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Zero Waste Management in Textile and Apparel Industry: Preliminary Study

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 Special Session on Solid Waste Management,
5th International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment 2014, Kandy, Sri Lanka,
12th to 15th December 2014

ICSBE/14/054
Zero Waste Management in Textile and Apparel Industry: Preliminary
Study
Inoka Rathnayake1, Gayani Karunasena2 and Uthpala Rathnayake3
1, 2, 3
University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
2
gayanik@uom.lk

Abstract: As a result of economic development, manufacturing of different products are being

increased, resulting generation of high quantity of different types of waste where textile and apparel
waste one of that especially in developing countries. The generation of this type of waste creates
environmental and health problems. Therefore prevention of waste generation is becoming important
worldwide. The concept of avoiding the waste before generation is essential. In this regard, Zero
waste management concept is one of the strategy which can be used to prevent generation of waste.
Thus, this study focuses on identifying the existing loopholes in zero waste management and
suggesting probable solutions to overcome those loopholes with special emphasize to Sri Lanka. To
achieve this, literature synthesis was carried out to identify Zero Waste (ZW) management concept
and strategies. Thereafter, semi structured interviews with experts were used to obtain stakeholder‟s
opinions. Findings revealed that among different types of waste, most common waste are fabric,
polyethylene, paper and other accessories. Furthermore, it was found that the most employed
strategies in promoting zero waste in apparel industry as , bi- annual waste stream audits, purchase of
non-toxic products, improvement of the discipline of employees, cleaner production, good
housekeeping practice, maintenance and upgrading of machines on time and use of recyclable
materials in packaging. In addition this paper presents the evaluated framework for the enhancement
of zero waste management practices in apparel industry.

Keywords: Sri Lanka, Textile and Apparel Industry, Zero Waste Management, Zero Waste
strategies.

1. Introduction Kazakeviciute, Ramanauskiene and Abraitiene

Zero waste is frequently sought incrementally,
no waste becomes less waste in practice and a
preventive approach needs more than just a
preventive goal [1]. Zero Waste (ZW) is a
whole-system approach that aims to eliminate
rather than manage waste [2].
Hendrickx and Boardman [3] mentioned that
the textile industry includes a variety of
processes ranging from the manufacture of
fabric production. The first step in the
production of a textile product is the
manufacture of fibers afterward; the fibers are
turned into yarn then preparation, dyeing. The
last step is the fabrication of a finished product.
According to the United States Pollution
Prevention Work Group [4] finished cloth or
fabric is fabricated into a wide variety of
apparel, household, and industrial products by
cutting and sewing process. According to
[5] waste less technologies of manufacturing
are not prevailing throughout the textile
industry and its related sectors, development of
new uses of textile waste presents the main
concept of waste management. Curran et al. [2]
stated that there are many approaches, methods,
tools and principles that have been used to
tackle different problems in the field of
business waste and resource efficiency. Zaman
and Lehmann [6] mentioned that the zero waste
is the sixth wave in waste management and the
most holistic innovation of twenty first century
for waste management systems for achieving a
true sense of sustainable waste management
systems.
Zaman [7] suggested that it is hard to achieve
zero waste goals without proper management
policies in place. A 100% recycling may not
necessarily achieve the zero waste goal because
of the key principles of zero waste goal is

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 Special Session on Solid Waste Management,
5th International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment 2014, Kandy, Sri Lanka,
12th to 15th December 2014
firstly, to prevent (through design, behaviour
change) unwanted waste at the first place,
secondly, to re-use functional waste material
(through redistribution or consumptive
behaviour) and thirdly, to recover all resources
from the waste streams (through advance re-
source recovery facilities). Saxena, Srivastava
and Samaddar, [8] clarified that to ensure better
human health and safety; there is a need for
effective solid waste management systems
which should be both environmentally and
economically sustainable.
Accordingly, it is established that new
technologies such as, zero waste is not
commonly in used in textile and apparel
industries where 3R and others are used in
commonly. Thus, this study intended to identify
the applicability of zero waste concept to
apparel industry to minimize the waste
generation. The scope of the study is limited to
material waste. Accordingly, this paper presents
from beginning what is zero waste, then
adapted methodology and findings.
2. Zero waste management in Textile
and Apparel Industry
Growing resource costs, stricter waste control,
disposal laws and higher disposal costs have
encouraged firms to search for waste reduction
opportunities [9]. Zaman and Lehmann [10]
defined that „Zero waste‟ is one of the most
visionary concepts for solving waste problems.
Curran and Williams [2] defined Zero waste is a
whole system approach that aims to eliminate
rather than manage waste. As well as
encouraging waste diversion from landfill and
incineration. It is a guiding design philosophy
for eliminating waste at source and at all points
down the supply chain. It rejects current one
way linear resource use and disposal culture in
favour of a closed loop circular system
modelled on nature‟s successful strategies.
According to the above definition, ZW can be
understood as systematic process of eliminate
the volume of waste at the source rather than
manage waste.
Indy [11] mentioned that observable health and
environmental benefits accompany zero wastes
or “zero toxicity” and environmental protection
or “zero discharge”. Furthermore; it helps for
conservation of natural resources. Indy [11]
stated that by tapping on valuable resources in
102
the waste stream, zero waste stimulates the
more employment opportunities when
compared to waste incineration, and also
creates on average twenty to thirty five percent
more jobs. Lease, Anthony, and Seldman [12]
stated that increased recycling and reuse will
reduce the production of many air pollutants as
compared to incineration or land filling.
Furthermore Lease et al. [12] pointed out that
implementation of the green place will reduce
health impact as a result of reducing air and
water pollution from landfills, incinerators and
manufacturing from virgin materials.
There are lots of strategies for ZW
management. However, there are few strategies
for textile and apparel industry, as illustrated in
Table 1.
2.1 Waste Management in Textile and
Apparel Industry in Sri Lanka
Lankasun [19] stated that according to the very
recent practice of industrial waste management
in Sri Lanka, inefficient collection and disposal
of industrial waste is a major problem. In
addition, highest portion of the solid waste
generated in the Koggala export processing
zone is fabric waste [20]). As per the above
findings, waste generation and handling is a
critical issue. Thus, it is important to implement
the zero waste management system to avoid
waste problems.
According to the literature findings, planning
and design is best place to implement the zero
waste and also literature established that
production stage also produce a huge quantity
of wastage. Therefore this research was
considered about planning and design stage and
production stage to prevent the generation of
waste. Thus, this research was focused to apply
zero waste concept to apparel industry in Sri
Lankan context.
 Special Session on Solid Waste Management,
5th International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment 2014, Kandy, Sri Lanka,
12th to 15th December 2014

Table 1: Zero Waste Management Strategies in Textile and Apparel Industry

Strategies Description
Eco design
- Eco design means thinking in terms of life cycle from the origin of the product
and to prevent the environmental impact generated by the product all along its
life [13].
- Shenxun [14] defined that design is the first and the most important step for the
apparel because design can decide the amount of textile waste. To prevent the
waste from textile effectively, the eco designer must consider following
element, such as, create a longer lasting and better functioning product, designer
should choose the easy recycling and reuse materials as possible.

Cleaner - Cleaner production is the continuous application of an integrated preventative

production environmental strategy applied to processes, products, and services to increase
eco efficiency and to reduce risks for humans and the environment [15].
- According to the Vietnam Cleaner Production Center [16] cleaner production
options related to the operation and management of the company and also this
option can be grouped into Waste reduction at source, Recycling and Product
modifications.

Product - Extended producer responsibility (EPR) methods and particularly individual

stewardship producer responsibility (IPR) are considered as important tools to enforce
producers to take full responsibility for their products at their end of life [2].
- According to Manomaivibool [17] EPR is a pollution prevention approach and
it redefines the end of life management of products as not a solid waste
problem.
- EPR or product stewardship is a vital tool for the innovative design of product
and packaging to avoid and reduce a major volume of waste generation during
the product production process [6].

Inventory - According to the United States Pollution Prevention Work Group [4] waste may
control consist of either raw material that is out of date, no longer used, or unnecessary
or damaged. But when improving inventory control programme, the ordering of
materials to just-in-time (JIT) techniques. Hence, this can be help to reduce the
waste that is generated.

Maintenance - Hendrickx and Boardman [3] mentioned that significant waste reduction can be
and realized through good housekeeping and maintenance. Not only that, properly
Housekeeping maintained equipment results in good machinery performance and it reduces the
number of reworks and off quality products.
- According to Ganiaris and Okun [18] apparel waste can be reduction through
inspect and modify existing equipment to increase efficiency and reduce waste.

referring books, journal articles, unpublished

3.0 Research Methodology
The aim of this study was to investigate the
possibility of application of zero waste
management strategies for apparel industry in
Sri Lanka. Literature survey was carried out by
dissertations and web pages to identify the zero
waste management concept and strategies. Case
study method was adapted to identify the
existing waste management strategies in depth.
According to Yin [21] case study method can
be used to understand a real life phenomenon in

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 Special Session on Solid Waste Management,
5th International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment 2014, Kandy, Sri Lanka,
12th to 15th December 2014
depth and it contributes to get true data by
individual and organizations.
This research was designed as multiple case
designs in order to increase the accuracy of
research and its findings. Factory was taken as
case and apparel industry waste management
process considered as unit of analysis within the
cases. Altogether seven cases were selected to
carry out the research. All the cases have same
core business of manufacturing of garments and
export to other countries and responsibility
regarding waste management was given to all
the departments in apparel industry.
Semi structured interviews with experts of
waste management was selected as the data
collection method of this research. Due to the
lack of experts on waste management, one
interviewee was selected from one organisation.
Seven interviews were conducted and each was
normally conducted within 45 minutes to one
hour. Code-based content analysis technique
was used to analyze the data using QSR.NVivo-
version 7.0.281 (Copyright © 2007 QSR
International Pty Ltd) software.
Then, framework was developed considering
planning and design stage, production stage,
and sales stage. Within these stages the existing
practices of waste management and the
associated issues and thereafter proposed
strategies to enhance the existing practices to
achieve the zero waste management goals were
identified. Then, the framework was evaluated
by using two experts who are having more
experiences in the apparel industry waste
management. Evaluation was carried out
through face to face unstructured interviews.
According to the expert‟s opinion, are the
feasible and unfeasible strategy to achieve zero
waste goal in apparel industry were identified.
Findings from the case studies are discussed in
the following section.
4.0 Research Findings
This presents overview of waste generation,
existing waste management strategies in apparel
industry and the proposed framework.
4.1 Overview of Waste Generation in
Apparel Industry
The study revealed that every apparel
manufacturing organization generates common
types of waste but quantities of waste are differ.
Accordingly common types of waste can be
104
categorized as fabric waste, paper waste,
polyethylene waste, and chemical waste and
other accessories waste. Generation of fabric
waste is high in every organization than other
types of waste. For an example, according to an
expert per each tone of fabric there are about
wastage of 200kg fabric, 56 kg paper, 7.3 kg
polyethylene, and 4.2 kg others.
All the experts strongly agreed, without any
doubt, that duties and responsibilities are very
essential to prevent or minimize the generation
of waste. According to the findings all
organizations try to minimize the generation of
waste and also they emphasized that all the
departments should be responsible for
management of waste generation.
Moreover, most of the organisations used
separate organisational policies to minimize
or control the waste. Within the policy it
was clearly mentioned that how to manage
the waste.
4.2 Existing Waste Management Strategies
Findings revealed that selected organizations
were used few strategies to prevent generation
of waste in planning and design stage,
production stage and sales stage.
4.2.1 Planning and Design Stage
According to the empirical findings, there were
several organizational strategies to prevent or
minimize the generation of waste in this stage.
and also following things could be identified as
existing strategies, inspecting the raw materials
before sending production stage, proper racking
system to prevent damages, First In First Out
system, and checking the quality of goods when
buying from suppliers could be identified as the
existing strategies in preventing and minimizing
waste generation in planning and designing
stage .
However, every organization has been faced
barriers to continue the process. The common
barriers summarized as follows, designing of
more sustainable product affects to product
quality, customer approval is compulsory when
changing something, no suitable eco material
according the requirement, disciplinary issues,
ordering issues, issues in marker efficiency,
human errors, and communication issues
between buyer and supplier.
To overcome above issues following few of
strategies were explained by interviewees. Such
 Special Session on Solid Waste Management,
5th International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment 2014, Kandy, Sri Lanka,
12th to 15th December 2014
as, waste stream audits are carried out bi-
annually, improve the discipline of employees,
if the fabrics are remain after finishing required
product, request another order from buyer, and
use new standard and planning tools. In
addition literature findings revealed these
strategies for zero waste management. Such as,
purchase non-toxic materials, life cycle
assessment, inventory control and purchase
easy recycling and reuse materials.
4.2.2 Production Stage
All the interviewees explained about different
strategies to prevent the generation of waste in
this stage. They are as use of new technological
machines, improved awareness of employees by
giving training, reuse of materials, given
responsibility for workers, better supervision,
and keep well trained staff and good quality
control team.
As mentioned above, this stage also having
some issues. Those issues could be summarized
as, inspection issues in planning stage can
affects to generation of waste in production
stage. Moreover, probability of sewing some
damages garments from training workers,
carelessness of worker can increase the number
of damaged products and there are some quality
constraints in raw materials.
As mentioned by experts, there were some
suggestions to control those barriers, namely,
keeping well trained sewing staff and quality
control team to prevent the defective garments,
continuous monitoring to identify defects early,
use of new technological machines, changing
the culture for encourage the people to reuse
materials and streamline the supply chain
management. Furthermore, cleaner production,
product stewardship, maintenance and
housekeeping were identified through literature.
4.2.3 Sales Stage
All the interviewees stated that the sales stage
does not generate high quantity of waste and
105
types of waste. However, identified strategies to
prevent the generation of waste in sales stage
can be summarized as, increased the utilization
of cardboard, change the packing system with
consent of buyer, reuse and recycling of
packing materials.
According to the expert statements, this stage
also had some issues as, difficult to increase the
efficiency because of customer constraint,
ordering issues (excess ordering) in planning
stage affects waste generation in sales stage,
and carelessness of workers.
To overcome these issues, findings disclosed
different strategies, such as, change the opinion
on customer towards the increase the efficiency,
send back to the supplier remain packaging
materials, check the quality of carton when
buying and buy the strong cartons. Moreover,
literature revealed, using reusable packaging
materials, and recycled materials can minimize
the generation of waste.
4.2.3 Proposed and Evaluated Framework
The theoretical framework of the research study
was developed by addressing the existing waste
management strategies, existing issues, and
probable suggestion to achieve zero waste goal
which was found through literature review and
empirical case study findings. The framework
was developed under three main headings,
planning and design stage, production stage,
and sales stage.
According to the expert‟s evaluation, all three
stages have feasible and unfeasible strategies to
achieve zero waste goals. Zero waste goal
means environmental sustainability, eliminating
land filing, resource efficiency, and avoid waste
before it generation. Proposed and evaluated
framework is shown in figure 2.
 Special Session on Solid Waste Management,
5th International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment 2014, Kandy, Sri Lanka,
12th to 15th December 2014

Proposed strategies

Planning and design stage (PD)

PD1- Purchase recyclable and reusable materials

PD2-Purchase non toxic products

PD3-Life cycle assessment

PD4-Change the opinion on customer

PD5-Buy products in bulk to reduce packaging waste

PD6-Use new standard and planning tools ZERO WASTE

PD7-Waste stream audits are carried out bi- annually GOALS

PD8-Improve inventory control programme -Avoid land

Feasible
PD9-If the fabrics are remaining after finishing filling
Strategies
required product, request another order from buyer PD2 P1 S1 -Resource
PD3 P2 S3
PD4 P3 S5
Production stage (P) efficiency
PD6 P5
PD7 P6
P1-cleaner production PD8 P7 -Environmental
P8
P2-Maintenance and upgrade machines on time sustainability
Not Feasible
P3-keep well trained staff Strategies -Develop local

PD1 P4 S2 economy
P4-On site recycling
PD5 S4
PD9
P5-Changing the culture

P6-Good housekeeping practice

P7-Streamline the supply chain management

P8-Product stewardship

Sales stage (S)

S1-Check the quality of carton

S2-Send back remaining packaging materials to the supplier

S3-Change the opinion on customer

S4-Utilization of reusable packaging

S5-Use recyclable materials in packaging

Figure 2: Proposed and evaluated framework

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 Special Session on Solid Waste Management,
5th International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment 2014, Kandy, Sri Lanka,
12th to 15th December 2014
In planning and design stage, waste stream
audits are carried out bi- annually, purchase non
toxic products, analysis about environmental
aspects by life cycle assessment, improve the
inventory control programme and use of new
standards and planning tools are identified as
feasible strategies. Not feasible strategies are
purchase easy recycling and reuse materials,
buy products in bulk to reduce packaging waste,
and if the fabrics are remaining after finishing
required product, request another order from
buyer.
In the production stages, the feasible strategies
were identified as, keep well trained swing staff
and quality control team to prevent defective
garments, continuous monitoring, cleaner
production, good housekeeping practices,
maintenance and upgrade the machines on time,
changing the culture for encourage the people
to reuse materials, streamline the supply chain
management and product stewardship. For the
reason of high cost, on site recycling was a less
possibility in achieving the ZW goal.
Feasible strategies to achieve ZW goal in sales
stage are check the quality of carton when
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5.0 Conclusions
Zero waste management is a highly needed
concept for every organization. Accordingly,
ZW management means elimination of waste
rather than managing waste and identified
strategies were, eco design, supply chain
management, cleaner production, product
stewardship, inventory control, life cycle
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