JPH09262834A - Improvement in recycling and reusing of hanger for clothing - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To unnecessitate classification work at a place where a used hanger is originated by transporting a batch of collected hangers for clothing to a hanger reuse/recycle facility and to a place where an adjustered part of the collected hanger is recycled. SOLUTION: Hangers 17 from retailers 15 are carried in from an entrance 40 of a hanger reuse center 18 and collected to a collecting area 41 holding hangers from a plurality of retailers. The hangers 17 are firstly classified and examined at a classification/examination station 42. The hangers 17 are classified to sclapped hangers and reusable hangers by an operator 43 at this station 42. Hangers which are passed the examination and judged to be suitable for reuse at the classification/examination station 42 are mounded on a reuse conveyer 45.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

This application is a continuation-in-part of US patent application Ser. No. 08 / 472,912 filed June 7, 1995. The present invention relates to clothes hangers, and more particularly to methods and systems for recycling and reusing clothes hangers. This method and system can be applied to clothes hangers made of various materials (hereinafter "hangers"), but since most of the hangers made in the world today are made of plastic, the present invention is illustrated and described in connection with the processing of plastic hangers. To do.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Garments such as slacks, shirts, skirts, blouses, suits, dresses and underwear made in countries with the ability to manufacture garments are all or almost all hangers and provided to end consumers at retail stores. . Rarely, retailers may hang clothes before they are sold to the end consumer, but it is a much more common practice for clothes manufacturers to hang clothes. However, whether the first work on the hanger is done at a clothing manufacturer's plant or at a retail store, there are commercial and environmental problems associated with handling the hanger.

A major problem with handling hangers is the cost involved. Typically, hangers, usually made of plastic, are made by a hanger manufacturer and shipped to a garment maker. A garment maker hangs the garment on the garment and then ships the hanged garment to a distribution point or directly to a retail store (the latter is more common). Such garments are then lined up for sale to the final purchaser, the consumer. Depending on the clothing, such as men's and women's suits, consumers may take it home with them as a hanger used for sale after purchase. However, most hangers are removed from clothing and placed in the trash basket by retail store clerk at payment locations such as cash registers. At the end of the day, or at least regularly, empty the hangers in the litter basket in the store's trash. Hangers of different shapes, sizes and manufacturers are discarded and then incinerated or landfilled. The cost of a typical plastic hanger for a clothing maker is currently about 15 cents a piece, which proves to be a significant cost for retailers to hang their clothes on display. In addition, retailers have to dispose of hangers when they are no longer needed, which is also expensive.

It should be noted that most of the hangers that are disposed of in this way are still in good working order and can withstand one more reuse. The hanger's raw material, the plastic, and the structure of the hanger make the hanger design capable of withstanding considerable stress during use. Therefore, most hangers have been disposed of even though they can be fully reused as clothes hangers.

From the above description, it can be seen that the current handling of hangers wastes both natural resources and labor. Most plastics are made from petroleum, and the current practice of using a hanger once and throwing it away requires new plastic to be made from crude oil stock. If there is an economically feasible system that collects and sorts used hangers, makes them as new as necessary, and ships them, a hanger manufacturer can use 10 hangers rather than 10 hangers. It is understood that making is much more labor intensive and therefore more expensive. In addition, the current hanger disposal method is not very noticeable, but it involves social and environmental costs. There are fuel costs such as filling many tons of hangers in a landfill, incinerating or compressing them, and returning the hangers as raw materials.

Of course, it is also possible to periodically sort the hangers that the retailer has collected in the boxes and send them to the hanger manufacturer or the clothing manufacturer. However, retailers usually do not have the labor to do the extra sort work, and clothing and hanger manufacturers are not prepared to receive and process the returned hangers. Sorting work at the retailer level is extremely difficult, such as separating similar hangers by manufacturer or disposing of hangers made of relatively cheap materials that are not suitable for recycling. Although hangers that are not suitable for recycling can of course be crushed again, neither the clothing manufacturer nor the hanger manufacturer have the facilities to process such hangers economically so far, and as mentioned above, retailers still have a disposal problem. Will be required.

While current practices for handling clothes hangers have been recognized as economically inefficient, (a) do not require sorting at the final location of use of the hanger (retail store cash register), (b) Accepts usable hangers and hangers that are not of commercial value and therefore need to be discarded or re-milled, (c) A reusable hanger recycling and reuse system that can efficiently return reusable hangers to clothing manufacturers, first There are currently no known systems that can be shipped from a shipping location that is less costly because it is strategically more suitable than shipping from a manufacturing location.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method and system for the recycling and reuse of clothes hangers, which can be performed on a regional and global scale, at the point of origin of the used hangers (usually in retail stores). It eliminates the need for sorting work, and can be used even if reusable hangers and hangers that only have to be re-ground are mixed, and the reusable hangers are efficiently delivered to new or reused sites as if they were new, All of this is done in an economically viable way for hangers manufacturers, apparel makers and retailers.

In the presently preferred embodiment, the hanger re-use center is conveniently located first for returning used hangers and second for handling processed hangers from there to a hanger re-use site. In the reuse center, all used hangers of any manufacturer are sorted and the functions of restoring the original state, re-grinding and shipping are concentrated in one place.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A currently preferred embodiment of a method and system for recycling and reusing clothes hangers according to the present invention is generally shown at 10 in FIG. This method and system, hereinafter referred to as the "system" for convenience, is illustrated as a typical multinational hanger manufacturing and distribution system.
The system includes one or more (herein more than one) hanger manufacturers located in other countries, which are licensed to the US hanger manufacturer for sale to (a) the US hanger manufacturer and (b) the US clothing manufacturer. , (C) clothing manufacturers located in the United States and elsewhere, (d) manufacturers of hangers and clothing of similar pattern unrelated to the United States hanger manufacturer, (e) multiple US retail outlets with used hangers. And (f) Includes hanger reuse / redistribution center. Only the flow of reusable hangers is shown to clarify and understand the overall concept. The regrind hanger and regrind material as well as the final stages of scrap are shown in FIG.

A manufacturer of hangers in the United States is shown in FIG.
Indicated by To give a basic idea, the concept of handling associated with the manufacture, use and subsequent reuse of hangers manufactured by the US hanger manufacturer will be explained first.

2 hangers manufactured by US manufacturer 11
Move to one final place.

The first batch of hangers shown at 12 is 1
It will be shipped to the US clothing manufacturer shown in 3. Maker 1
Clothes manufactured by No. 3 are US clothing manufacturer's plant 13
It can be hung on the hanger 12. The hangered garment referenced 14 is shipped to a US retailer referenced 15.

[0014] Several US retailers, and generally large retailers, typically order hangers directly from the hanger manufacturer in the country in which the retail store is located. Consistent with this approach, a second batch of hangers manufactured by US hanger manufacturer 11 may be shipped directly to large retailer 16 without going through the US clothing manufacturer. In that case, the retailer 15 is responsible for hanging the clothes on the hanger, and the clothes on the hanger are then provided to the consumer at the retail store.

Similarly, the reuse hangers processed at the reuse center 18 may be shipped directly to the retailer 15 as indicated at 21 if the retailer 15 is responsible for hanging clothes on the hanger.

When clothes are sold at a retail store, a hanger is classified as clothes when a retail purchaser, that is, an ordinary consumer, buys the clothes at the retail store. The hanger that is used now is collected in a container at a retail store, but it can be used with hangers of various sizes and types, and hangers from manufacturers other than the US hanger manufacturer 11. There is great potential. First batch of hangers 12 with hangers of different size and type, probably from both the hanger manufacturer 11 and other manufacturers
Are sent to the hanger reuse center 18 unclassified, as shown at 17. Sort, inspect (to remove damaged or otherwise non-reusable or non-conforming hangers), pack as similar hangers (if necessary) into similar containers, and place the containers in US clothing as shown at 20. Ship to the product manufacturer 13. 13 for 1 hanger
The process of shipping, selling, collecting, and reusing clothing is repeated as shown at 3 and 14.

Several vendors in the hanger manufacturing industry are currently affiliated with hanger manufacturers located in countries other than the United States, which alliances with one or more licenses, 100% owned or joint ventures with the non-US company. Has been done as. For example, it is common to set up hanger manufacturing plants in countries where large amounts of clothing are produced. In fact,
Hanger factories are often built near clothing factories. In the example of FIG. 1, Hong Kong hanger manufacturer 23 and Korean hanger manufacturer 24, who are licensees of US hanger manufacturers, manufacture hangers 25 and 26, respectively, and Hong Kong / PRC clothing manufacturer 27 and Korean clothing manufacturer. Ship to 28. The clothes on the hangers are then sold to the US retailer 15 as indicated at 29 and 30, respectively.
Will be shipped to. The hangers are then processed as described in connection with the unused hangers manufactured by US Hanger Manufacturer 11.

The method and system is not limited to hangers manufactured by or under the control of a primary manufacturer such as US Hanger Manufacturer 11. Rather, the method / system is flexible enough to accommodate hangers manufactured by unrelated hanger manufacturers in the United States and other countries.

In FIG. 1, another hanger manufacturer located in the United States and / or other countries is shown at 32. The unrelated hanger manufacturer has their hangers 33 at a clothing manufacturing plant located in any country in the world, including the United States, indicated at 34.
To ship. The garment maker located in any country in the world may not be an affiliate of the garment maker 27, 28, or may be the same as 27 and / or 28. Also one or more garment makers 27, 28,
It may be combined with a clothing manufacturer that is not another affiliated company. For the sake of clarity, the garment maker 34 is shown in FIG. 1 as separate from 27, 28, but it should be understood that the garment maker 34 is used in a general sense. Is. Plant 3
The hangered garment at 4 is shipped to the US retailer 15 as shown at 35 where it is treated as above, just like the hangered garment from the US clothing manufacturer 13.

It will be appreciated that if a large US retailer wishes to obtain only from a manufacturing plant other than the US hanger manufacturer 11's affiliated plant, such hanger can only be shipped directly to the retailer 15 from an unrelated hanger manufacturer 32. You can do it.

From the above description, once (a) an unused hanger leaves the US clothing manufacturer or retailer from the US hanger manufacturer's hand, or (b) clothes on the hanger are garment manufacturing plants. Upon exiting, it can be seen that the hanger is effectively incorporated into the hanger reuse program shown by dotted line 37.

When the method and system are carefully examined,
Obviously, modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention as long as the conditions, especially the cost and reliability of delivery, allow.

The hanger reuse center 18 of FIG. 1 is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 2, where the center is described as a hanger reuse plant. In the detailed system disclosed in FIG. 2 described below, it is envisioned that the hangers sent to the hanger reuse plant will have different sizes and shapes and different qualities.
Therefore, some hangers can be reused after sorting, inspection, and restoration to the original state, but some of them are limited to one-time use, and they are not suitable for reuse and should be re-ground or scraped. Discard as impossible.

The hangers 17 from the retailer 15 enter through the entrance 40 of the hanger reuse center 18 and are collected in a collection area 41 which houses hangers from multiple retail stores. The hangers 17 are often unclassified at the time of recovery and are mixed in containers with different hanger manufacturers and different sizes, compositions and qualities. This, of course, results from the retail store clerk simply throwing a hanger of any size, shape, and make into one container after the customer purchases the garment. The most common raw materials for hangers are now polystyrene, polypropylene,
Crystal styrene.

The hangers 17 are first sorted and inspected at the sorting / inspection station 42. At the station 42, the worker 43 divides the hanger 17 into scraps and reusable ones. The hangers to be scrapped are placed on the scrap conveyor 44, and those that can be reused are placed on the reuse conveyor 45.

The hangers for scrap are carried to a scrap sorting station 46 and one or more sorters 47.
The regrinding polystyrene hanger is placed in the polystyrene container 48, the regrinding polypropylene and crystal styrene hanger is placed in the polypropylene and crystal styrene container 49, and the scrap hanger is placed in the scrap container 50. The hangers of polystyrene, polypropylene and crystal styrene are mounted on a re-grinding conveyor 51 and carried to a re-grinding station 52. The hanger for scrap is excluded from the reprocessing system by, for example, putting it in the waste container 53.

The polystyrene, polypropylene, and crystal styrene hangers that reach the re-milling station 52 are carried to separate grinders 54, 55, 56 where they are crushed to the desired particle size and then the three raw materials are recycled to the hangers. It is transported to the hanger manufacturing plant 11 for processing.

As described above, the hanger that has passed the inspection at the sorting / inspection station 42 and is judged to be suitable for reuse is placed on the reuse conveyor 45. The worker 61 of the sorting / inspection station inspects the hanger placed on the reuse conveyor 45 to determine whether (a) it is in a clean and salable state, or (b) it is necessary to make it as new. . As a result of the inspection, when the worker 61 determines that the work (b) is necessary to make the product ready for sale, the worker 61 performs such work including cleaning. Clearly, this as-new operation involves other processes, such as tightening loose parts, removing size markings,
It also includes replacing damaged or chipped parts. If the worker 61 determines that the pain is severe and cannot be immediately repaired, then the hanger need only be placed on the scrap conveyor 44. The rest is processed as described above.

Although only one conveyor is shown in FIG. 2, multiple conveyors may be installed and one for each hanger manufacturer. One conveyor may be dedicated to the US hanger manufacturer 11 and the other (s) may be for the other hanger manufacturer 32. See FIG.

However, in the following description, it is assumed that the conveyor 45 contains hangers of all shapes, shapes and sizes.

The hangers, which are like new products, leave the conveyor 45 at the exit 62 and are placed on the loading / unloading port 63 of the sorting / boxing conveyor indicated by 64 as a whole. The sorter sorts the groomed hangers placed on the conveyor 64. For example, sorter 65 removes all hangers from US hanger manufacturer 11 traveling outside 66 of conveyor 64 and places such hangers inside 67 of conveyor 64. The sorter 68 places all hangers of the unrelated hanger manufacturer 32 on the inside 67 of the pick-up conveyor 64. Further, the sorter 69 takes out the hanger of the unrelated hanger manufacturer 32.

The packing agents 70 and 71 are packing stations 73.
At -78, the same kind of hanger is packed in the box 72. The boxer 70 packs 10-inch and 12-inch men's suit hangers into boxes 3 and 4 at the boxing station 73 according to size. Meanwhile, the empty boxes 1 and 2 are waiting to move to the packing side. When the boxes 3 and 4 are full, the table on which the boxes 1, 2, 3, and 4 are rotated 180 degrees, and the full boxes 3 and 4 are shown in FIG.
The paper is sent from the boxing position shown in to the carry-out position where the boxes 1 and 2 had been. By rotating the table, empty box 1,
2 moves to the packing position, and the packing member 70 packs the hangers into the boxes 1 and 2.

Depending on the conveyor speed, the capacity of the boxes, and the downtime of the packing station that occurs while the full boxes are being sent to the unloading position and the empty boxes being sent to the packing position, more than the worker 70 can pack. The 10-inch and 12-inch men's suit hangers may be sent to the station 73. In that case, it is possible to carry out the work of packing the hangers which are under the line of the packing station. But if the boxer 70 can pack all 10 inch and 12 inch hangers for the men's suit of the hanger manufacturer 11 at station 73, the boxer 71 below the line will pack only women's suit and dress hangers at station 74. Do the work. Do the same up to station 78.

Box 1-24 at the packing station 73-78
The hangers packed in are shipped to the final product shipping area 80. When an order for shipment arrives, the reusable hanger, which is as good as new, will be shipped from the US clothing manufacturer 13
Or sent directly to the retailer 15 as shown at 21 (see FIG. 1).

The hanger reuse center 18 need only be installed in the most convenient and economical place, and need not be a place where only a single factor such as the location of the hanger manufacturer is considered. If you have a lot of used hangers in a limited area, such as Washington DC to Boston, Massachusetts, and a large number of used hangers, considering all factors such as freight and labor costs, US clothing manufacturers 13 and hanger manufacturers Even if 11 were in Chicago, it would be convenient to have a hanger reuse center near Philadelphia. On the other hand, if a significant amount of used hangers occur in a large area, such as the Midwest, it would be most convenient to have the hanger reuse center right next to the US clothing manufacturer 13. Then, the hangers required by the garment maker 13 are loaded from the loading dock 81 of the hanger reuse plant 18 (see FIG. 2) onto the hangers by the endless overhead conveyor. Can be taken directly to the section.

As shown in FIG. 3, in another embodiment of the reuse center of FIG. 1, instead of the sorter shown in FIG. 2 at 47, some or all may be mechanical or more precise. And an automatic sorting means 83 are incorporated in the system. In this case, an infrared sorting device is provided at the exit of the scrap conveyor. The device is designed to discriminate between polystyrene and polypropylene and / or crystal styrene, and when the presence of the former or the latter is sensed, the device is automatically and correctly distributed to the containers 48 or 49 and charged. If the device is designed to detect polypropylene and crystal styrene separately, it will be sorted into another container. The used hanger in container 48 or 49 is processed as described above.

At the present time, the sorting device 83 can sort the hangers according to the materials, but it is suitable for reuse, mainly for crushing hangers, and because it is too expensive to restore it to the original state, it cannot be reused and is removed from the system. I can't tell which hanger I need to remove. Therefore, the operator of this system either (a) automatically puts the hangers that cannot be sorted into the containers 48 and 49 into the scrap container 50 automatically as a batch "other", or (b) distinguishes them manually. select. For example, a polystyrene hanger may not be suitable for re-grinding for some reason, so it is preferable to sort by hand, but in that case, while FIG. 2 shows multiple sorters,
One person is usually sufficient.

From the above, a hanger that can be deployed locally and globally, saves the trouble of sorting and disposing of hangers at retail stores, and can be reused as a product or in a re-crushed state can be returned to its original state and re-used. It can be seen that there is disclosed a method and system for recycling and reusing clothes hangers that enables them to be used and achieves their purpose in an economically viable manner for hanger manufacturers, clothing manufacturers and retail stores. Let's do it.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that modifications can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the scope of the description of the embodiments above, but only by the appended claims, which are to be interpreted in light of the relevant prior art.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a clothes hanger recycling system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing processing of a clothes hanger in the reuse center shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing another embodiment of a clothes hanger process in the reuse center of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 ・ ・ ・ Hanger manufacturing plant 12 ・ ・ ・ Hanger 13 ・ ・ ・ Manufacturer 15 ・ ・ ・ Retailer 18 ・ ・ ・ Reuse center 25 ・ ・ ・ Hanger 42 ・ ・ ・ Inspection station 50 ・ ・ ・ Scrap container 61 ・..Workers 71, 72 ... Boxing staff 73-78 ... Boxing station

Claims (24)

[Claims] 1. A method of reusing and recycling clothes hangers, wherein a batch of clothes hangers is collected at a collection place, and the collected clothes hangers batch is reused by a hanger.
The recovered hangers are transported to a recycling facility, and the recovered hangers are sorted into a first group suitable for reuse and a second group, the first group is restored to its original state, and the restored first group is returned to the original state. Transporting to the site of use, conditioning at least a first portion of the second group for recycle, and transporting the conditioned first portion of the second group to a location for recycling. How to reuse and recycle clothes hangers. 2. The method of claim 1 further characterized in that the place of reuse is the location of a clothing manufacturer. 3. A method according to claim 1 further characterized in that the place of reuse is the place of sale of clothing. 4. A first quantity of hangers of the recovered first batch of the recovered batch is transported to a clothing manufacturer's location and the recovered batch of the recovered first batch of the first group of hangers is transported. The method of claim 1 further characterized by transporting the second amount of hangers to a place of sale of clothing. 5. The adjustment of said first part of said second group comprises changing its physical condition into a form suitable for reworking into a final product, said second part of said second group The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of separating and scrapping the second portion of the second group. 6. The method of claim 5 further characterized in that the step of adjusting the first portion of the second group comprises regrinding.
The method described in the section. 7. The adjustment of the first portion of the second group comprises changing its physical condition into a form suitable for rework into a final product, the second portion of the second group being separated. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of scrapping the second portion of the second group. 8. The method of claim 7 further characterized in that the step of adjusting the first portion of the second group comprises regrinding.
The method described in the section. 9. First, the batch of clothes hangers collected at the collection place consists of hangers made by the same manufacturer, and secondly, the first group is selected from the group consisting of size, shape, color and quality. The method of claim 1, further characterized by sorting by one or more characteristics that are provided. 10. The recovered first batch of the recovered batch.
Further comprising transporting a first amount of the first group to the place of manufacture of the garment and a second amount of the recovered first batch of the recovered batch to the place of sale of the garment. The method according to claim 9, wherein: 11. Adjusting the first part of the second group comprises changing its physical condition into a form suitable for reworking into a final product, the second part of the second group being modified. 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of separating and scrapping the second portion of the second group. 12. The method of claim 11 further characterized in that the conditioning of the first portion of the second group comprises regrinding. 13. A clothes hanger reuse / recycling system, means for collecting used hangers at a collecting place, means for transporting the collected batch to a hanger reuse / recycling facility, and recycling of the collected batch at the facility. A means for sorting into a first group suitable for use and a second group, a means for restoring the first group to the original state at the reuse / recycling facility, and a means for reusing the restored first group. Means for transporting to the ground, means for adjusting to recycle at least a first portion of the second group, and means for transporting the adjusted first portion of the second group to a location for recycling. A system characterized by including. 14. The means for adjusting the first portion of the second group to recycle comprises means for changing its physical state into a form suitable for rework into a final product, the second group. 14. The reuse of the clothes hanger of claim 13 further comprising means for separating a second portion of the garment and means for scraping the second portion of the second group.・ Recycling system. 15. The method of claim 1 further characterized in that the adjusting means for the first portion of the second group is a grinder.
Reuse / recycle system for clothes hangers according to item 14. 16. The method of claim 5 further characterized in that said second group is manually sorted into a first portion for recycling and a second portion for scraping. 17. The method of claim 5 further characterized in that said second group is sorted manually into a first portion for recycling and a second portion for scraping without manual intervention. 18. The method according to claim 5, further characterized in that the second group is divided into a first part for recycling and a second part for scraping by means requiring manpower and means not requiring manpower. The method described in the section. 19. The reuse / recycling system for a clothes hanger according to claim 14, further comprising means for manually sorting the second group into a first portion and a second portion. 20. The reuse / recycle system for a clothes hanger according to claim 19, further characterized in that the adjusting means of the first part of the second group is a crushing means. 21. The clothes hanger reuse / recycling system according to claim 14, further comprising means for sorting the second group into a first portion and a second portion without manual intervention. . 22. The clothes hanger reuse / recycling system according to claim 21, further characterized in that the adjusting means of the first part of the second group is a crushing means. 23. The clothes hanger according to claim 14, further comprising manual and non-manual means for sorting the second group into a first portion and a second portion. Reuse / recycling system. 24. The reuse / recycling system for a clothes hanger according to claim 23, wherein the means for adjusting the first portion of the second group is a crushing means.