FR2735042A1 - System for re-use and recycling of used coat-hangers - Google Patents

Abstract

A system for re-use and recycling of coat-hangers consists of: collecting a lot of coat-hangers at a collection point; transporting the lot to a re-use and recycling installation; separating the lot into firstly, those for potential re-use and secondly the rest; renovating the first, renovated fraction to a point of re-use; condition the first part of the second fraction for recycling and transporting the first part of the second fraction for recycling.

Description

IMPROVEMENTS ON RECYCLING AND
REUSE OF GARMENTS
The present patent application is a partial continuation of US patent application No. 08 / 472.912 which was filed on June 7, 1995. The present invention relates to clothes racks, and more specifically to a method and a system for recycling and reusing clothes racks. The method and the system can be applied to clothes racks, hereinafter called "hangers", which are made of various materials, but, because the vast majority of hangers that l 'we manufacture today in the world is plastic, the invention will be shown and described in connection with the treatment of plastic hangers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
All clothing - or almost all - that is produced in many countries of the world which are suitable for manufacturing clothing such as pants, shirts, skirts, bodices, dresses, costumes, undergarments, etc. , are placed on hangers for presentation to the end consumer in a retail store.

By far the most common business practice is to place garments on hangers where the garment is made, although in some cases garment may be attached to a hanger in a retail store just before the garment is presented to the final consumer for sale. However, whether the hanger was initially used in the garment manufacturer's factory or in the retail store, business and environmental interests arose in the handling of hangers.

 A major interest relating to the treatment of hangers concerns the costs inherent in this. In a typical situation, a hanger that is usually made of plastic is made by the hanger manufacturer and shipped to the clothing manufacturer. The garment manufacturer places the newly manufactured garments on hangers, and then ships the garments over their hangers, either to a distributor or, more commonly, directly to a retailer where the garment is exhibited for sale to the end buyer who is the consumer. After their purchase from the retailer, certain garments, such as men's and women's suits, can be taken home by the consumer on the hanger on which they were exposed for their purchase. hangers are removed from the garment at the checkout or at the outlet by an employee of the retail store, the hanger then being thrown into a crate. At the end of the day, or at least periodically, the box is emptied into a trash can at the retailer. One then gets rid by burning them, by burying them in a landfill, etc., of the hangers thus thrown away which can have many different sizes and shapes and which are produced by different manufacturers of hangers. As the cost of a typical plastic hanger can be, for example, around 15 cents US & at present for the clothing manufacturer, it can be seen that a significant cost is involved economically since the clothing presented on hangers by the retailer. In addition, the retailer is forced to dispose of hangers that have been thrown away, resulting in additional cost to the retail trader.

 It is important to note that, for the most part, the hangers that are thrown in this way are perfectly usable and that they are quite susceptible to one or more re-uses. The material from which the hangers are made and which is usually plastic, as well as the construction of the hanger, are such that the hangers are able to withstand severe stresses during use. The vast majority of hangers are thus destroyed, although they are perfectly capable of another use as clothes racks.

 It can therefore be seen from the above description that the usual hanger processing system wastes natural resources and manpower. For the most part, plastics are based on petroleum products and, taking into account the usual system of destruction of plastic hangers after only one use in the commercial life of the hanger, it is necessary to supply new plastic material from stock base of crude petroleum products. As can be understood, the manufacture of ten hangers by the hanger manufacturer requires much more labor, and therefore costs much more, than using a single hanger ten times , provided that an economically viable system is available for the collection of hangers already used, for their sorting, for their renovation if necessary and for their dispatch. There are also less obvious, but real, costs to society and to the environment with the usual hanger treatment system, including dumping tons of hangers, literally, that occupy landfills a lot of space, as well as the cost of fuel which is necessary to reduce hangers to a basic state, for example by burning or compacting them.

 It is of course possible that the retail trader will periodically sort hangers that have been collected in cartons and send them to the hanger manufacturer or the clothing manufacturer. However, retail store employees are not usually available to perform the additional sorting tasks, while the clothing and hanger manufacturers are not organized to receive and apply additional treatment to returned hangers. The difficulties of sorting at the retail store level are particularly enormous, and include the separation of hangers with the same appearance into groups intended for the original manufacturer, as well as the problem of getting rid of the group of hangers which do not are not likely to be recycled and which are usually made of a material whose cost is relatively low. Of course, the last mentioned hangers are likely to be shredded, but because neither the clothing manufacturer nor the hanger manufacturer is currently equipped to handle such hangers economically, the retailer is still facing the waste problem described above.

 Although the economic inefficiency that is inherent in the current garment rack system has been recognized, there is currently no known system to recycle and reuse garment racks which: (a) does not require sorting at the end point of the commercial use of the hanger (i.e. at the checkout of the retail store), (b) accepts usable hangers and hangers that have no potential for future commercial use and whose it is therefore necessary to dispose of or to be shredded, and:: (c) returns reusable hangers to clothing manufacturers in an efficient manner, including shipping from shipping departure points located in more strategic locations and which are therefore less expensive during implementation than shipments from manufacturing locations for new products.

RESUNE OF THE INVENTION
The invention is a method and system for recycling and reusing clothes racks with local or global reach, which eliminates sorting in places generating used hangers (that is to say generally retail stores) , which process both reusable hangers and hangers only intended to be ground, without restriction as to the constituents of the mixture thereof, which effectively renovate and return reusable hangers to the places where they will then be used or treated, and which execute tcut the above on a basis that is economically viable for the hanger manufacturer, for the clothing manufacturer and for retailers.

 In the presently preferred embodiment, a hanger reuse center is installed in a location suitable, first, for shipping already used hangers to it and, second, for shipping renovated hangers from this one towards places of reuse of the hangers, said re-use center concentrating in a single place the functions of sorting, renovation, crushing and shipping of all the hangers of all the original manufacturers of the hangers already used.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The invention is represented more or less schematically in the accompanying drawing in which
Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the clothes rack recycling system of the present invention
Figure 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the processing of clothes racks in the reuse center of Figure 1; and
Figure 3 is a flow diagram illustrating an alternative embodiment for processing clothes racks in the reuse center of Figure i.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
A presently preferred embodiment of the method and system according to the present invention for recycling and reusing clothes racks is indicated generally at 10 in Figure 1. The method and system, referred to as "the system" in this to simplify, are shown in the form they would take in a typical multinational hanger manufacturing and distribution system. The system includes (a) a manufacturer of original clothes racks in
United States, (b) one or more manufacturers of original hangers here a plurality - which are licensed by the hanger manufacturer in the United States for sale to clothing manufacturers in the United States, but which are located in other countries, (c) manufacturers of clothing established in the States
United and elsewhere, (d) a similar system of hanger and clothing manufacturers who are unrelated to the hanger manufacturer in
United States, (e) a plurality of retailers in the United States that generate used hangers, and (f) a center for reuse and redistribution of hangers.

For the sake of clarity and understanding of the overall concept, the path of the only reusable hangers has been shown, the final steps concerning the grinding of the hangers and the crushed products, as well as the waste products, being shown in FIG. 2.

 A hanger manufacturer based in the United States is shown at 11 in Figure 1. The concept of processing which is associated with the manufacture, use and subsequent reuse of the hangers produced by said hanger manufacturer in the United States will be described first to illustrate the basic concept.

 The hangers produced by the hanger manufacturer in the United States 11 are sent in two directions.

A first batch of hangers indicated in 12 is sent to a clothing manufacturer in the United States indicated in 13. The clothes produced by the manufacturer 13 are placed on hangers 12 in the factory 13 of the clothing manufacturer in
United States. Garments placed on hangers are now marked 14, and are shipped to retailers in the United States listed at 15.

Some retailers in the United States, and generally the larger retailers, order hangers directly from a hanger manufacturer who is usually in the same country as the retailer. To take this commercial process into account, a second batch of hangers produced by the hanger manufacturer in
USA 11 can be shipped directly to larger retailers, as noted in 16, which bypasses the US clothing manufacturer. The retailer 15 then assumes responsibility for placing the clothes on the hangers, after which the clothes placed on the hangers are presented to consumers at the retailers.

 Similarly, reused hangers that have been processed in the reuse center 18 can be shipped directly to retailer 15, as noted at 21, when the retailer takes responsibility for placing the garments on the hangers, as mentioned it above.

When selling the clothing at a retailer, the hangers are then separated from the clothing at the retailers when retail buyers, that is, ordinary consumers, purchase the clothing from the retailer. Hangers that are now empty, but have been used once, are collected from the retailer in a container that may contain hangers of different types and models and, most likely, hangers from other hanger manufacturers than the hanger manufacturer in the United States 11. Part of the original lot 12 of hangers mixed with hangers of different sizes and models, most likely from both hanger manufacturer 11 and others hanger manufacturers is then dispatched, in the form of an unsorted grouping indicated in 17, to a reuse center for hangers 18. After sorting, verification (to remove broken or otherwise non-reusable hangers or unacceptable), renovation (if necessary) and packaging in containers for similar hangers, said containers are shipped in 20 to the clothing manufacturer at
USA 13 where hangers re-enter the garment shipping, sale, collection and reuse process, as shown in 13 and 14.

Some companies working in the production of hangers are now affiliated with manufacturers of hangers that can be installed in countries other than
United States, affiliations which may consist of licenses and / or arrangements at 100% or in participation with said companies outside the United States. A common practice is, for example, that a hanger manufacturing plant is located in a country with a high level of clothing manufacturing; in fact, hanger factories are frequently set up in the immediate vicinity of garment factories. In the example shown in Figure 1, two licensees of the hanger manufacturer in the United States, namely a Hong Kong hanger manufacturer 23 and a Korean hanger manufacturer 24, manufacture hangers 25 and 26, and they ship to Hong clothing manufacturer respectively
Kong or the People's Republic of China 27 and a Korean clothing manufacturer 28. The clothing is then shipped on hangers, as indicated in 29, 30, respectively, to retailers in the United States 15 where they are treated as this is described above, together with new hangers from the hanger manufacturer in
United States 11.

 The method and system is not limited to hangers that are manufactured by, or under the control of, a primary hanger manufacturer, such as a hanger manufacturer in the United States 11. Rather, the method and system are flexible enough to accommodate hangers produced by independent hanger manufacturers, both in the United States and in other countries.

Referring again to Figure 1, other hanger manufacturers located in the United States and / or other countries are indicated at 32. Said independent hanger manufacturers ship their hangers 33 to garment factories that are located in any country in the world, including the United States, as shown in 34. Said clothing manufacturers worldwide may not be related to clothing manufacturers 27 and 28, or they may be the same that the clothing manufacturers 27 and / or 28, or they may result from a combination of one or more clothing manufacturers 27 and 28 and other independent clothing manufacturers. To facilitate understanding of the invention, FIG. 1 appears to indicate visually that the clothing manufacturers 34 are separate and distinct from the clothing manufacturers 27 and 28, but it should be understood that the meaning of the clothing manufacturers 34 is assumed to be be general. The garments which were then joined to the hangers in factories 34 are then shipped, as indicated at 35, to the retailer at
United States 15 where, like the clothes placed on hangers from the United States clothing manufacturer 13, they are then treated in the same manner as described above.

It is understood that, in the event that major retailers in the United States wish to receive their hangers only from hanger manufacturing plants which are other than those associated with the hanger manufacturer in the United States.
United States 11, such hangers could be shipped directly to retailer 15 from only independent hanger manufacturers 32.

We can see from the previous description that once (a) a new hanger leaves a hanger manufacturer in
United States to go to a clothing manufacturer in the
United States or at a retailer in the United States, or (b) garments placed on hangers leave a garment manufacturing plant, said hangers are effectively part of the hanger reuse program which is indicated by the dashed line 37.

 A careful study of the above process and system shows that variations can be used within the scope of the invention if conditions, in particular of cost and reliability of deliveries, are met.

 The hanger reuse center 18 of Figure 1 is shown in more detail in Figure 2 where it is called the hanger reuse plant.

In the following description of the details of the process and the system represented in FIG. 2, it will be assumed that the hangers entering the hanger reuse plant have different sizes and shapes, and also different qualities to the extent that some are likely to be reused after sorting, checking and refurbishing, and where others, such as single use, are not suitable for reuse and must therefore be crushed or discarded to be discarded as an unusable product .

 Hangers 17 from retailers 15 enter the hanger reuse plant 18 at entry point 40, and move to a collection area 41 which contains entry inventory from many retail stores. Note that it is very likely that the hangers 17, in the state in which they are at the entrance, are not sorted, in the sense that hangers from different hanger manufacturers) as well as hangers whose size, composition and quality are different, can be mixed in an input container. This is of course due to the fact that employees in retail stores simply throw hangers of all sizes, shapes and kinds in a common container following the purchase of clothing by the buyer The most common materials for hangers these days are polystyrene, polypropylene and crystalline styrene.

 The hangers 17 are first of all subjected to a sorting and verification operation in the sorting and verification station 42. In the station 42, workers 43 separate the hangers 17 which must be discarded from the hangers which may be reused. The hangers i to be discarded are placed on a waste conveyor 44, and those of the hangers which are susceptible to reuse are placed on a reuse conveyor 45.

 The hangers 9 to be discarded are brought to a waste sorting station 46 where one or more sorters 47 place the polystyrene hangers to be ground in a polystyrene box 48, the polypropylene hangers to be ground and the crystalline styrene hangers to be ground in a polypropylene and crystalline styrene box 49 and the hangers to be discarded in a refuse box 50. The polystyrene, polypropylene and crystalline styrene hangers are placed on a conveyor of shredded products 51 which brings the hangers to the grinding station 52. The hangers to be discarded are removed from the reprocessing system, for example by depositing them in a box of disposable products 53.

 When they arrive at grinding station 52, the polystyrene, polypropylene and crystalline styrene hangers are sent to separate mills 54, 55 and 56 where, after having been ground to the desired particle size, the three types of material are sent to a hanger manufacturing plant 11 for re-manufacturing hangers.

 As mentioned, those of the hangers which have been checked at the sorting and checking station 42 and which have been judged capable of re-use are placed on a re-use conveyor 45. After these hangers have been placed on the re-conveyor reuse 45, the workers 61 of the sorting and verification station examine the hangers and decide whether an individual hanger (a) is in a clean condition and suitable for sale, or (b) requires renovation.

If a worker 61 decides after this examination that a hanger requires a renovation to bring it into a state suitable for sale, this renovation, including cleaning, is carried out by the worker 61. Other treatments are obviously included in the renovation concept, including tightening loose parts, removing parts indicating the size and even possibly replacing broken or missing parts. If a worker 61 decides that a given hanger is too deteriorated to be renovated quickly, the worker will simply place the damaged hanger on the waste conveyor 44 where it will be treated as described above.

 Although a single conveyor is indicated in FIG. 2, a plurality of conveyors can be provided as a variant, one for each manufacturer of hangers. Of course, a conveyor would be assigned to the hangers made by the hanger manufacturer in the United States 11, and the other (s) would be provided for the other hanger manufacturers 32 (see Figure 1).

 In the following description of the invention, it will however be assumed that hangers of all shapes, of all types and of all sizes are mixed on the conveyor 45.

The now renovated hangers which exit from the conveyor 45 via its discharge end 62 are deposited on the loading end 63 of a sorting and packaging conveyor which is indicated generally at 64. After having been placed on the conveyor 64, the renovated hangers are separated by sorters. For example, a 65 sorter can pick up all the hangers from the United States hanger manufacturer
States 11 which move along the outer half 66 of the conveyor 64 and place such hangers on the inner half 67 of the conveyor 64. A sorter 68 can pick up all the hangers made by independent hanger manufacturers 32 and place them on the inner half 67 of conveyor 64. In addition, a sorter 69 can pick up hangers made by independent hanger manufacturers 32, etc.

 In packing stations 73 to 78, packers 70 and 71 pack identical hangers in boxes 72. Thus, a packer 70 can pack all the hangers of 10 and 12 inches (25.4 and 30.5 cm) which are intended for men's suits in cartons 3 and 4 in packing station 73 at a size per carton, while empty cartons 1 and 2 are waiting to be brought to a hanger packing location . When the boxes 3 and 4 are full, the platform of the packing station 73 on which the boxes 1, 2, 3 and 4 are rotated by 1800, so that the full boxes 3 and 4 are moved from the loading location shown in Figure 2 to the removal location which is occupied by cartons 1 and 2 in Figure 2. The rotation of the platform will of course bring empty cartons 1 and 2 to a loading location and the packer 70 will then start to fill the cartons 1 and 2.

 It will be understood that if the hangers of 10 and 12 inches (25.4 and 30.5 cm) for men's suits that reach station 73 are more than the number that workers 70 can pack, taking into account the speed of the conveyor , the capacity of the cartons and the downtime of the packing station while the full cartons are rotated to a collection location and empty cartons are brought to a filling location, a downstream line packer placed in front of a downstream line packing station can also pack 10 and 12 inch (25.4 and 30.5 cm) hangers for men's suits. However, the 71 packer is capable of '' pack all 10 and 12 inch (25.4 and 30.5 cm) hangers for men's suits from hanger manufacturer 11 at station 73, a downstream line packer 71 will only package hangers for tailors and ladies' dresses in station 74, and so on to station 78.

 After being packed in cartons 1 to 24 of packing stations 73 to 78, the hangers are then brought to zone 80 of the finished products intended for resale.

When shipping orders are received, the refurbished hangers for reuse are sent to a US clothing manufacturer 13, as shown in 20, or alternatively, directly to a retailer 15 as shown in 21 ( see figure 1).

Note that the hanger reuse center 18 can be installed at the most practical and economical location; this means that it is not necessary to install it in a specific location conditioned by a single factor, such as for example the place where the hanger manufacturer is installed. If a large quantity of used hangers is generated, for example in a well-defined geographical area, such as the northeast coast, for example
Washington DC to Boston Massachusetts it may make the most sense, considering all the factors, including freight and labor costs, to install the hanger reuse plant near Philadelphia, even if the clothing manufacturer in the United States 13 and the hanger manufacturer 11 are located near Chicago. On the other hand, if a sufficient quantity of used hangers is only generated in a large geographic area, such as the "Midwest "it may be most appropriate to locate the hanger reuse plant 18 in the immediate vicinity of a clothing manufacturer in the United States 13, so that those hangers that the clothing manufacturer 13 needs may be brought from an expedition shed 81 (see Figure 2) to the hanger reuse plant 18 by an air endless conveyor to arrive directly at the post where the clothes are placed on the hangers in the hanger factory clothing from the clothing manufacturer 13.

 Referring now to the alternative embodiment of the reuse center of Figure 1 as shown in Figure 3, note that means 83 of mechanical sorting, or more precisely automated, have been integrated into the system to partially or totally replace the sorters 47 shown in FIG. 2. In this case, more specifically, an infrared sorting device was installed at the discharge end of the waste conveyor, the device operating so as to distinguish between polystyrene, on the one hand, and polypropylene and / or crystalline styrene, on the other hand, and, after having detected the presence of one or the other, to act automatically to divert each detected material towards the appropriate box 48 or 49, or even to additional boxes if the device is calibrated so as to distinguish between polypropylene and crystalline styrene. Once a used hanger reaches box 48 or 49, it is treated as described above.

 It will be understood that at present, while the sorting device 83 can distinguish between the type of material that is presented to it, such devices cannot make final decisions as to which hangers are suitable for reuse. that is to say mainly during grinding, and those of hangers which, due to a condition rendering them unsuitable for renovation for economic reasons, cannot be reused and must be isolated and removed from the system. The operators of the system therefore have the choice between (a) piling up in the boxes 48 and 49 all the hangers which cannot be correctly sorted, to give a category "all the others" which is automatically diverted towards the waste bin 50, or (b) use staff to make the final decision.

If you use staff, which is preferable because even a polystyrene hanger, for example, may not be suitable for grinding for one reason or another, you generally only need a single operator, unlike to the plurality of sorters indicated in Figure 2.

 It can be seen from the above that a process and a system has been described for recycling and reusing clothes racks the application of which is local or global, which eliminates the need to sort hangers and dispose of them in retailers, which renovate and reuse reusable hangers, either in their original manufacturing form or in their crushed form, and which achieves these aims in an economically viable manner for the hanger manufacturer, for the clothing manufacturer and for retail retailers.

 Although a preferred embodiment has been shown and described, it will be immediately clear to those skilled in the art that modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Consequently, the intention is that the scope of the invention is limited, not by the scope of the preceding description given by way of example, but only by the scope of the claims appended below when it is interpreted to in light of the relevant prior art.

Claims (24)

- CLAIMS 1. In a process for reusing and recycling clothes racks, the steps in which  we collect a batch of clothes racks in a collection place,  said collected batch of clothes racks is brought to a hanger reuse and recycling facility,  separating said collected batch of clothes racks into a first fraction which is potentially suitable for reuse and into a second fraction,  we renovate said first fraction,  the first renovated fraction is brought to a place of reuse,  at least a first part of said second fraction is conditioned for recycling, and  said first conditioned portion of said second fraction is brought to a recycling location. 2. The method of claim 1, further characterized in that said place of reuse is a place of manufacturing clothing. 3. The method of claim 1, further characterized in that said place of reuse is a place of selling clothing. 4. Method according to claim 1, further characterized in that  a first quantity of said first renovated fraction of said collected batch is brought to a place for manufacturing clothing, and  a second quantity of said renovated first fraction of said collected batch is brought to a place of sale of clothing. 5. Method according to claim 1, further characterized in that  the conditioning of said first part of said second fraction consists in changing its physical state to a form which is suitable for manufacturing a finished product again, and  further comprising the steps by which  a second part of said second fraction is isolated, and  said second part of said second fraction is discarded. 6. Method according to claim 5, further characterized in that the step of conditioning the first part of said second fraction consists of grinding. 7. The method of claim 4, further characterized in that  the conditioning of said first part of said second fraction consists in changing its physical state to a form which is suitable for manufacturing a finished product again,  further comprising the steps by which  a second part of said second fraction is isolated, and:  said second part of said second fraction is discarded. 8. The method of claim 7, further characterized in that the step of conditioning the first part of said second fraction is constituted by grinding. 9. The method of claim 1, further characterized in that  firstly, the batch of clothes racks collected at the collection location consists of hangers made from a common manufacturing source, and  secondly, by the fact that the separation of said first fraction takes place as a function of one or more of the characteristics chosen from the group comprising size, shape, color and quality. 10. The method of claim 9, further characterized in that  a first quantity of said first renovated fraction of said collected batch is brought to a place for manufacturing clothing, and:  a second quantity of said first renovated fraction of said collected batch is brought to a place of sale of clothing. 11. The method of claim 9, further characterized in that  the conditioning of said first part of said first fraction consists in changing its physical state to a form which is suitable for manufacturing a finished product again, and:  further comprising the steps by which  a second part of said second fraction is isolated, and  said second part of said second fraction is discarded. 12. The method of claim 11, further characterized in that the step of conditioning the first part of said second fraction consists of grinding. 13. System for reusing and recycling clothes racks, said system comprising  means for collecting a batch of used clothes racks at a collection point,  means for bringing said collected batch to a hanger reuse and recycling facility,  means, in the installation, for separating said collected batch into a first fraction which is potentially suitable for reuse and into a second fraction,  means for renovating said first fraction in the reuse and recycling installation,  means for bringing said first renovated fraction to a place of reuse,  means for conditioning at least a first part of said second fraction for recycling, and  means for bringing said first conditioned part of said second fraction to a recycling location. 14. System for reusing and recycling clothes racks according to claim 13, further characterized in that  said means for conditioning the first part of said second fraction for recycling includes means for changing the physical state of said first part of said second fraction into a form suitable for manufacturing a finished product again, and  further comprising  means for isolating a second part of said second fraction, and  means for scrapping said second part of said second fraction. 15. A system for reusing and recycling clothes racks according to claim 14, further characterized in that the means for conditioning said first part of said second fraction are grinders. 16. The method of claim 5, further characterized in that said second fraction is separated by hand into a first part suitable for recycling and into a second part intended for disposal. 17. The method of claim 5, further characterized in that said second fraction is separated in a non-manual manner into a first part suitable for recycling and into a second part intended to be discarded. 18. The method of claim 5, further characterized in that said second fraction is separated by manual and non-manual means into a first part suitable for recycling and into a second part intended for disposal. 19. The system for reusing and recycling clothes racks according to claim 14, further comprising manual means for separating said second fraction into a first part and into a second part. 20. A system for reusing and recycling clothes racks according to claim 19, further characterized in that the means for conditioning said first part of said second fraction are grinding means. 21. A system for reusing and recycling clothes racks according to claim 14, further comprising non-manual means for separating said second fraction into a first part and into a second part. 22. A system for reusing and recycling clothes racks according to claim 21, further characterized in that the means for conditioning said first part of said second fraction are grinding means. 23. The system for reusing and recycling clothes racks according to claim 14, further comprising manual and non-manual means for separating said second fraction into a first part and into a second part. 24. A system for reusing and recycling clothes racks according to claim 23, further characterized in that the means for conditioning said first part of said second fraction are grinding means.