through the opening of second-hand stores.
The key stakeholders will be involved in the creation of a consortium, each actor will cooperate in the process management of collection, storage, upcycling, sale of discarded garments.
Please highlight how the concept/idea can be exemplary in this context
Sustainability is embodied by the project itself: through the promotion of the concept of reuse and the creation of a local and transparent supply chain for the collection of textile waste, the project promotes a new circular system that ensures a lower production of waste and Co2 needed for the disposal, and consequently a lower cost for local governments. According to the new Waste Framework Directive, EU Member States will be obliged from the beginning of 2025 to organize the separate collection of textile waste. Italy decided to bring forward the deadline to 2022. The latest research (ISPRA, 2021) shows that more than 140k tons of textile waste were discarded in Italy in 2020, with an average of 2.6 kg of textile collection per person. A legal obligation is not enough to solve the problems related to post-consumer textile waste. It is necessary to build an ecosystem around it involving municipalities, entrepreneurs, and citizens; to highlight the role in the textile chain that each actor has. Following the principles of circular economy, the model includes increasing the awareness of the citizens about the amount of textile waste and the possibility of reusing collected textiles.The model will run the items from the sorting point accordingly:
- good state items are immediately put on sale
- repairable goods are sent to local partners who could fix them and get them ready to be sold
- items too ruined to be repaired could be:
- send to upcycling organizations
- sold to national recycling companies as secondary raw materials
The sustainability of the project will therefore be guaranteed by a sharing of responsibilities by the various stakeholders involved, each of whom will have a "gain" in participating. Thanks to its "concreteness" and "daily application" it will also guarantee a greater awareness of citizenship and therefore encourage a more sustainable lifestyle. Last, but not least the model is easily replicable in other cities.
Please highlight how the concept/idea can be exemplary in this context
According to the European Commission, the textile sector has an important ecological footprint: it is responsible for 10% of world emissions of greenhouse gases. The world of textile production has been completely revolutionized by the “fast fashion phenomenon”, characterized by cost reduction, acceleration of production times, use of non-biodegradable materials, and the short average life of the garments. This phenomenon is estimated to have high environmental and social costs due to its production processes, and that is why nowadays fashion is somehow the emblem of beauty and hidden ugliness.
Second-hand shops need to embody the beauty side of fashion to be attractive. This could be achieved by hlighlighting the uniqueness of the items sold and being sparkling clean and tidy, with a central position in the city. The second hand has been linked to poverty for too long. Instead, we want it to be trendy and yet affordable.
According to this project, the shops will offer the chance to buy not only second-hand items but also upcycled products and garments made with recycled fabric enhancing the awareness of all the sustainable alternatives that we have to the actual “buy-use-trash” model.
Not only shops should be beautiful, but all of the elements linked to the model should inspire a sense of beauty: for example, the collection bins should be attractive, in order to grab the attention of citizens. This idea introduces the opportunity to create new links with local actors such as art schools and artists, that will be involved in the design of the collection boxes.
Local Authorities will be involved in the process of identification of private or public dismissed premises to be destined to the shops, thus enabling the regeneration of urban and periurban spaces.
The long-term goal of this project idea is to couple the second-hand market with a sense of beauty and purpose, giving it a new dignity.
Please highlight how the concept/idea can be exemplary in this context
Social inclusion is a pillar of the project as explained in the following lines. Each shop will be linked to a charity as the aim of the sale is not profit but funding social activities and keeping the clothes in the loop.The repairing and upcycling activities will be done by local partners, chosen prioritizing social enterprises. The shops will work as a contact point with citizenship, seeing that people will have the possibility to bring their items to bins or directly to the shop where they will see where their garments go and who will take care of them: specifically social workers and marginalized people.The shop is meant to be a safe space for marginalized people who would be responsible for some minor activities hence valorizing their skills and making them feel worthy.Some of the activities behind the shop are a good fit as job training, in particular, the clothes sorting, price tagging, and tidying up of the space.Moreover the sorting and disassembling of textile is a long and slow job that is not profitable enough for factories, but it is a necessary step in the circular economy that can be handled by social entrepreneurs. The project supports the local authorities in the building of a circular ecosystem for the textile waste, nonetheless increasing the trust bond with the citizenship that can see and be involved in the managing of the textile waste stream.Further development of the project would be the creation of new opportunities for entrepreneurial development of non-profit organizations with the new online marketing channels (through activities such as posing, taking pictures, etc) instead of being relegated to the creation of repetitive crafts.Selling clothes would be a means to normalize a part of society that is still stigmatized.In conclusion one of the network endeavors is also to create relations between urban and rural areas of the region, where is it possible to find some of the partners working in the repairing and upcycling activities.
Please highlight how this approach can be exemplary
Sustainability, Social Inclusion, and Aesthetic are combined, mainly, within the shops: beautiful places in the middle of the city selling clothes- otherwise destined to landfill- with the aid of marginalized people, who have the chance to be the one who provides assistance instead of receiving it. This kind of work environment is extremely beneficial for both the customer and the workers.
The citizen entering the shop becomes aware of the amount of textile discarded by its community and takes ownership of the problem by doing something good for the planet and for the people.
On the other hand, marginalized people who work in the shops find a place that agrees with their pace and where they feel worthy and empowered.
Another point of contact of the three key aspects is the traceability of the process. Being transparent is an asset of aesthetic in its purity meaning and embodying the beauty of knowing. Traceability is the basis of circular economy as a prerequisite needed to calculate the LCA of a product. LCA is the only scientific tool that we have nowadays to determine the ecological footprint of processes and products. Traceability is also an asset for social inclusion being a driving aspect of citizenship involvement.
As a matter of fact, a traceable and transparent process of the circular textile chain engages citizenship and increases awareness of the importance of everyone's participation, allowing the development of better coexistence in more beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive places, creating a link between global challenges and proposed solutions at the local level.
Second-hand market has been gaining momentum over the past 5 years in Italy. In Trentino, we find some experiences available working as isolated projects. There is no industrial ecosystem oriented to promote sustainable practices, taking into account the relevant social aspects in the textile industry.
The project is not based on a revolutionary innovation rather on incremental innovation, creating connections between the existing best practices thus enhancing an evolution and empowering of the same and building powerful interconnection also with the local communities.
This project could be the umpteenth demonstration that the network could reach far better results than the sum of the single partner potential.
Another innovative point for the communities is traceability, seeing that it is a critical point for the second-hand market and social issues: people want to know what happens to their garments and why they should give their good clothes to that organization instead of the others. It is the responsibility of the network to make clear what is everyone gains and how everyone benefits from the process.
Effective cooperation, which should be a fundamental aspect of the social sector, is still far from the daily reality in Trentino. The ambition of the project is also to create this trustful interconnection between the third sector, institutions, and the business-related sector of the territory and this would be a beautiful innovation.
The project is still at an early concept stage. The main difficulty foreseen is activating the players in the local communities in the creation of a collaborative network. The development of the project will follow 3 main stages: NETWORK CREATION: a study of the local players and the gathering of the same leveraging on their mission and interests (establish the bonds necessary to enact a fruitful and continuous collaboration). The expected output is a list of interested partners in every link of the supply chain: at least 2 municipalities providing the premise for the collection and sorting (c&s) point; at least 1 social enterprise interested in managing the c&s point; at least 1 organization in charge of repairing items; at least 2 organizations active in the textile- upcycling process; at least 2 organizations active in the textile-recycling process. KICK OFF ACTIVITIES: Once the network of partners is settled a newborn organization will be signed as an association or consortium, with common terms and defined roles and responsibilities. Then a communication program complemented by citizenship meetings will be implemented to involve the consumers. This step includes engaging schools to create the disposal bin to attract the interest of families and students in the project endeavors.This stage ends with the opening and running of the c&s point and the interconnected shops. The expected outputs are: 2 c&s points active in 2 different towns, at least 1 bin available placed in a strategic point; at least 1 loop interaction with every partner completed (meaning that items had left the shop- being repaired, upcycled or recycled and taken back to be sold in the shop in their new shape). UPSCALING AND REPLICABILITY: The last stage of the project is the launch of new c&s points in other cities and make the model known in the whole region. The ambition is to then replicate it to the whole country, upscale the model to other waste streams.
The roadmap for the first year includes all the activities necessary to reach the outputs of the first stage of the projects and some of the activities included in the second stage. The following are the actions intended to be undertaken during the first year of the project: Draw a territory map of Trentino region including all the second-hand stores, the social and profit enterprises active in the repairing, upcycling, and recycling of textile. Define the geographic boundaries related to the different supply chain stages: two municipalities are a big enough sample for the sorting and selling points, whereas a larger zone is viable to find the upcycling partners. Especially with a view of activating relationships between urban and rural areas. Draw a territory map of the country to find partners in the missing link of the supply chain. Organize events to build a network between the selected players and collect participation for the project. Define a common framework for the development of the projects, the amount of textile needed for every actor to make the process economically sustainable. Define a partnership with the municipalities selected in order to find the right premises and sign a community cooperation agreement, which will secure the use and managing of the determined public premises by the newborn organization, once is signed. Define a partnership with the local players in upcycling and repairing establishing what is needed in order to strike a good deal. Once everything abovementioned is settled a formal agreement is going to be signed as a consortium or association. That would be the official kick-off of the project. Define a communication program to involve the citizens in the new model. Meanwhile, this approach must be complemented by workshops and meetings for the citizenship aimed at illustrating the new model and attracting the interest of the citizenship. Opening up of the c&s point and launch of the activities.
@Mazzieri, 2022
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