Partnerships between non-profit organisations and companies crucial on the way to textile circularity

The EU-level ambition is to increase textile circularity and minimise textile waste. In practice, it all starts from the collection of used textiles separately from other household waste and sorting for reuse and recycling or other circularity strategies. Right now, separate collection of used textiles is still very low. Once textiles end up in the mixed household waste, we no longer can use their potential for circularity.

“The ongoing legislative changes in the EU, including the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for textiles call for research-based but practice-oriented knowledge,” doctoral researcher Anna Hiltunen believes.

In her doctoral research, Hiltunen explores the topic of textile circularly with a focus on the used textile collection and sorting by non-profit charity organisations (NPOs) in Finland.

“Over the past twenty years, NPOs have been the largest collectors of used textiles globally, also in Finland. NPOs operationalise textile circularity by collecting and sorting used textiles. These tasks are essential first steps towards textile circularity including reuse and recycling and may not interest for-profit actors”, says Hiltunen.

Textile reuse should be prioritised over textile recycling as it preserves the natural resources and labour that are already invested in creating garments. The research highlights the enabling factors that help NPOs succeed in discovering “second-hand diamonds” for their charity shops. For example, there is a link between the quality of donations and the opportunity for NPOs staff to personally interact with the donors. It also impacts the decision on the collection method NPOs want to choose for their donations.

The research showed that not all donations to NPOs end up in the charity shops, but NPOs still sort them into various categories. This means that NPOs can be considered a large supplier of clean, pre-sorted textiles for other circular initiatives, such as textile recycling. To build the link between NPOs and other circularity actors, new partnerships are needed.

“In my research I found that the formation of new partnerships between NPOs and companies for textile circularity is really important and has been positively influenced by several factors. However, I also discovered barriers to such partnerships. These are for example, mismatching interests and goals, conflicts with existing business culture, and lack of technological readiness for commercial scale” Hiltunen explains.

You can read the whole thesis here:

Another man’s treasure: non-profit organisations and reverse supply chains for textile circularity

Anna Hiltunen will publicly defend her doctoral thesis on September 5^th at 12:00 at Hanken School of Economics, Arkadiankatu 22, Helsinki. You can participate in the defense on-site or via this Teams link, https://go.hanken.fi/defence-hiltunen. The details of the event are available here.

More information:
Anna Hiltunen (neé Zhuravleva)
Email: anna.zhuravleva@hanken.fi

Opponent: Professor Erik Sandberg, Linköping University
Custos: Associate Professor Anna Aminoff, Hanken School of Economics