In the recent years sustainable development has [602913]

INTRODUCTION
In the recent years sustainable development has
become a widespread constituent part of economic
and environmental policy not only in developed coun –
try but also in many developing countries. Today’s
most burning environmental problems arise from
ever increasing vol. s of worldwide production and
consumption and the associated material flow [1].
The supply of goods is always correlated to the use
of natural resources, including raw materials (renew –
able and non-renewable), energy, water and land.
The processes of accelerated population growth and urbanization translate into a greater vol. of waste
generated [2].
The literature review revealed a large gap in terms of
Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) conducted over the
end-of-life of textiles. Some LCAs studies, deal with
the assessment of the environmental impacts of cloth –
ing [3, 4, 5] or other type of textile products like car –
pets [6] or furniture [7] but little highlights was placed
on potential benefits from recycling. The economists
and environmentalist’s studies on technical [8, 9]
and economic [10] requirements for sus tainability REZUMAT – ABSTRACT
Sustenabilitatea de mediu și socioeconomică prin reciclarea textilelor
Lucrarea analizează procesul de realizare a sustenabilităiunijlkîii mediului prin reciclarea dețeurilor textile. Lucrarea este
concepută sub forma unui articol de tip review dar ți articol editorial, prin prezentarea unor cercetări relevante pentru
dezvoltarea durabilă ți reciclarea dețeurilor textile, subliniază implicaiunijlkîiile economice, sociale ți de mediu ți propune
aciunijlkîiuni pentru viitor. Reciclarea dețeurilor textile poate servi ca un mijloc de a oferi soluiunijlkîii la probleme financiare, sociale
ți de mediu, cum ar fi: costul ridicat de eliminare a dețeurilor, diminuarea resurselor naturale, crearea de locuri de
muncă, deschizând oportunităiunijlkîi pentru IMM-uri. Beneficiile ți problemele aferente acestui proces sunt, de asemenea,
evideniunijlkîiate. Concluzia care se desprinde este că reciclarea dețeurilor aduce beneficii care acoperă toate cele trei
aspecte care definesc durabilitatea: economice, sociale ți de mediu, în special în rezolvarea numeroaselor probleme
ecologice ți stimularea de noi sectoare ale economiei. Există însă ți aspecte negative. Pentru a cuantifica poteniunijlkîialele
beneficii ecologice, efectele economice ți sociale ale procesului de reciclare a dețeurilor textile, lucrarea propune un
model cadru care echilibrează costurile asociate reiunijlkîelei inverse, pentru obiunijlkîinerea ți operarea cu dețeurile textile ți
efectele asupra crețterii ocupării foriunijlkîei de muncă, precum ți câțtigurile obiunijlkîinute prin revinderea produselor care mai pot
fi purtate. Principala limită a modelului prezentat provine de la faptul că se bazează pe premisa existeniunijlkîei unei
infrastructuri de colectare ți o piaiunijlkîă pentru produsele reciclate. Dar, în România colectarea dețeurilor textile, mai ales
cea post-consum rămâne o problemă nerezolvată. În concluzii, lucrarea prezintă câteva propuneri, a căror soluiunijlkîionare
reprezintă teme viitoare de cercetare.
Cuvinte-cheie:
Environmental and socioeconomic sustainability through textile recycling
This paper examines the process of achieving environmental sustainability through recycling of textile wastes. It is
organized as a review and editorial article, relating relevant research regarding sustainable development and recycling
of textile waste, and outlining economic, environmental and social implications and suggested future actions. The
recycling of textile waste can serve as a mean of providing solutions to financial, environmental and social problems
such as high cost of waste disposal, and diminution of natural resources, create workplaces, opening opportunities for
SMEs. The benefits and problems of this exercise are also highlighted. The conclusion drawn is that the recycling of
waste brings benefits to all three aspects that define sustainability: economic, social and environmental, especially in
solving the numerous ecological problems and boosting new economy sectors, but there are also negative aspects too.
To quantify the potential ecological benefits, the economic and social effects of textile waste recycling, the paper
proposes a framework model which makes tradeoff between costs of reverse network for textile waste establishing and
operating, and its effects on the employment increase, and resold wearable textiles earnings. The main limit of the
presented model is the fact that it is based on the premise that there is already a collecting infrastructure and a
market for the recycled products. But, in Romania the textile waste collecting, especially the post-consumer one still
remains an unsolved problem. In the conclusions, the paper presents several proposals whose solutions represent
future research directions.
Key-words: sustainable development, recycling, closed loop SCM modelling, textiles waste
156 industria textila 2015, vol. 66, nr. 3 ˘Environmental and socioeconomic sustainability through textile recycling
SUNHILDE CUC ADRIANA GÎRNEAȚĂ
MARIUS IORDĂNESCU MARIN IRINEL

157 industria textila 2015, vol. 66, nr. 3 ˘revealed the need for increasing waste prevention
and recycling.
TEXTILE RECYCLING
Textile industry represents an important part of the
manufacturing industry and plays a significant role in
the economy and social welfare of many regions
across the world [11]. Textile industry is not only one
of the most important consumer goods industries but
it also has an essential impact on the environment.
Because it is a diverse and heterogeneous industry,
which covers an important number of activities from
the transformation of fibres to yarns and fabrics to the
production of a wide variety of products such as hi-
tech synthetic yarns, wool, bed-linen, industrial filters,
geo-textiles, clothing, it generates various significant
adverse environmental and social impact across it
global lifecycle.
Textile waste is not a large waste stream by weight or
volume, but has a significant environmental impact
connected to the production of textiles. The clothing
and textile industry accounts for an estimated 5 to
10% of all environmental impacts throughout the EU,
so improving the environmental performance of the
industry is vital [10]. Estimates of the global warming
potential of textile productions are 16.9 kg CO 2-equi –
valents per kg of 50% cotton and 50% polyester or
25 kg CO 2-equivalents per kg of textiles and the
general carbon dioxide saving of textile recycling are
1–1.5 kg of CO 2-eq. per kg textiles [12]. Therefore
compared to most other wastes the global warming
potential from production of textiles can be conside –
red rather high per unit weight.
Directive 2008/98/EC defines recycling as a recovery
operation by which waste materials are reprocessed
into products, materials or substances . Similar textile
recycling refers to the processing of fibres back to
make new products. However in this paper recycling
is defined as a method of reprocessing used clothing,
fibrous material and clothing scraps from the manu –
facturing process. A fairly large amount of textiles is
recycled into wipers or used as filling material but the
actual processing of recovered textile into new prod –
ucts is still relatively minor [13].Textile reuse as sec –
ond-hand clothes is also sometimes considered as a
form of textile recycling while there is no reprocess –
ing. The reusing or recycling of textile waste is not
only an important means of solving several environ –
mental problems, but also a means of socioeconom –
ic and environmental sustainability. Re-using slows
the consumption process and the need for costly and
energy consumptive new products manufacturing
process [14].
SOURCES OF TEXTILE WASTE
The use and application of textiles is widespread.
Apart from the clothing, there are other numerous
applications where textile fabrics can be found e.g. in
furniture, homewares, transportation, medical field etc. Textile waste originates from two main streams:
industries/institutions and population. Industrial texti –
le waste is generated from commercial and industrial
textile applications including commercial waste from
properties such as carpets, drawer, curtains, hospital
refuse or other industrial applications. Collection and
chemical contamination issues make this category as
the least likely to be recycled so an important share
of these goods is send to landfill or incineration.
However, there is research currently being undertak –
en by a number of industries to utilize this resource
[15] .
According to the Council for Textile Recycling, textile
recycling material can be classified as pre – or post
consumer waste. Pre-consumer waste is arising dur –
ing the manufacture of a product and post-consumer
waste is “ any type of garment or household article
made from manufactured textiles that the owner no
longer needs and decides to discard”. During the pro –
cessing of textile products, large quantities of pre-
consumer fibrous waste can be generated in the form
of fiber and yarn, off-cuts, selvages, sheerings and
rejected materials. During their production, 50% of
the fibers are wasted [16].
Post-consumer textile waste consists of any type of
garments or household article, made of some manu –
factured textile that the owner no longer needs and
decides to throw away. The characteristics of fast
fashion have driven the consumption of new clothes
to increase by 60% in the past decade [17]. Several
researchers who studied reasons for clothing dispos –
al revealed that most respondents kept items as long
as they were wearable and said that they stopped
wearing cheap clothing for three main reasons: lower
quality, new fashion trend or clothes were bought for
one specific occasion [18]. The main stream of fast
fashion literature indicated following key variables
that are related with the consumer behavior: renewal
cycle, price, quality and supply to which we add sus –
tainability concerns. The big fast fashion stores like
H&M, Gap, Zara, C&A, and United Colours of
Benetton etc. have made clothing so affordable that
it has led to an overconsumption of unsustainable
clothing. Another recent study from the UK exposed
that the respondents discarded clothing mainly due to
the condition of clothing, new trends in fashion, lack
of space, loss of emotional attachment and changes
in body shape. As a result, textile waste is directly
influenced by the state of the economy and has
become the fastest growing sector of household
waste [20].
Textile recycling process
In the following paragraphs are presented the possi –
ble advantages and issues that might come up during
the entire recycling process, also illustrated in figure 1.
In the first stage the discarded textiles are collected
and processed, where they are sorted, cleaned and
made ready for recycling or manufacturing new prod –
ucts.

158 industria textila 2015, vol. 66, nr. 3 ˘The environmental aspects of the waste stage of
clothing or other household article depend on the
method of disposal. Clothing is disposed of in two
ways: through separate collection or, more typically,
with the domestic waste and end up in municipal
landfills or are burnt.
Separate collection leads to reuse, like second-hand
usage or recycling as cloth, yarn, or even as fiber. A
study of the disposal of clothing among 40-year-old
women in Norway shows that all the women in the
study disposed clothing they had never used and
about 18 % of them declared garments that had
never been used or only used once or twice [21].
A number of different systems have been implement –
ed to collect material for recycling from the general
waste stream. These systems tend to lie along the
spectrum of trade-off between public convenience
and government simplicity and expense. The main
categories of textile collection are through drop-off
centres , curbside collection, door to door collections
and, newest, in store collection. Big brands that have
initiated their own take-back programs in recent
years include H&M (“Don’t Let Fashion Go to
Waste”), The North Face (“Clothes the Loop”), Puma
(“Bring Me Back”). All of these collect clothes from
any company at their stores, and contract with
I:CO (short for I:Collect), a global Swiss-based firm
that collects, sorts and recycles them. For example,
only in 2013 H&M has collected 3,047 tones of gar –
ments. That’s the equivalent of about 15 million
t-shirts [22]. Drop-off centres require the waste pro –
ducer to carry the material to a central location, either
an installed or mobile collection station or the repro –
cessing plant itself. They are the easiest type of col –
lection to establish, but suffer from low and irregular
throughput. The door to door collection method of
garments is a successful method and is being preva –
lent in poor land from a long time. The recycling or usage of textile waste for new prod –
uct manufacturing is connected to certain require –
ments for the waste. When considering textile recy –
cling we must identify what the material consists of.
Various wastes are classified into detailed groupings
according to their materials, colors, and average
piece size. The contents of textile waste are very
complex including products manufactured from a
unique type of fiber or from a combination of several
fibers. Cărpuș & all provide acomprehensive classi –
fication of the categories of textile waste by
origin, fiber composition, size, color [23]. The textile's
composition will affect its durability, method of recy –
cling and, of course the costs too. Complex mixtures
of fibers make separation more difficult and more
costly, and this has implications for the profitability of
textile recycling. Generally, textile waste recycling
has low profit margins with an average profit rate
lower than 0.01 USD per kg waste recycling, so that
many recyclable textile wastes were treated as muni –
cipal solid waste [24]. However, this situation is chan –
ging with entry into the market of several professional
recovery enterprises utilizing advanced technologies
to produce high valued-added products. Conversion
of this type of textile waste into useful materials,
serves a dual function: elimination of waste, and
introduction of new products such as recycled fibers,
recycled clothes, toys, carpets and filling material,
especially from cotton fiber. All collected textiles are
sorted and graded by experienced workers, who are
able to recognize the large variety of fiber types
resulting from the introduction of synthetics and
blended fiber fabrics that make the process more
costly, and this has implications for the profitability of
textile recycling. There is a trend of moving these
facilities from developed countries to developing
countries either for charity or sold at a cheaper price.
Fig. 1. Textile Recycling Process

159 industria textila 2015, vol. 66, nr. 3 ˘The second stage involves the manufacturing of new
products from the raw material obtained by the pro –
cessing of the old products. Recycling technologies,
existing for textile too, are divided into primary, sec –
ondary, tertiary, and quaternary approaches. Primary
approaches involve recycling a product into its origi –
nal form. Secondary recycling involves processing a
used product into a new type of product that has a
different level of physical and/or chemical properties.
Some companies are developing ways to reuse
shredded materials within their own manufacturing
and production processes. For example, H&M has
launched a clothing line composed of 20 percent
post-consumer denim fibers [25]. Tertiary recycling
involves processes, such as pyrolysis and hydrolysis,
which convert the waste into basic chemicals or
fuels. Quaternary recycling refers to waste-to energy
conversion through incineration. Studies have indi –
cated that many forms of fibers recovered from vari –
ous waste streams are suitable for concrete rein –
forcement. There are two major ways of recycling
pre-consumer textile materials; mechanically, where
fibres are pulled apart and reworked into yarn, and
chemically where fibres are repolymerized into a
chemical and spun. For many recycling processes
such as nylon depolymerization and polymer resin
recovery, it is required or mandatory to sort the feed –
stock according to the type of face fibers. The most
fiber types can been identified true a simple melt
point indicator or, more effective with infrared and
Raman spectroscopy [26]. Knitted or woven wool –
lens and similar materials are "pulled" into a fibrous
state for reuse by the textile industry in low-grade
applications, such as car insulation or seat stuffing.
The textiles are shredded and mix together with other
selected fibres, depending on the intended end use
of the recycled yarn. The blended mixture is carded
to clean and mix the fibres and spun ready for weav –
ing or knitting. The fibres can also be compressed for
mattress production. Textiles sent to the flocking
industry are shredded to make filling material for car
insulation, roofing felts, loudspeaker cones, panel lin –
ings and furniture padding.
Regarding the industrial waste, especially carpet
recycling, in the last years a broad based research
agenda has been carried out at the Georgia Institute
of Technology in collaboration with the industry [27] .
These studies include depolymerization, melt pro –
cessing, material component separation, composite
material and reinforcement for concrete and soil.
There is a relativy new trend towards the use of textile
waste in the construction building field, such as roo –
fing material and brick from textile waste sludge [28].
Finally, the process ends with the purchasing of recy –
cled goods by the consumers at the top of reverse
supply chain (production plants) and completes the
recycling loop.
The non recyclable products or those that
are collected together in municipal waste ends up
in landfills or are incinerate. Public concerns exist for the incineration of polymer waste. The main negative
environmental impact of the incineration is the emis –
sion of greenhouse gases. A positive effect of burn –
ing waste is the production of energy. However, with
advanced technologies and proper management,
waste-to-energy conversion can be a viable alterna –
tive to landfill. Textile waste in landfill contributes to
the formation of leach ate as it decomposes, which
has the potential to contaminate groundwater.
Another product of decomposition in landfill is
methane gas, which is a major cause of greenhouse
gases, significantly contributing to global warming
(compared with carbon dioxide, it has a high
global warming potential of 25 for a time period of
100 years) [29]. The decomposition of organic fibers
and yarn such as wool produces large amounts of
ammonia as well as methane. Cellulose-based syn –
thetics decay at a faster rate than chemical-based
synthetics. Synthetic chemical fibers can prolong the
adverse effects of both leachate and gas production
due to the length of time it takes for them to decay
[30].
MODELING FRAMEWORK FOR THE TEXTILES
WASTE RECYCLING EFFECTS ESTIMATION
The life cycle of a product can be either a closed loop
or an open loop. Closed loop products move from
raw materials to design and production to packaging
and distribution to use and maintenance, and are
then recycled with materials and components being
captured and entering back into the system. In an
open loop system, products are incinerated or dis –
posed of at the end of their useful life. In order to
quantify potential ecological and social benefits and
economical effects of textiles waste recycling this
paper proposes the LP optimization model of the
closed loop supply chain network, shown in figure 2.
Model is based on the assumption of an existing for –
ward supply chain, operating on a market with known
supply and demand, and reverse network that should
be established. Hence, the purpose here is to ana –
lyze modelling approach that could be used to estab –
lish three level reverse logistics network for textile
waste, composed of a set of collection points, sorting
points and recycling facilities, while respecting its
impact on the land use reduction, employment
increase , and resold wearable textiles income, ver –
sus reverse network for textiles waste establishing
and operating.
Most of the literature about reverse logistics network
design considers various facility location models
based on the MILP, and in many cases forward
and reverse networks are modelled separately.
Consequently, this leads to significant problem
reduction, which is the case with this paper. However,
there are only few researches related to problems in
textiles recycling networks [31]. A remarkable chapter
about carpet recycling explores the issues of reverse
logistics for recycling within the carpet industry,
including an economic analysis of the success of car –
pet recycling [32]. Unlike carpet, which is usually

transported to collection facilities by contractors, col –
lection of post-consumer apparel may necessitate
pick-ups of small volumes from a high number of
locations, like apparel drop-off locations or curbside
pick-ups. The transportation cost of this type of col –
lection is significant higher compared to full truck
loading. To minimize total transportation and fixed
costs, a collector has to identify the optimal number
and location of local and regional collection facilities.
In its main idea, facility location model proposed here
is similar to the formulation of two-stage capacitated
facility location problem (TSCFLP) described in Klose
and Drexl [33] but because of multilevel problem
nature, different network structure and different
objectives, mentioned approach has modified. In the
proposed model formulation following notation has
been used [34]:
i–end user/owner of textile products (aggregated in
larger units like buildings, schools etc.);
k–collection point (drop – off location) which
receives textile waste products from users;
l–sorting facility which receives textile waste from
collection points;
j–recycling facility which receives sorted textiles
waste from sorting facilities;
Ckl , C lj , ClJ+1 , ClJ+2, Cjs –costs of transporting textiles
waste from collection point kto sorting facility l,
respective from sorting facility lto recycling facil –
ity j, from sorting facility lto second hand shop,
from sorting facility lto the landfill site, from recy –
cling facility j to production plant s;
Xik , Xkl , Xlj ,XlJ+1 , X lJ+2 , Xjs – fraction of textile waste
from user icollected at collection point krespec –
tive from collection point ktransported to sorting
facility l, from sorting facility ltransported to recycling facility j,from sorting facility ltransport –
ed to second hand shop, from sorting facility l
transported to the landfill site and from recycling
facility j to production plant s;
Gk, G l, G j, Gs– capacities of collection k, sorting l,
recycling j, and production facility, resp.;
fk, f l, f j– costs of opening collection, sorting and recy –
cling facilities at locations k, l, j respectively
(including financial equivalent of land use);
Yk,Y l,Y j– binary variables, equals 1 when collection,
sorting or recycling sites are opened, otherwise
equals 0;
a–fraction of wearable textile waste that can be
resold and directly reuse 0  a  1;
b–fraction of sorted textile waste that will be land
filled 0  b  1;
l–  earnings from resoling unit quantity of textile
waste that can be directly reused;
r–  financial equivalent of employment increase per
unit quantity of recycled textiles.
Proposed multilevel MIP model of reverse logistics
network for textile waste, composed of a set of col –
lection points, sorting and recycling facilities, which
respects sustainability criterions is presented below.
Minimize:
S S Ckl  Xkl + S S Clj  Xlj + S(Clj+ 1  Xlj+ 1+ Clj+ 2Xlj+ 2)+
k l l  j  l
+ S S Cjs  Xjs + Sfk  Yk+ Sfl  Yl+ Sfj  Yj– (1)
j s k   l  j
– lSXlJ+ 1– r(S S Xkl + S S Xlj )s.t.
l   k  l    l j
SXik = qii (2)
k
160 industria textila 2015, vol. 66, nr. 3 ˘
Fig. 2. Textiles closed loop supply chain network

SXik – SXkl = 0 k,
i l
SXkl – (1 – a– b)SXlj – XlJ+ 1– XlJ+ 2= 0 l (3)
k  j
SXlj – SXjs = 0 j
l   s
Xik YkGki,  k, Xkl YlGlk,  l,
Xlj YjGjl,  j(4)
S Xik Gkk, S Xkl Gll,
i    k (5)
S Xlj Gjj, S Xjs Gss
l      j
Yk(0,1), Yl (0,1), Yj (0,1),
Xik , Xkl , Xlj , XlJ+ 1, XlJ+ 2, Xjs 0, (6)
The objective function (1) minimizes the sum of
reverse network for textiles recycling costs, and its
effects on the virgin materials consumption, land use
reduction, employment increase, and earnings from
wearable textiles. Note that because objective func –
tion should be minimized, positive effects of network
establishing are included as negative values that are
subtracted from costs. All the supply of textile waste
available at the users site is defined by constraint set
(2). Equalities set (3), represent flow conservation
constraints. Constraints sets (4) prohibit units from
being routed through collection, sorting and recycling
sites unless the site is opened. Constraint set (5) limit
the quantities sent to the collection, sorting, recycling
and production sites up to the capacity of those sites.
Constraint sets (6) enforce the domain of decision
variables.
STAGE OF TEXTILE WASTE RECYCLING
IN ROMANIA
There are numerous economic, social, technological,
environmental and institutional barriers to the imple –
mentation of textile recycling in Romania. The main
textile waste sources in Romania are similar with the
other European countries: industry and population.
In the last period, due to expansion of the garment
sector and decline of the fibers and woven produc –
tion, in Romania, the main part of all pre-consumer
waste consists of textile material cuttings. These are
cuttings of a different size with dyeing defects,
stained, knitted fabric cuts up to 2 kg of weight, fine
knitted fabric waste, woven fabric borders, weighted
cuttings of woven fabrics (0.1–2 m length), cutouts
from garment sewing industry. According to Eurostat
in Romania were generated around 363,315 million
tons of waste, of which 99.4% are non-hazardous
and 0.6% hazardous waste. From these, 18,774 tones
are textile waste. Much of these, 76.43% are gener –
ated by industry of textile manufacturing, wearing
apparel, leather and related products [35]. Across
Europe, an estimated 15 to 20% of potential existing
tonnage is really collected. Germany and the UK on the one hand and Poland and Romania on the other
hand are a few exceptions. Germany and the UK
have an ecological tradition and collect roughly 70%
of its potential while Poland and Romania are
importers of textiles from Western countries. However,
no specific evidence has been found regarding the
amount of the imports of unsorted used clothes. It is
not clear how much of these are resold, in second-
hand shops, or are ending in the landfill. The number
of second hand shops or the tonnage of textile they
processed is also unknown. Without greater trans –
parency in the industry, it is difficult to determine the
size of this segment.
Unfortunately, while sustainability requires a long term
outlook, both private and public sector leaders are
focused on short-term results. Therefore the main
method of waste disposal in Romania is landfill. The
EU waste directive from 2008 (2008/98/EC) presents
a structure for preferred treatment of waste, where
landfill (or other means of disposal) is the least
preferable option and waste prevention is the most
preferable option [36]. The energy content of the
waste materials may be recovered, at least in part, by
burning the waste materials. Incineration of waste is
not a wide spread practice in the country. The
Resolution no. 870/2013 regarding the approval of
National Waste Management Strategy 2014–2020,
requires that the waste which does not comply with
recycling standards, but has a corresponding calorif –
ic value, textiles being included in this category, can
and should be subject to recovery or thermal treat –
ment with energy recovery installations appropriately
equipped. Even if the number of incinerators rapidly
soared from 7 (2010) at 73 (2014), their number is
still very low. Moreover, incineration needs to be done
carefully, because without effective filtering, it can
result in pollution through emissions, potentially sig –
nificant risks to human health and the environment.
A further problem is the lack of recycling technologies
in Romania. Regarding the green technologies, a
roadmap for 2010–2013 was developed in order to
implement the Environmental Technologies Action
Plan (ETAP Romania). Romania was granted transi –
tion periods to achieve conformity with the EU direc –
tives for municipal waste sites by 2017. On 2 July
2014, the EC adopted a legislative proposal to review
recycling and other waste-related targets in the EU
Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, the Landfill
Directive 1999//31/EC and the Packaging and
Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC [37] , textile
wastes are not treated separately, they are included
by “other waste ”. The main elements of the proposal
include: recycling and preparing for re-use of munici –
pal waste to be increased to 70 per cent by 2030,
recycling and preparing for re-use of packaging
waste to be increased to 80 per cent by 2030, with
material-specific targets set to gradually increase
between 2020 and 2030 (to reach 90 per cent for
paper by 2025 and 60 per cent for plastics, 80 per
cent for wood, 90 per cent of ferrous metal, alumini –
um and glass by the end of 2030) and phasing out
landfilling by 2025 for recyclable waste. According to
161 industria textila 2015, vol. 66, nr. 3 ˘

Eurostat, Romania recycled only one per cent of
municipal waste in 2012, a result which placed the
country at the bottom of the member state ranking.
Today, local experts believe that Romania manages
to recycle around five-six per cent of the household
waste generated, a slightly higher figure due to the
waste collected by homeless people, something not
monitored at EU level. Still, the figures are very low
and urgent measures need to be done to put
Romania on the "green map".
CONCLUSIONS
There are benefits to all three aspects that define
sustainability: economic (recycling programs cost
less than waste disposal programs), social (creating
new jobs, new opportunities for small/family busi –
ness, and build communities around environmental
issue) and environmental (preserves natural
resources, saves energy, prevent the destruction of
natural habitats). There are also negative aspects
too. One of the problems is that the used textile
imported (especially second hand clothes) by poor or
developing countries can lead to an economic
decline in that sector.
The most important barriers to recycling are lack of
infrastructure, equipment and technology, lack of mate –
ri al to recycle and lack of consumer awareness. The
amount of textiles for recycling in a region is too small
for an efficient recycling. Therefore recycling must be
done either abroad or partly with imported textiles.
Governments, as well as businesses and individual
consumers, each play an important role in making
the recycling process a success. Government inter –
vention may mean that new value-added recycling technologies enter the market, and therefore the
average system will change. If recycling technologies
improved, then recycling could be as or even more
worthwhile than reuse, particularly if the systems
become closed loop. Recycling of textiles presents
several promising technologies and ideas for recy –
cling systems. It is useful to settle on the far-off
prospects of material use for an environmentally sus –
tainable economy. The motivation for waste and pol –
lution prevention through recycling can only be fully
appreciated when related to long-run goal of material
conservation.
The current inadequated situation regarding waste
management in Romania is a challenge for change.
This can be brought under control by focused efforts
and by a participation of all interested factors in the
Integrated Waste Management Plan, which was
approved in 2004 and completed in 2007. Effects of
textile recycling on sustainable development is mod –
elled as MIP model with the objective of analyzing
trade off between costs of reverse network for textiles
waste and its effects on the virgin materials con –
sumption, land use reduction, employment increase,
and earnings from wearable textiles. Model applica –
tion and adjusting is left for the future research.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper was co-financed from the European Social
Fund, through the Sectorial Operational Programme
Human Resources Development 2007–2013, project num –
ber POSDRU/159/1.5/S/138907 "Excellence in scientific
interdisciplinary research, doctoral and postdoctoral, in the
economic, social and medical fields – EXCELIS", coordina –
tor The Bucharest University of Economic Studies.
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163 industria textila 2015, vol. 66, nr. 3 ˘Authors:
Sunhilde CUC 1
Adriana GÎRNEAȚĂ 2
Marius IORDĂNESCU 3
Marin IRINEL 2
1University of Oradea, Department of Textile Engineering
2The Bucharest University of Economic Studies
3The National Research and Development Institute for Textiles and Leather Bucharest
e-mail: sunhilde_cuc@yahoo.com ,adriana_girneata@yahoo.com, marius.iordanescu@certex.ro, imarin@ase.ro
Corresponding author:
Sunhilde CUC
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