RESUMEN
There is a growing demand for the adoption of cyclical processes in the fashion industry. The trends point to the reuse of cellulose from cotton fibres, obtained from industrial waste, as a substitute to the former linear processes of manufacturing, sale, use, and discarding. This study sets up to explore and assess the economic and environmental gains from the mechanical shredding of cellulose in cotton fabrics in a textile company, identifying the circularity associated with the adoption of such methods. The study resorted to a case study methodology building on interviews and observation. For the environmental estimations, the study employed the material intensity factor tool, and for the economic evaluation the study uses the return on investment. The study also offers an estimation of the circularity of the processes that were implemented. The adoption of the mechanical shredding for cotton cellulose generated economic gains of US$11,798,662.98 and a reduction in the environmental impact that amounts to 31,335,767,040.26 kg including the following different compartments: biotic, abiotic, water, air, and erosion. The findings suggest the existence of opportunities for the circular economy in the textile sector of about 99.69%, dissociated to the use of mechanical recycling, while limited by the consumption of electrical energy and lubricants in the recycling process, leading the way to a circular economy.
RESUMEN
The objective of this study was to evaluate the moderating effect of Occupational Health and Safety actions based on the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations to mitigate the negative effect of COVID-19 on the operational, logistical, marketing (OLMP), and health and safety performance (OHSP) of workers in multinational industries. The development of surveys in companies was the method adopted, which had confirmatory evaluations through Structural Equations Modelling (SEM). As a result, it was confirmed that this is one of the few scientific studies that expectedly validates that the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted operational, logistical, market, and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) performance. This is also one of the few research projects to assess the moderating effect of OHS practices based on WHO to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. According to our findings, those practices were able to reduce by at least 50% the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on operational, logistical, and marketing performance. However, they minimize by only 1.8% the negative effects of health and safety performance for the worker, generating absenteeism increasingly due to physical and mental problems. This number could be higher if the social distance could be provided in public transportation and if employees were more aware of the risks of COVID-19 contamination during their social activities.
RESUMEN
The coronavirus pandemic meant that companies had to adapt quickly to survive the challenging scenario and avoid losing market share or even going bankrupt. In this sense, employees dedicated to Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) activities within organizations played a key role in ensuring that the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) were properly implemented. Even so, no studies were identified in the literature that investigated how the practices to combat COVID-19 improved the performance related to employee safety and occupational health. This is what motivates the accomplishment of this work; evaluate how these practices improve safety and health-related performance. For this, a survey of multinational companies was carried out and, together with this research, a model for structural equations was developed. In the end, a correlation test was performed. The main results showed that practices to combat COVID-19, such as the provision of sanitizers, the adoption of social distance, the creation of new work shifts, and the disinfection of workplaces were related to improvements in safety and health performance through the implementation of a risk management and biological risk mitigation program. Meanwhile, the provision of emergency assistance has found stronger relationships with managerial and strategic actions.