Textile urban metabolism: investigating the flows of unwanted textiles throughout the urban environment

The overproduction of textiles is exploiting natural and synthetically-made resources, while shortened textile consumption cycles are amplifying social and environmental harms. This is a symptom of the linear fashion and textile (F&T) systems. As a result, the volume of unwanted textiles being diverted to landfill is growing. The Circular Economy (CE) is positioned as an economic model which interrupts linearity by eliminating waste through optimisation of resource consumption. This thesis identifies and addresses two gaps in how existing research and practice propose the transition of F&T systems to a CE may occur. Firstly, current research overlooks the social complexities of textiles, instead relying on limited and often technical knowledge. Secondly, when F&T systems are analysed at the micro, meso and macro levels, there is limited research addressing the role of the mesoscopic context in enabling the transition to CE. More prevalent are the investigations into microscopic contexts of consumer behaviour or wardrobe studies; or macroscopic analyses of globalised supply chains. This reveals opportunity for research into how the microscopic and macroscopic contexts are connected through mesoscopic context of the urban environment. This thesis argues to support the CE paradigm shift at local, regional, national and global scales, unwanted textiles should be investigated in relation to the urban environment’s geographical boundaries. As such, the F&T systems transition to CE are examined in this thesis by investigating the flows of unwanted textiles throughout and within this context of on affluent urban environment. The research question asks: How are the material flows of unwanted textiles in the urban environment shaped? This question led to three main objectives: (i) to establish the Textile Ecosystem in an urban environment, through identifying its constructing human and non-human actor-networks (ii) to gain insights into the flows of unwanted textiles shaped by the Textile Ecosystem within and throughout the urbanised environment and (iii) to determine how to impact and redirect the flows of unwanted textiles in the urban environment to support the transition to a CE. To answer the research question, a qualitative and explanatory case study on unwanted textiles in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, was conducted. This consisted of first, establishing the research parameters through an extensive literature review and second, developing a theoretical framework. The theoretical framework drew together Actor-Network Theory, discard studies, CE and industrial ecology. This included discussions on wasteness, the Rubbish Theory, the concepts of Prosumption, Urban Metabolism, Textile Lifecycle, and the 10R framework (of refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, recycle and recover). From this, the case study was designed. It involved 20 semi-structured interviews with F&T industry bodies, governmental bodies, charities, commercial and private sector, research and consultancy amongst others. Through the data collection and analysis, the Textile Ecosystem of metropolitan Melbourne was established, and three waste attributes of materiality, spatiality and temporality were identified. The research revealed these three attributes determine if textile materials are associated with utility or waste. When human actors are unable to find utility for a textile material, this leads them to dissociate from the unwanted textiles in the urban environment. The findings indicated that dissociating from unwanted textiles through materiality occurs by reappropriating the associations of resource for “oneself” to “waste” or “resource for others”. Through spatiality, this occurs through moving the textile materials away, to hide and forget. Dissociation through temporality happens through the linearity of time, when returning to unwanted textiles is not planned nor imagined. This results in flows of unwanted textiles in metropolitan Melbourne being sent elsewhere to be resource for others with no time-plans to return. The research concludes by proposing the conceptual model of the ‘Textile Urban Metabolism’ (TUM) to explain the material flows throughout the urban environment and provides a useful model to understand how to enact the CE for textile materials. The main building blocks of this model are the Urban Environment, Textile Ecosystem, Flows and Stock. Through its flow-led investigations, TUM seeks to foster time and space for unwanted textiles to be utilised in the urban environment. This research argues focusing on material flows and seeking material re-utilisation in an urbanised place will support the enactment of the CE. This requires narrowing the textile inflows, slowing and expanding the inner flows and closing the outflows of unwanted textiles throughout and within the urban environment. This thesis makes a contribution connecting theory and practice through the research methodology, established by the theoretical framework and the TUM model. Working at the mesoscopic level of the urban environment highlights how industry, community, government and policy makers can work together to transition to the CE, and importantly provides insights into how the material flows of textiles could maintain their utility to create a more circular future for F&T systems.