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Reuse in practice: the UK’s car and clothing sectors

Reuse in practice: the UK’s car and clothing sectors
Reuse in practice: the UK’s car and clothing sectors
Ongoing efforts to seek better resource efficiency have highlighted the role of reuse as a contributor to achieving circular economy objectives. In order to improve resource efficiency, the motives, means and opportunities for reuse need to be understood such that best practice can be identified and measures implemented to foster more effective and more extensive reuse. This study compares and contrasts reuse in the car and car components sector with the clothing sector as a means to identify commonalities and differences, and seek facets of effective practice. The car sector is found to align more with financial motives than the clothing sector, the latter providing more marked and apparent social benefits. Three key aspects appear common to both sectors. First, whole lifecycle – cradle to cradle – approaches to enhancing reuse are emerging and have considerable merit from a circular economy perspective. Secondly, the internet has become a key tool for the facilitation of reuse and is likely to grow further in this regard. Thirdly, decisions regarding the end-of-use of consumer products are critical and need to be better understood. Fourthly, for any reuse initiative to deliver positive outcomes, consumers must be fully engaged. We conclude that whilst some sector-specific adjustments may have to be implemented in future initiatives to promote and enhance reuse activities, the overarching principles and optimum methods of reuse facilitation may well be common for contrasting sectors.
reuse, Practice, facilitation, cars, clothing
36-47
Shaw, Peter
935dfebf-9fb6-483c-86da-a21dba8c1989
Williams, Ian
c9d674ac-ee69-4937-ab43-17e716266e22
Shaw, Peter
935dfebf-9fb6-483c-86da-a21dba8c1989
Williams, Ian
c9d674ac-ee69-4937-ab43-17e716266e22

Shaw, Peter and Williams, Ian (2018) Reuse in practice: the UK’s car and clothing sectors. Detritus, 04, 36-47. (doi:10.31025/2611-4135/2018.13735).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Ongoing efforts to seek better resource efficiency have highlighted the role of reuse as a contributor to achieving circular economy objectives. In order to improve resource efficiency, the motives, means and opportunities for reuse need to be understood such that best practice can be identified and measures implemented to foster more effective and more extensive reuse. This study compares and contrasts reuse in the car and car components sector with the clothing sector as a means to identify commonalities and differences, and seek facets of effective practice. The car sector is found to align more with financial motives than the clothing sector, the latter providing more marked and apparent social benefits. Three key aspects appear common to both sectors. First, whole lifecycle – cradle to cradle – approaches to enhancing reuse are emerging and have considerable merit from a circular economy perspective. Secondly, the internet has become a key tool for the facilitation of reuse and is likely to grow further in this regard. Thirdly, decisions regarding the end-of-use of consumer products are critical and need to be better understood. Fourthly, for any reuse initiative to deliver positive outcomes, consumers must be fully engaged. We conclude that whilst some sector-specific adjustments may have to be implemented in future initiatives to promote and enhance reuse activities, the overarching principles and optimum methods of reuse facilitation may well be common for contrasting sectors.

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DETRITUS 04 2018 Paper 0043 - Version of Record
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 22 October 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 22 November 2018
Published date: December 2018
Keywords: reuse, Practice, facilitation, cars, clothing

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 427692
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/427692
PURE UUID: 1caef99f-f7ff-4972-8483-df57bbbb86a2
ORCID for Peter Shaw: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0925-5010
ORCID for Ian Williams: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0121-1219

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 25 Jan 2019 17:30
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 01:43

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