Closing the loop. An exploratory study of reverse ready-made garment supply chains in Delhi NCR

• Pages: 486-510
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-03-2015-0050
• Date: 08 August 2016
• Published date: 08 August 2016
• Author: Seamus O'Reilly,Anita Kumar
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics

Closing the loop

An exploratory study of reverse ready-made

garment supply chains in Delhi NCR

Seamus O’Reilly

Department of Food Business and Development,

University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, and

Anita Kumar

Amity Business School, Amity University, Delhi, India

Abstract

Purpose –Increased economic development in emerging economies has spurred the growth of “fast

fashion”and this in turn has led to not only an opportunity for recycling activity but also a need to do

so from a sustainability perspective. The purpose of this paper is to consider the emergence of such

recycling activity in a developing economy.

Design/methodology/approach –A process flow approach guides identification of stakeholders

and an analysis of reverse supply chain structure and processes. An adapted and extended theory of

planned behaviour (TPB) model is employed to explore recycling behaviour at the household level.

Findings –The authors find rather haphazard garment recycling channels in Delhi NCR. In particular

product acquisition processes are characterised by poor value appropriation and provide a limited

service to households. This is supported by the householder survey that finds poor satisfaction levels

with most recycling channels. PLS path modelling tested hypotheses that each of the four constructs

(attitudes, subjective norm, perceived control and sense of duty) are significant determinants of

“intention to plan to recycle”. Having tested for various possible meditating effects, sense of duty was

found to act as a precursor to attitude. In this model all other constructs were significant determinants

of intention to recycle garments. Thus the study highlights the role of “sense of duty”in attitude

formation, a key determinant of intention to recycle garments. This highlights the importance of

adherence to sustainable practices and the need for associated governance and regulation. Subjective

norm points to the impact of a range of people, including experts. While perceived control points to

difficulties encountered both from a self-efficacy and external (opportunity) perspectives.

Practical implications –The findings suggest that reverse supply chain design should address the

limitations of the product acquisition process (especially poor value appropriation and limited

collection services) and respond to household motivational factors and perceived difficulties.

Originality/value –The study considers the impact of the garment product lifecycle on household

behaviour. In this context the adapted TPB model addressed the role of conscious planning. The model

is extended to include sense of duty, this contributes to emerging work in this field.

Keywords India, Closed-loop supply chain, Garment recycling, TPB model

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

In the last decade there has been considerable industry interest in reverse logistics and

closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) management due to several factors, including: strict

environmental laws and regulations, shorter product lifecycles and increasing quantity

of product for recycling, and emergence of profitable opportunities related to the

residual commercial value of end-of-life/end-of-use products.

The supply chain management literature research on reverse supply chains has

largely focused attention on cross-functional and business-to-business behaviour

(Rogers et al., 2002) with less attention given to end-customer behaviour (Huscroft et al.,

2013). This paper looks to end-customer behaviour theory to investigate household

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 27 No. 2, 2016

pp. 486-510

©Emerald Group Publishing Limited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-03-2015-0050

Received 6 March 2015

Revised 4 August 2015

Accepted 10 August 2015

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-4093.htm

486

IJLM

27,2

motivation to act in CLSCs and as such seeks to contribute to the wider supply chain

management literature and, at a practical level, inform CLSC design.

End-customer involvement in recycling processes differs across product categories,

for example, various household wastes (e.g. cardboard, paper, organic) are typically

recycled on a weekly basis, electronic goods are usually recycled at the point of

purchase of the replacement product (these processes are often underpinned by

legislation, e.g. WEE in the EU) and white goods are often collected when the

replacement/new product is delivered. Garments present an interesting case in terms of

end-customer behaviour, since they are often not replaced directly at the time of

purchase as in the case of more durable electronic and white goods, but rather they are

usually kept for further use. Similarly the regular weekly or fortnightly collection

services, and associated habitual behaviour, seldom apply to this product category as

they do in household waste recycling. Thus while established collection services, often

underpinned by legislation, influence recycling behaviour across a number of product

categories, this is not the case for garment recycling. Hence the interplay between

garment recycling chains and household behaviour merits attention.

The rise of fast fashion, often dubbed “disposable fashion”, has greatly increased the

quantity of garments disposed as waste (Morgan and Birtwistle, 2009; Bianchi and

Birtwistle, 2012; Ekström and Solomonson, 2014). Fast fashion’slowpricestrategyand

trendy styles stimulates an increased rate of purchase, limited number of times the garment

is worn and a related high disposal rate. Various studies report high levels of waste

generated by fast fashion in developed economies (Bianchi and Birtwistle, 2012; Ekström

and Solomonson, 2014). However, notwithstanding increasing rates of consumption, very

little attention has been devoted to fast fashion recycling behaviour in emerging economies.

A systematic literature review carried out by Laitala (2014) found just 28 published journal

articles (peer reviewed) addressing garment recycling and of these only two included

developing/emerging economies: one presents a typology of Korean eco-consumers based

on clothing disposal behaviours (Sung and Kincade, 2010) and the other is a comparative

study of consumer clothing disposal behaviour in the UK and Chile (Bianchi and Birtwistle,

2012). Given the patterns of growth and consumption in emerging economies, recycling in

these markets merit particular attention and further, the traditional role of informal

markets suggests that such studies would benefit from an holistic approach that considers

the current recycling channels and informs future closed-loop chain design. This paper

seeks to respond to this opportunity and focuses on a major emerging economy, India.

In India and worldwide, informal recycling of garments has existed since time

immemorial, for example, wool and silk have traditionally been the most recycled fibres

partly due to their high resale monetary value and partly the greater ease of

reconditioning/re-fabricating garments. However, the garment sector in India has

undergone major change in the last two decades. Increasing urbanisation, rising

disposable income and a burgeoning middle class have resulted in increased spe nding

on ready to wear garments, thus giving rise to frequent purchase of “fast fashion”. This

has led to an increase in the amount of garments handled in the aftermarket[1].

Moreover, India has become a key link in the global recycling chain where post-

consumer garment waste is brought from all over the world and reprocessed as

clippings, industrial wipers, shoddy wool, yarn, blankets and shawls. Norris (2012)

finds that there is little or no systematic analysis of the contextual value of worn

clothing as a commodity and its distribution throughout the global value netw ork. She

further adds that there is a need to investigate how and where significant value is

created and extracted at specific points along the chain and who benefits from it.

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Supply chains

in Delhi NCR