Second Spin Turns India’s Hotel Textile Waste Into Value
India’s hospitality sector is becoming the launch pad for a new circular economy play. Enviu, under the Saamuhika Shakti initiative supported by the H&M Foundation, is scaling up its textile waste venture Second Spin, which is repurposing discarded hotel linens into new products, while bringing waste pickers into the formal value chain.
The venture, part of Enviu’s Closing the Loop programme, has already tied up with 35 hotels and signed a chain-level MoU with The Ascott Group. Instead of heading to landfills, used textiles are being converted into yarn, recycled paper and new fabrics, creating both business value and livelihoods.
In the last quarter alone, Second Spin:
- Recovered 26,600 kg of textiles from 23 new hotels,
- Opened talks with 12 Delhi-based hotel groups, and
- Deepened R&D partnerships with CIRCOT and SITRA to drive innovation in circular yarn.
Waste pickers, who form the backbone of the collection process, are now seeing improved earnings and recognition. “Working with Enviu adds to our income streams and gives us the freedom to collect door-to-door more confidently,” said Krishna, a textile waste entrepreneur collaborating with Second Spin.
Maria Bystedt, Programme Director, H&M Foundation, said, “When social and environmental ambitions align with entrepreneurial drive, ventures don’t just spark change, they scale it.”
Enviu now plans to expand the model beyond hotels to other institutional sectors such as airlines, hospitals and railways, which collectively generate thousands of tonnes of textile waste annually.
