SE523605C2 - Method and a system for recycling and reusing clothes hangers - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system for re-using and recycling garment hangers which is applicable to localized or world wide geographic areas and which (a) eliminates sorting at the collecting point for used hangers, usually a retail store, (b) handles re-usable, recyclable and scrap hangers without restriction on mix components of a given batch, (c) renovates and returns the re-used hangers and recycled hanger material to points of need, and (d) can be physically located at a location dictated solely by convenience considerations without mandatory reliance on the physical proximity of hanger manufacturing facilities. The recycled hanger material may be sorted into a first part suitable for recycling and a second part suitable for scrap by manual and/or non-manual means.

Description

This invention relates to coat hangers and more particularly to a method and system for recycling and reusing coat hangers. The method and system are applicable to clothes hangers, hereinafter referred to as "hangers" made of different materials, but, since the largest number of hangers manufactured in the world today are made of plastic, the invention will be illustrated and described in connection with the handling of plastic hangers.

Technical background of the invention All or almost all garments - trousers, shirts, skirts, blouses, suits, suits, underwear, etc., made in the many countries in the world that have the ability to make clothes, are hung on hangers to be shown to the consumer in a retail store. . The most common way in the trade is to place garments on hangers at the place where the garment is manufactured, in a few cases a garment can still be hung on a hanger in a retail store just before the display of the garment when sold to the final consumer. However, regardless of whether the hanger was used in the garment manufacturer's factory when it was manufactured or in the store, business and environmental problems related to the handling of hangers have arisen.

A major problem with the handling of hangers is the costs associated with this. In the typical situation, a hanger, usually made of plastic, is manufactured by the hanger manufacturer and shipped to the clothing manufacturer. The clothing manufacturer places the newly made garments on hangers and then transports the garments on the hangers to either a warehouse or, which is more common, directly to a store where the garment is displayed for sale to the buyer, a consumer. Some garments, such as men's suits and women's suits, can be taken home by the consumer after the purchase in the store on the hanger on which the garment was shown at the sale. However, the majority of the hangers are removed from the garment by a sales assistant at the checkout counter or check-out station, after which the hanger is thrown into a container. At the end of the day, or at least from time to time, the bra holder is emptied into a waste container in the store. The discarded hangers, which can have many different shapes and sizes and can be manufactured by different manufacturers of hangers, are then destroyed by burning, burying, etc. As the cost of a regular plastic hanger for the clothing manufacturer can currently amount to about 15 cents, it is realized that significant costs for the trader is involved with the display of clothes on hangers. In addition, the trader has to get rid of the used hangers, which causes him additional costs.

It is important to note that the majority of the hangers thus discarded work excellently and are quite possible to be reused one or more times. The material from which the hanger is made, usually plastic, and the construction of the hanger are such that the hangers are made to withstand heavy loads during use. The vast majority of hangers are destroyed, although it is quite possible to use them further as clothes hangers.

From the above, it appears that the usual system for handling hangers is a waste of natural resources and work. Plastic is mostly oil-based and with regard to common systems with destruction of the plastic hangers after a single use during the commercial life of the hangar, new plastic made from new oil-based raw material must be produced. As will be appreciated, it is much more laborious, and therefore more expensive, for the manufacturer to produce 10 hangers than to use one and the same hanger ten times, assuming that there is an economically viable system for collecting, sorting, if necessary repairing. and transport previously used trailers. There are also less significant, but still real, social and environmental costs of the usual hanger handling, including the disposal of literally tons of hangers, which are not space-efficient, and the fuel costs that result from returning the hangers to a basic condition by e.g. burning or compaction.

It is of course possible for the trader to periodically sort hangers collected in boxes and to transport these to the hanger manufacturer or clothing manufacturer. However, there are usually no business employees on hand to perform this additional sorting work, the garment manufacturer and hanger manufacturer are not prepared for receiving and further processing of the returned hangers. Sorting is particularly difficult at the retail level and includes sorting hangers that are similar in groups intended for the original manufacturer as well as the problem of disposing of the group of hangers that are made of a relatively cheap material, and which are not suitable for recycling. The latter hangers are of course suitable for grinding, but as neither the clothing manufacturer nor the hanger manufacturer are currently equipped to handle such hangers in an economical way, the dealer still has a problem with the disposal, as described above.

Although the inherent economic unprofitability of the current coat hanger handling system is known, there is currently no known system for recycling and reusing coat hangers that (a) does not require sorting at the end of the commercial use of the hangers (ie at the dealer's checkout counter). , (b) receives usable hangers and hangers which have no further potential for use and thus must be disposed of or ground down and (c) efficiently returns reusable hangers to the clothing manufacturer, including shipping from shipping locations which are more strategically located and therefore cheaper to transport than transport originating in the new manufacturing sites.

Brief description of the inventive concept The invention relates to a method and a system for recycling and reusing clothes hangers that have local or worldwide scope, which eliminates sorting at the places that generate used hangers (ie in general in shops), takes care of both reusable hangers and only grind down hangers without limitation of the mixing components therein, which effectively renovate and return reusable hangers to places for further use or treatment, and do so on a basis which is economically viable for the hanger manufacturer, clothing manufacturer and trader.

In the presently preferred embodiment, a hanger recycling center is set up at a location which is primarily suitable for transporting previously used hangers to this location and secondarily suitable for transporting refurbished hangers to places for reusing hangers, said recycling center at one and the same place concentrates the sorting, renovation, grinding and moving functions for all trailers from all original manufacturers of the trailers used.

Brief description of the accompanying drawings The invention is shown more or less schematically in the accompanying drawing where: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the reuse system for clothes hangers according to the invention. Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating the treatment of the clothes hangers in the recycling center of Figure 1 and Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating another embodiment of the treatment of the clothes hangers at the recycling center of Figure 1.

Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment of the Invention A presently preferred embodiment of a method and system for recycling and reusing clothes hangers according to the invention is generally indicated by Figure 1. The method and system, hereinafter referred to as the "system" for simplicity, is shown in the form it would take in a standard hanger manufacturing and distribution system with hangers from several countries. The system includes (a) a U.S. manufacturer of coat hangers; United States and elsewhere, (d) a similar pattern of hangar and garment manufacturers not affiliated with the U.S. Hanger Manufacturer, (e) a number of U.S. resellers generating used hangers, and (f) a hanger recycling and distribution center. For the sake of clarity and for the understanding of the overall concept, only the flow chart for reusable hangers, the final steps for grinding down hangers and the ground material as well as waste material are shown in Figure 2.

A hanger manufacturer located in the United States is indicated by 11 in Figure 1. The handling concept for the manufacture, use and subsequent reuse of hangers manufactured by said American hanger manufacturer will be described initially to illustrate the basic concept.

Trailers made by the American manufacturer are moved to two destinations.

A first batch of hanger 12 is shipped to a U.S. clothing manufacturer designated 13. Clothes made by manufacturer 13 are placed on hanger 12 in the U.S. apparel factory 13. The garments on the hanger now designated 14 are shipped to U.S. retailers 15.

Some US retailers, mostly the large retailers, usually order trailers directly from the hanger manufacturer in the same country in which the retailers' stores are located. To suit this business method, a second set of hangers made by the American hanger manufacturer 11 can be shipped directly to the major retailers 16, thus bypassing the American clothing manufacturer. The retailer 15 then takes over the responsibility for hanging the garments on the hanger, after which the garments on the hangers are shown to the consumer in the store.

Similarly, reused hangers that have been treated in the reuse center 18 can be transported, as indicated at 21, directly to the retailer 15 where the retailer, as mentioned above, is responsible for hanging the garment on the hanger.

When selling the garment at the point of sale, the hangers are separated from the garments at the retailers at the time when the retailer's customers, i.e. ordinary consumers, buy the garment in the store. The now only, only once used, hangers are collected in the store in a container that can contain different sizes and models of hangers and most likely hangers from other hanger manufacturers in addition to those from the American hanger manufacturer 11. Part of the original kit hanger 12 together with Hangers of various sizes and models from likely both hanger manufacturers 11 and other hanger manufacturers are then transported in an unsorted group, indicated by 17, to a hanger recycling center 18. After sorting, inspection (to remove broken and otherwise unusable or unsuitable hangers), renovation (if necessary) and packaging in containers with similar hangers, said containers are shipped, as at 20, to the American clothing manufacturer 13 where they re-enters the process of clothing transport, sale, collection and reuse indicated by 13 and 14.

Today, many companies in the hanger manufacturing business are connected to hanger manufacturers that may be located in countries outside the USA, whereby said connection may be one or more arrangements with licenses, wholly owned or joint ventures with said companies outside the USA. It is common for the hanger manufacturer's factory to be located in a country in which a large production of clothing takes place, in reality the hanger manufacturers' factories are often located close to the garment manufacturer's factory. In the example illustrated in Figure 1, two US licensed garment manufacturers, one Hong Kong manufacturer 23 and one Korean manufacturer 24 manufacture hangers 25 and 26 and transport them to garment manufacturers in Hong Kong / PRC 27 and Korean garment manufacturers 28 respectively. Clothes on hangers are then shipped, as shown at 29 and 30, respectively, to dealers in the United States where they are treated as described above along with new hangers coming from manufacturers 11 in the United States.

The method and system are not limited to hangers made by or under the control of a primary hanger manufacturer, such as the American hanger manufacturer 11. Rather, the method and system are flexible enough to fit hangers made by hanger manufacturers in both the United States and other non-US countries. are related to each other.

Referring again to Figure 1, other hanger manufacturers, located in the United States and / or other countries, are indicated by the reference numeral 32. Said unrelated garment hanger manufacturers ship their hangers 33 to garment factories located in all sorts of countries in the world, including the United States, as shown at 34. Said worldwide garment manufacturers need not be affiliated with garment manufacturers 27 and 28, they may be identical to garment manufacturers 27 and 28, or they may be a combination of one or more garment manufacturers 27 and 28 and other non-affiliated garment manufacturers. To facilitate the understanding of the invention, Figure 1 visually indicates that the garment manufacturers 34 are separate and distinct from the garment manufacturers 27 and 28, but it is to be understood that the term garment manufacturers 34 is intended to have a generic meaning. The garments which have now been hung on hangers in factories 34 are then shipped, as shown at 35, to American retailers where, like clothes on hangers from the American manufacturer 13, they are handled in the same manner as described above.

It is understood that if the major US dealers would only want hangers from hangar factories other than those affiliated with the US hanger manufacturer 11, these hangers could be shipped from the unrelated manufacturers 32 directly to dealers 15.

From the foregoing description, it can be seen that as soon as (a) a new hanger leaves an American hanger manufacturer with a destination an American clothing manufacturer or a US retailer, or (b) garments on a hanger leave a clothing manufacturer's factory, these hangers will de facto enter in the hanger reuse program indicated by the dashed line 37.

Through a careful study of the foregoing method and system, it will be appreciated that variations within the scope of the invention may be practiced if conditions, particularly cost and delivery reliability, so permit. The hanger reuse center 17 in Figure 1 is shown in more detail in Figure 2 where it is characterized as a hanger reuse facility. In the following description of the details of the method and system of Figure 2, it will be assumed that the hangers entering the hangar recycling plant are of different sizes and shapes as well as of different quality so that some can be reused after sorting, inspection and renovation and that others, which are of the disposable type, are not suitable for reuse and therefore must be ground down and disposed of as unusable material.

Hangers 17 from retailers 15 enter the facility 18 for reusing hangers at the entrance point 40 and are moved to a collection area 41 which houses incoming warehouses from many retail stores. It will be appreciated that the condition of the hangers 17 upon incoming is very likely to be unsorted in the sense that hangers from different manufacturers and that hangers of different sizes, materials and quality may be mixed in an incoming container. This is of course a result of the fact that the assistants at the retailers only throw all sizes, shapes and brands of hangers in a common container after the customer's purchase of a garment. The most common materials in hangers today are polystyrene, polypropylene and crystal styrene.

The hangers 17 are first sorted and checked at the sorting and control station 42. At the station 42, staff 43 sorts the hangers 17 into hangers that must be scrapped and into hangers that can be reused. The hangers to be scrapped are placed on a scrap conveyor 44 and the hangers suitable for reuse are placed on a reuse conveyor 45.

The hangers to be scrapped are transported to a scrapping station 46 where one or more sorters 47 laying polystyrene hangers to be ground in a polystyrene container 48, polypropylene and crystalline hangers to be ground in a polypropylene and crystalline (CRY) container 49, and scrap hangers in scrap containers 50. The hangers of polystyrene, polypropylene and crystalline are placed on the grinding conveyor 51 which carries the hangers to the grinding station 52. Scrap hangers are taken out of the recycling system by placing in a waste bin 53.

When the polystyrene, polypropylene and crystalline (CRY) hangers reach the grinding station 52, they are taken to separate mills 54, 55, 56 where the three different types of material, after grinding to a predetermined particle size, are taken to a hanger manufacturing plant for new hanger manufacturing.

As mentioned above, the hangers, which at the sorting and control station 42 pass the inspection and are deemed suitable for reuse, are placed on the reuse conveyor 45. After being placed on the reuse conveyor 45, the workers 61 at the sorting and control station inspect the hangers to determine an individual hanger. is (a) in clean and salable condition or (b) requires renovation. If the worker 61, after the inspection, decides that the hanger needs to be renovated to make it salable, the worker 61 performs such a renovation which includes cleaning. Other work is of course included in the concept of renovation, which includes clamping loose components, removing parts that indicate size and, if possible, also replacing parts that are broken or missing. Should a worker 61 decide that a particular hanger is too worn to be quickly renovated, the worker will only place the worn hanger on a scrap conveyor 44 where it will be treated as described above.

Although only one conveyor is shown in Fig. 2, an optional variety of conveyors can be used, one for each hanger manufacturer. A conveyor would be dedicated to trailers made by the American manufacturer 11, and the other or the others would be provided to other manufacturers of trailers 32, see Fig. sizes are mixed on the conveyor 45.

The now renovated hangers which come from the conveyor 45 at its outlet end 62 are placed on the loading end 63 of a sorting and packing conveyor designated in its entirety 64. After being placed on the conveyor 64, sorters separate the renovated hangers. For example. sorter 65 can pick out all the hangers from the US manufacturer 11 which are moved along the outer half 66 of the conveyor 64 and place such hangers on the inner half 66 of the conveyor 64. The sorter 68 can pick out all the hangers made by unrelated manufacturers 32 and place them on the inner half of the conveyor 64. Similarly, the sorter 69 can pick out hangers made by unrelated hanger manufacturers 32.etc.

Packers 70 and 71 pack similar hangers in boxes 72 at packing station 73-78. Packers 70 can pack all 10 "and 12" men's suit hangers in boxes 3 & 4 at packing station 73, one size in each box, while boxes 3 and 4 are waiting to be moved to a hanger packing position. 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 placed, rotates 180 ° so that the filled boxes 3 and 4 move from the loading position shown in Fig. 2 up to the removal position taken up. of the boxes 1 and 2 in Fig. 2. The rotation of the platform will of course bring empty boxes 1 and 2 to the loading position and the packer 70 will then begin to fill the boxes 1 and 2.

It is understood that if more 10 "and 12" men's suit hangers reach station 73 than workers 70 can pack given the conveyor speed, box capacity and packing station downtime while filled boxes rotate to a removal position and empty boxes are moved to a fill position, then a downward Linen located packers at a lower packing station also pack 10 "and 12" mens suit hangers. However, if the packer 71 can pack all 10 "and 12" mens suit hangers from hanger manufacturers 11 at station 73, a down line packer 71 will only pack hangers for ladies suits and dresses at station 74 and so on. to station 78.

The hangers are then moved after packing in boxes 1-24 at stations 73-78 to the area 80 for goods that are ready for resale. As orders arrive for shipment, the recycled hangers are moved to a U.S. clothing manufacturer 13 as shown at 18, or alternatively directly to a retailer 15 as shown at 21 (see Figure 1).

It should be noted that the recycling center 17 for the hangers may be located in the most convenient and economical location; i.e. it does not have to be located in any particular place determined by a single factor, such as the location of a hanger manufacturer. If, e.g. a large number of used trailers are generated in a well-defined geographic area, such as the northeast coast from, e.g., Washington D.C. to Boston, Massachusetts, it may be most appropriate, with all factors considered and including shipping and labor costs, to locate the hanger recycling plant in Philadelphia, even though the American clothing manufacturer 13 and the hanger manufacturer 11 may be located near Chicago. On the one hand, if a sufficient quantity of used hangers is generated over a large geographical area, such as the Midwest, it may be most convenient to locate the factory for the recycling plant 18 near the American clothing manufacturer 13 so that the hangers needed by the clothing manufacturer 13 can be moved from a shipping dock 81, see Fig. 2, at the reuse plant 18, via an endless upper conveyor directly to the coat hanger attachment station of the garment manufacturer 13.

Referring to the alternative embodiment of the recycling center of Fig. 1 as illustrated in Fig. 3, it may be noted that the mechanical or, more correctly, the automatic sorting device 83 has been incorporated into the system for partially or completely replacing the sorter 47 in Fig. 2. Above all, this example is an infrared light sorting device located at the end of the scrap conveyor, the device being intended to be able to distinguish between, on the one hand, polystyrene and, on the other hand, polypropylene and / or crystalline styrene, and that after sensing the presence of one or the other, automatically divert any sensed material into suitable containers 48 or 49 or even additional containers if the device is calibrated to distinguish between polypropylene and crystalline. Once a used hanger has ended up in the containers 48 or 49, it is processed as described above.

It is to be understood that at present, although the sorting device 83 may differ between the type of material it encounters, such devices may not make decisive decisions as to the hangers suitable for reuse, i.e. mainly grinding, and in the case of hangers which, due to economic reasons, are in a non-rehabilitable condition and cannot be reused and must be isolated and removed from the system. The operators of the system thus have the option of (a) clumping all hangers, which cannot be clearly sorted into containers 48 and 49, into an "all other" category, which are automatically diverted to scrap containers 50, or (b) using personnel to make the decisive choice. If certain human personnel are used, which is preferable then even a polystyrene hanger such as e.g. for one reason or another is not suitable for return, as a rule only a single operator is needed, unlike a plurality of sorters as shown in fig.2.

From the foregoing it appears that a method and system for recycling and reusing clothes hangers has been demonstrated which has local or global use which eliminates sorting and disposal of hangers in the retail trade, renovates and reuses the hangers which are reusable in either original condition or in ground form and which achieve the said objectives in a manner which is economically viable for the hanger manufacturer, the clothing manufacturer and the retail trade.

Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made within the scope and spirit of the invention. This means that the invention is not limited by the previous description in the form of examples, but only by the scope of the following appended claims interpreted in the light of relevant prior art.

Claims (21)

A method of recycling and reusing clothes hangers by collecting a batch of clothes hangers at a collection point, said collected batch of clothes hangers being transferred to a hanger reuse and recycling facility, characterized in that said batch of clothes hangers is sorted into a first part, which potentially suitable for reuse, and a second part, said first part being renovated, said renovated first part being transferred to a recycling site, at least a first part of said second part being conditioned for recycling and said conditioned first part of said second part being transferred to a recycling site. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that a first quantity of said renovated first part of said collected batch is transferred to a place for manufacturing clothes, and a second quantity of said renovated first part of said collected batch is transferred to a place for sale of clothing. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the conditioning of said first part of said second part is in that its physical state is changed to a shape suitable for new production of a finished product, further comprising the steps of a second part of said second part insulated and that said second part of said second part is scrapped. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that the step of conditioning the first part of said second part is in that it is ground down. A method according to claim 2, characterized in that the conditioning of said first part of said second part is in that its physical state is changed to a shape suitable for new manufacture of a finished product, further comprising the steps of a second part of said second part second part is insulated and said second part of said second part is scrapped. Method according to claim 5, characterized in that the step of conditioning the first part of said second part consists of grinding. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that, firstly, the set of clothes hangers collected at the collection point consists of hangers manufactured in a common production source and, secondly, that the sorting of said first part is performed according to one or more features selected within the group's size, shape, color and quality. Method according to claim 7, characterized in that the conditioning of said first part of said second part consists in that its physical state is changed to a shape suitable for new production of a finished product, and - further comprising the steps - that a second part of said second part is insulated and said second part of said second part is scrapped. Method according to claim 8, characterized in that the step of conditioning the first part of said second part consists of grinding. Method according to claim 5, characterized in that said second part is sorted manually into a first part which is suitable for recycling and a second part which is intended for scrap. Method according to claim 5, characterized in that said second part is not sorted manually into a first part which is suitable for recycling and a second part which is intended for scrap. Method according to claim 5, characterized in that said second part is sorted into a first part which is suitable for recycling and a second part which is intended for manual and non-manual means of scrap means. A system for reusing and recycling clothes hangers, said system comprising means for collecting a set of used clothes hangers at a collection point, characterized by means for transferring said collected set to a plant for reusing and recycling hangers, means in the plant for sorting said collected batch into a first part potentially suitable for reuse and a second part, - means for renovating said first part at the plant for reuse and recycling, - means for transferring said first part to a place for reuse means for conditioning at least a first portion of said second portion for recovery and means for transferring said conditioned first portion of said second portion to a recycling site. A system for reusing and recycling clothes hangers according to claim 13, characterized in that - said means for conditioning the first part of said second part for recycling comprises means for changing the physical condition of said first part of said second part into a mold which is suitable for new manufacture of a finished product, and further comprising means for insulating a second part of said second part and means for scrapping said second part of said second part. A system for reusing and recycling clothes hangers according to claim 14, characterized in that the means for conditioning said first part of said second part are grinding machines. A system for reusing and recycling clothes hangers according to claim 14, characterized in that it comprises manual means for sorting said second part into a first part and a second part. A system for reusing and recycling clothes hangers according to claim 16, characterized in that the means for conditioning said first part of said second part are grinding means. A system for reusing and recycling clothes hangers according to claim 14, characterized in that it comprises non-manual means for sorting said second part into a first part and a second part. A system for reusing and recycling clothes hangers according to claim 18, characterized in that the means for conditioning said first part of said second part are grinding means. A system for reusing and recycling clothes hangers according to claim 14, characterized in that it further comprises manual and non-manual means for sorting said second part into a first part and a second part. A system for reusing and recycling clothes hangers according to claim 20, characterized in that the means for conditioning said first part of said part are grinding means.