India has all reasons to become a hub for recycling – especially from textile and apparel industry point of view – as there is huge pre-consumer waste and post-consumer waste.
There is an immense need in the eco system to focus on recycling, and, notably,giant textile players are taking lead with international support.Besides, apparel bodies too have been supporting such initiatives.
This was highlighted by various Indian and international experts during ‘Circularity and its opportunities for the Indian Apparel Sector’ webinar organised by Reverse Resources and Fashion for Good.
It was highlighted during the webinar that there are ample opportunities in recycling as currently only a small chunk of products are being recycled.
Naren Goenka, Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) insisted that there is a need to look at waste as resources, and not as a problem. He assured that AEPC will support initiatives like Sorting for Circularity Project, etc.
Also, it was insisted that new technologies will help one get a good finish in recycle-based products.
Nin Castle, Co-founder, Lead of Recycling Community & Projects, Reverse Resources stressed on circularity and its importance for apparel value chain. She was very vocal about the number of untapped opportunities for the Indian apparel industry – especially with regard to recycling process, and added that Reverse Resources will surely support them.
Priyanka Khanna, Head Asia Expansion, Fashion for Good,spoke that Fashion For Good is mobilising Indian companies in this regard.
Mukul Aggarwal, Chief Sustainability Officer, Birla Cellulose shared the details of steps being taken by the company regarding recycling and challenges for the same.
Also, it was highlighted that PVH, adidas, Tesco, Target, Levi Strauss… Arvind, Welspun India, Birla Cellulose are working for Sorting for Circularity Project .
It also said that a few of the recycling technologies and their potential in relation to Indian textile industry are Fibre-to-Fibre mechanical recycling (cotton), thermo-mechanical (synthetic) and new-generation mechanical recycling.
Fashion for Good is also doing a textile waste mapping study covering material types, quantities, composition sorters and collectors. Importantly, almost 300 companies will be covered in this study.
Source : https://in.apparelresources.com/