Towards a healthy urban metabolism for textile waste through social theories

This study investigates the context of post-consumer fashion textile waste in the urbanised city and brings into dialogue the sub-field of discard studies, circular economy and social theories. This is to enable an alternative approach through which the health of urban metabolism for textile waste is improved. This research argues the flow of unwanted textiles in the urbanised environment remains to be unpredictable despite all the in-placed managerial strategies; and proposes that inefficient management of urban textile waste is partly due to lack of attention to the materiality of textiles. This research is designed as a case-study on Metropolitan Melbourne. The collected data was through 20 semi-structured interviews with the allied actors of post-consumer textiles in the urbanised city. This study first uncovers the materiality of textile waste and its impact on the spatial and temporal displacements of discarded textiles in the urban environment. Research findings indicate that, research participants understood the materiality of textile waste through the dichotomy of 12 main characteristics that determine the flow of urban textile waste. This is discussed through the lens of social theories of Actor-Network and Rubbish theory. The generated knowledge assists to reflect on the concept of circular economy and its implementation in the urbanised city for effective management of textile waste.