Exploring an Alternative to the Chilean Textile Waste : A Carbon Footprint Assessment of a Textile Recycling Process

Global population growth and rising living standards are increasing apparel consumption. Consequently, resources consumption and generation of textile waste increase exponentially. According to the World Bank, Latin America and the Caribbean have doubled the textiles import in the last 20 years, while Chile in the same period has increased its imports by 500%, even though the population has only increased by 26%. Even worst, most of textiles at the end of their useful life will be disposed of in landfills or open dumps, which has been reflected in the clothing desert seen recently in northern Chile. This evidences the urgency for more efficient technologies, reducing the resources consumption and waste generation. Since the textile recycling industry is currently emerging in Chile, the aim of this article is to explore the potential environmental benefits of a textile recycling process and thereby the related challenges towards more sustainable options. The considered textile recycling process incorporates mixed waste and is compared to landfills in terms CO2eq, representing conventional waste treatment, and the virgin product replacement. Results show that textile waste landfills emit 423.4 kg CO2eq per ton, while the virgin product emit 6,496.65 kg CO2eq, compared with the textile recycling process that only emits 1,142.12 kg CO2eq per ton, obtaining on average 5,778 kg CO2eq avoided per ton of textile wastes. In addition, we discuss the sensibility of results by the involved processes, transportation distances, the choice of replaced products and energy matrix, providing insights to future research and governmental actions in the country