The Journey of a Norwegian T-shirt: A Case Study of Fibre Material in the Clothing System

Abstract

Current EU textile policy efforts largely focus on post-consumer waste collection and end-of-life management while pre-consumer losses remain insufficiently addressed. In addition, many textile life cycle assessments (LCAs) and material flow studies apply single-lifecycle boundaries with conventional allocation approaches and consumer-country perspectives. This limits the understanding of the potential for fibre retention across consecutive lifecycles and global value chains.

This study quantifies fibre flows and environmental performance of a cotton t-shirt across two consecutive lifecycles (loops) by combining material flow model with LCA for five impact categories (global warming, freshwater eutrophication and ecotoxicity, water consumption and land use). The model represents manufacturing in Bangladesh and use and end-of-life management in Norway as EU-relevant benchmark context.

Results show that, under current conditions, a maximum of 17% of the initial fibre input could be mechanically recycled and reutilized into a new T-shirt. It is also revealed that fibre losses occur predominantly in upstream operations: an estimated 44% of material was lost during the manufacturing stages. Scenarios analysis demonstrated that recycling pre-consumer waste could increase material recovery to up to 44%, while improving process efficiency (reducing waste generation) in yarn, wet processing and apparel production could reduce the global warming by 10% and other impacts by 20-25%. These findings suggest that meeting EU circular textile ambitions requires prioritizing upstream material efficiency and pre-consumer waste management, supported by coordinated action across policymakers, brands and manufacturers along the value chain.