Preventing Garment Waste at Source: Elastane Feeding Angle in Tights Knitting

Abstract

Garments rejected during manufacture are an under-examined stream of textile waste. They carry the full environmental burden of fibre production, dyeing, knitting and finishing, but unlike post-consumer clothing they are discarded before delivering any service. Elastane-containing garments are particularly problematic, because elastane obstructs both mechanical and chemical recycling of blended textiles. This study asks whether elastane damage in knitted tights can be reduced at source by altering the geometry of the yarn path between creel and feeder. Quality-assurance records at a Sri Lankan hosiery manufacturer attributed 25% of elastane damage to the feeding system and, within that group, 44% to yarn path behaviour. Three feeding angles, 38.7°, 45.0° and 50.2°, were derived from a survey of 60 production machines and trialled with all other variables held constant. Screening over 100 pairs per angle gave defect rates of 1.0% at 45.0°, 1.5% at 38.7° and 5.0% at 50.2°. In seven days of continuous production, 45.0° recorded 6 defects in 720 pairs (0.83%) against 17 in 745 pairs (2.28%) at 38.7°, a statistically significant difference (χ2 = 4.08, df = 1, p = 0.043). Applied to the 351,042 pairs produced in 2025, of which 3,962 were lost to elastane damage, the trial rate corresponds to approximately 1,040 finished garments not discarded each year. The intervention requires repositioning a single yarn guide and no capital investment, indicating that process geometry is an accessible, under-used lever for waste prevention in apparel manufacturing.