This Bachelor’s thesis was commissioned by Velog – Vetovoimaa logistiikalla Forssan seudulle –hanke. The research part of the thesis is a survey about attitudes and opinions towards utilization of end-of-life textiles. The goal was to get information on what kind of end-of-life textiles are generated in households, how much is generated and where they are taken. The goal was also to get information whether people were ready to pay for better utilization of end-of-life textiles and whether they were ready to take these textiles to new collection points in the future. The survey was carried out over the Internet during the summer of 2011. 159 people around Finland answered the survey.

Most of the answerers were young women who live in small households and are highly educated. Based on the results one can say that the people who answered the survey were interested in the better utilization of end-of-life textiles. They also recycled and utilized their end-of-life textiles well. Although most of the answerers were interested in the better utilization of end-of-life textiles very few were ready to pay for it.

Like many researchers and now the results of the survey have shown most of the end-of-life textiles that are generated are women’s clothes and the most popular way of utilization is re-use. For example second hand shops are very popular in Finland. There are four large utilizers of end-of-life textiles in Finland; Red Cross Finland, Fida International, UFF and Salvation Army. According to the survey the most used of these is UFF.

The theory part of the thesis includes information about the waste law, the amounts of waste generated in Finland, utilizers and ways of utilizing textile wastes and end-of-life textiles, the life cycle of textile product and utilization of textiles according to the waste hierarchy.