Textile Ministry Plans To Create Pan-India Textile Recycling Ecosystem

India being one of the largest T&A manufacturers and consumers in the world, the Union Ministry of Textiles is planning to build a strong textile recycling ecosystem in the country. The ministry is looking to set up several textile recycling facilities across India in order to handle and recycle both pre-consumer and post-consumer textiles wastes.  While lately some efforts have been initiated in the private sector, this is first time that the government, realising the growing importance of sustainability and circularity in the textile value chain, has decided to create pan-India recycling infrastructure.  The entire project will be implemented in PPP Plus model where, apart from government and private parties, other stakeholders will also be roped in.

The ministry has already started a pilot project in Navi Mumbai, wherein the Textiles Committee of the Government of India (GOI) is acting as a nodal agency and implementing body on behalf of the ministry.  This apart, the PPP Plus model project involves two industry players – Grasim and Reliance Industries (technology partners) as also the local civic body, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation.  The pilot project is being funded by the SBI Foundation.  Under this project, post-consumer textile waste from 250 housing societies is currently being collected for recycling and off cycling purposes. Women are the major workforce in the whole process.

“Factors like sustainability and circularity are going to be crucial for the textile value chain. As a country, we will have to have a comprehensive ecosystem for textile waste recycling going forward. The Union ministry has taken note of these emerging issues which need to be tackled in a more holistic manner. Our pilot project in Navi Mumbai is an initiative that will precede setting up of a pan-India network of recycling facilities going ahead. On successful implementation of this pilot project, we will replicate the model across the country,” says Roop Rashi, Textile Commissioner, GOI and Vice-Chairperson of Textiles Committee, GOI.

“This is the first time that ministry has decided to build up pan-India textile recycling infrastructure.  The Textiles Committee has developed this PPP plus model and is currently implementing it in the Navi Mumbai pilot project with the help of other stakeholders.  We are optimistic about the success of this project and hopeful that this will be a precursor to the mega recycling ecosystem in the country,” states Tapan Kumar Rout, Director (MR), Textiles Committee, GOI.

Meanwhile, the handling and recycling of pre-consumer and post-consumer textiles wastes is turning out to be a critical component of the entire process of circularity. More so, since India is one of the largest manufacturers of T&A in the globe, it has now become paramount for it to have a right kind of textile recycling ecosystem in place to meet its SDG goals, experts believe.

In fact, India is poised to become one of the most important textile recycling hubs in the world. While India has been powerhouse in textile manufacturing, textile recycling has gained prominence only recently.  In recent years, large scale infrastructure set-up for sorting, processing and recycling has received attention in the call for scaling textile recycling worldwide.

Towards building up capacity and putting up a much-needed ecosystem for recycling, India today hosts large sorting and grading facilities at the SEZ of Kandla in Gujarat, employing over 3,000 workers. Besides, Panipat in Haryana also houses one of the largest industrial clusters for mechanical recycling in the world. There are estimated between 900 and 2500 sorting, recycling and spinning units. The Panipat cluster employs around 4 million informal workers who are engaged in processing textile wastes.

Tirupur, a knitwear hub in Southern India, has also been growing into an efficient cluster for recycling, with focus on pre-consumer waste. Amroha, in Uttar Pradesh, is largely working with the downcycling of textiles, where discarded inputs are recycled and repurposed into something of lower value. Pre-consumer textile waste consists mostly of post-industrial waste from textile factories, while post-consumer comes from used garments and household textiles.

Experts view that recycling solutions and innovations have to be hyper local in order to be sustainable in a true sense. Earlier while most of the wastes were produced within the country, the recycling solutions were primarily available outside India. Towards this end, clusters like Kandla, Panipat and others can play a big role.

Out of the over 7,800 kilo tonnes of textile waste handled annually in India, an estimated 51 per cent is post-consumer waste originating from local consumers. Another 42 per cent is pre-consumer waste and 7 per cent is imported waste.

“In a very short time, India is becoming a major recycling hub with multi-stakeholder investment projects, run by Fashion for Good and Reverse Resources with giant textile players like Arvind, Welspun India and Birla Cellulose taking the lead and supported by international players like PVH, Adidas, Tesco, Target, Levi’s. This opens up opportunities for developing novel value chains and business models for valorising textile waste intercontinentally. Additionally, with growing purchasing power, India is also a major producer of post-consumer textile waste domestically,” states a white paper jointly prepared by The Swedish School of Textiles, IIT Delhi and Wazir Advisors.

“Moreover, with positive policy intervention from the government, textile recyclers and sorters are now investing in modern technologies and exploring new business models to reshape this industry. This opens up opportunities for developing novel industrial value chains and ecosystems for valorising waste inter-continentally,” says Varun Vaid, Business Director, Wazir Advisors.

“To mobilise an expanding textile recycling ecosystem in India, the crucial factor is creating a shared understanding of the critical success factors in this transforming landscape, along with pinpointing  the key needs and challenges. Textile recycling has been a very niche premium segment with a major challenge of how to get the volume, cost, quality and supply chain consistent,” adds Vaid.