A state-of-the-art Literature Review of Upcycling: A Clothing Industry Perspective

• Aim: The purpose of this study is to review and appreciate the developments in the literature of upcycling domain; (i) To comprehend the concept of upcycling and subsequently, understanding the difference among the prominent terminologies used in the literature (ii) To identify application of upcycling across various industries; (iii) To propose a framework of upcycling practices for clothing industries based on the insights. Methodology: A scientific literature review procedure proposed by Mayring (2002) was adopted to select and screen the paper which comprised of four steps; (i) Material collection: The collection of material is well defined and delimited based on the profiling approach. Each paper is defined as unit of analysis; (ii) Descriptive analysis: Different criteria are set to analyze collected materials. These are publication year, journal, methodology and author affiliations; (iii) Category selection: To do analysis different categories have been identified. Further those categories were divided into sub-categories; (iv) Material evaluation: According to above mentioned categorization, research papers are analyzed and interpreted to form a conceptual framework. Result: The paper has identified terminologies and definitions used in the literature. Recycling may be considered as  the use of the material properties (e.g. as a fire retardant non-woven material in a mattress spring cover) (Morley, Bartlett et al. 2009). Down-cycling may be conceptualized as making an inferior product or broken down into raw material. However, several scholars proposed various definitions of upcycling. The prominent may include: (i) Value/quality of product is improved by making superior product. (Dervojeda, Verzijl et al. 2014); (ii) Giving new value to materials that are either discarded, or are not being used anymore" (Fletcher and Grose 2012); (iii) repurposing lower-value items such as a neck scarf to construct a higher-value end use item, such as a wrap skirt or halter top (Janigo and Wu 2015). The results indicated that designing may be considered as one of the important steps in upcycling process. The process of redesigning consists of ideation, reconstruction and fitting. The limitation of redesigning is variability in size and pattern. This can be overcome by; craftsmanship, time, innovation, provenance, desire, narrative. Conclusion: The extant literature revealed that no study so far has attempted to summarize the literature in upcylcing area. Thus, this could be seen as a significant and unique contribution to the literature. Further, the bibliography and insights provided in the study may be used by future scholars as a ready reference for their research.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik -- Textil-, gummi- och polymermaterial (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering -- Textile, Rubber and Polymeric Materials (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Literature review

Clothes Reuse

Reverse value chain

Upcyling

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)