Once Finland rings in the New Year, garbage disposal companies and consumers will no longer be able to discard old clothing and fabrics in public landfills, as new regulations prohibit the practice.
The reform won’t necessarily mean any major changes for consumers, as garbage disposal companies will still be able to resort to other measures for making use of old fabrics, such as burning them to create electricity and istrict heating.
Industry has long re-used waste fabrics and consumer rags or cotton is in especially high demand for this purpose. Polyester and other plastic fibres are easier to use and are also useful for providing heating and electricity when used by incineration plants.
The capability to deal with the new regulation varies across the country. In many areas, all mixed waste is placed in incinerators, so consumers won’t have to change their garbage disposal habits.
However cotton and other reusable fabrics would be wasted in incinerators. The regulation also seeks to limit burning used fabrics, which is considered a last resort for clothing that’s not considered fit for second hand sales or other forms of recycling.
Clothing stores join push to recycle
Some clothing chains have been quick to encourage consumers to recycling old clothing by bringing them into their outlets. In some cases, stores provide shoppers with discounts as an incentive to bring in their used garments.
In larger cities it’s relatively easy for consumers to recycle cast-off clothing. Tuovi Kurttio, a development manager with the capital region recycling centre said that clothing stores could become established clothing recycling hubs in the future.
"Undamaged and clean clothes as well as home textiles can always be recycled," Kurttio stressed.
This would require consumers to carefully sort used fabrics at home, while retailers could then pass on materials for use in different locations, he added.
Experimental new fabrics from rags
Clothing manufacturers are already looking for ways to re-use rags as the raw material for new clothing. And some large global clothing chains are already using reconstituted fabrics in their products.
This is in part because of the recognition that the clothing industry consumes large amounts of water, and pesticides are extensively used for growing cotton. Finding more effective ways to use the material that’s produced for the industry would therefore reduce environmental stress.
In collaboration with partners, last autumn the Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT attempted to create new fibres for industrial use from worn or otherwise unusable cotton fabrics. The aim is to manufacture the first new items of clothing within one year, and the ultimate goal is to generate new business activity.
Downstream manufacturers needed
"It is possible to ban fabrics from landfills, but recycling requires an entire production chain, working from raw materials to new fabrics. Some of these activities could take place abroad, but we should also be able to get this going in Finland," Kurttio commented.
The capital region recycling centre is one of the partners involved in the VTT-led project by sorting the clothing to be made into new fibres. They sell on cast-off clothing and fabrics that are durable and in good condition.
However Kurttio noted that Finland currently lacks companies that could further process reconstituted fibres.
The recycler pointed out that clothing manufacturers in Finland have no formal responsibility to establish or provide recycling programs. Manufacturers would also need to introduce separate payments for recyclable or redeemable items, he added.