Consequential LCA of the implementation of the circular economy in the fashion supply chain: the Italian case of the "Orange Fiber" technology

The application of the circular economy to the fashion supply chain is one of the objectives which is gaining interest among corporate stakeholders of the sector. In particular, the development of technologies able to reuse... [ view full abstract ]

The application of the circular economy to the fashion supply chain is one of the objectives which is gaining interest among corporate stakeholders of the sector. In particular, the development of technologies able to reuse by-products instead of raw materials can be a solution both to reduce waste generation and to improve the use of resources over the long term. In the examined case, the company Orange Fiber^TM, through a chemical process, extracts cellulose from citrus peels to produce a textile fiber. This fiber can be compared to traditional ones such as silk, cotton and viscose. Nowadays citrus peels constitute a by-product of the fruit industry and its traditional disposal represents a low-value recovery as waste or animal feed. The presentation aims to determine the environmental impacts of this process. The consequential LCA identifies the environmental benefits of implementing the process for a real application case in Italy. System boundaries include the fruit growing stage, the harvesting phase, the use of citruses in the food chain, the expected end-of-life of the waste, transports, the cellulose extraction, the textile fiber production as well as the production of the substituted fibers. The parameters responsible for the highest shares of the scenario uncertainty are the economic allocation of the food industry waste, the type of citrus cultivation, the yield of the fiber production process and the compared citrus peels end-of-life. Results suggest that the assessed process can potentially be beneficial from an environmental point of view while providing a high added value product.