Chapter 4 — full chapter

Chapter 3 showed how material combinations, trims and finishes influence the recovery potential of a textile product. Architecture for recovery takes the next step: designing the product so that useful components and materials can actually be separated and recovered later.

Two questions guide this section:

Can the product be taken apart?
Design for disassembly considers whether useful components and materials can be separated without unnecessary damage.

Can those materials enter a realistic recovery process?
Design for recyclability and cyclability considers whether material composition and construction are compatible with available recovery technologies.

These decisions need to be made during product development rather than when the garment becomes waste. Circular apparel research similarly identifies disassembly, standardisation, repairability, remanufacturing and recyclability as interrelated product-design strategies (Rahee & Sarker, 2024).