The problem we thought of in the city is the increasing amount of waste clothing collected. According to Seoul standards, the collection amount of waste clothing was 40 tons/day in 2015, but it was 51.2 tons/day in 2019, an increase of 11.2 tons in 4 years. This trend continues to this day. Environmental pollution caused by waste fibers is becoming an issue not only in Korea but also worldwide.
10% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the fashion industry, and only 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gases are emitted annually from textile production, one of the operations that produce clothes. In addition, 20% of global wastewater is generated by the fashion industry. There is a movement to recycle waste clothing through export of old clothes, but this is only a part of the overflowing clothing waste.
It is not easy to recycle waste clothing. While the global recycling rates for paper, glass and plastic are 66%, 27% and 29%, respectively, the recycling rate for clothing materials is only 12%.
Manual sorting of fabrics requires skilled labor and is time consuming. Mechanical work has also become more difficult as more and more clothes are made of mixed fibers, and to reuse the yarn, the dye must be removed, but this task requires more resources and is not an easy task.
Therefore, most of the clothing waste is currently incinerated and landfilled, which plays a major role in environmental problems.