דוקטורנטים מספרים - Karin Bakshi

Circular economy potential of textile waste in Israel

By Karin Bakshi

Supervisor: Dr. Vered Blass

Over the last two decades the problem of textile waste has risen, a worldwide phenomenon directly related to the fast fashion industry. Of the 150 billion garments produced each year, 85% are discarded as waste in a short span of time (McKinsey, 2020). Israel alone is responsible for the annual production of 500,000 tons of textile waste * (Re-Fresh Global. 2020; US EPA. 2020).

My name is Karin Bakshi. I'm a Master’s student at IE Applied, and my supervisor is Dr. Vered Blass from the Porter School of Environmental Studies.  Alongside the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, I am researching solutions for the textile waste problem by producing nanocellulose (NC) from recycled textiles. The purpose of my study is to integrate Life Cycle assessment as a critical tool to measure the sustainability of the clothing recycling process and determine the different usages and applications of NC in order to promote the circular economy potential of textile waste.

* Re-Fresh Global 2020 created a customized model of CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY- From the 2013-2014 National Waste Composition Survey of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, textile waste constitutes 5%. Textile waste data in Israel are provided by "Rosnir Ltd."; after examination it was found that these data are unreliable and the amount of textile waste occupies a wider volume. EPA textile waste equals 9.3%. Thus in 2020, at least approximately 10% of 5 million tons per year equals about 500,000 tons per year and therefore it amounts to between 300,000 and 500,000 tons of textile waste.

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