Hangers - The plastic straws of the Fashion Industry? - A case study of single-used plastic hangers

Abstract

In line with globalization, increased customer awareness, and increasingly stringent regulations regarding sustainability, the fashion industry faces huge challenges in line with several dimensions of sustainability. Until today, the biggest focus has been on environmental improvements linked to transportations and environmentally sustainable textiles. Thereby, another sustainability aspect that has not received as much attention, is the plastic hangers. Generally, the hangers are a vital part of the exposure of the clothes in physical retail stores. Hence, the purpose of this study is to map out the value chain of single-used plastic hangers and also investigate whether the use of these hangers could become more sustainable, regarding environmental and economic aspects. The relevance of focusing on the role of the hangers further increases in line with the growth of e-commerce, which is a distribution channel where the hanger does not bring any value, either for the case company or the end customers. The empirical findings of the case study are also substantiated by theoretical findings from a literature review of the field. The empirical findings and analysis are divided into three main parts, where the current situation is mapped out which then, through substantiation of theories, leads to a proposal for a future scenario where environmental and economic sustainability are in focus. This is followed by a final discussion where the findings are generally discussed and how the choice of method may have affected the result. The conclusion from the empirical findings and the discussion is that a relocation of the pre-hanging activities to the retail stores from the suppliers’ sites, would be the most optimal option, both from an economic and environmental perspective, in order to for instance enable an immediate reuse of the hangers.