Clothing is one of the basic needs of human beings, and the textile and apparel industry is one of the oldest in the journey of human civilisation. Globally, this industry is currently estimated at approximately $1.5 trillion. The Indian textile and apparel sector is valued at around $150 billion and is expected to cross the $200 billion mark in the coming three years’ span. In India, how important is the textile industry for employment and economy can be understood from the following facts:

• More than 11 per cent of the country’s export revenue comes from textile,

• More than two per cent of GDP is pertaining to textile, and

• It provides direct and indirect employment to more than 55 million people.

In textile production too, India is at first or second position in several respects. In terms of land acreage under cotton cultivation, the country is number one globally. It is at the second position in cotton production. Similarly, in man-made fibre (MMF) production too, it is at number two. But these days, the new buzz words are climate change, carbon emission cutting, sustainability etc.

The textile industry is very polluting in nature. It is estimated that more than five per cent of total Green House Gas (GHG) emission is due to this industry and its waste is dumped all across the world. In terms of number, more than 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent GHG is emitted every year by the textile industry.

If research data is analysed, it reveals that only India dumps more than 7.8 million tons of textile waste every year, which accounts for 8.5 per cent of global textile waste disposed in a year.

The thrown waste can be further classified into three categories:

  1. Post-consumer waste         - 51 per cent

  2. Pre-consumer waste           - 42 per cent

  3. Imported waste        - 07 per cent

Huge quantity of textile material disposal makes it imperative that we should work exhaustively and intensively on sustainability. A decade ago, reducing environmental impact was merely a “nice to have” for organisations. Today, it has become a necessity. Need of the hour is – how the waste can be re-cycled and re-used. This is where the terms ‘sustainability’ and ‘circular economy’ gain importance.

If a proper mechanism is adopted as mentioned below with joint initiative, then remarkable changes can be brought to nurture sustainable development:

    i.    Industry should work on collection for re-cycle and re-use

   ii.    Government should come out with various initiatives to facilitation recycling and re-use

   iii.    Civil society should give back post-consumer waste to collection centres.

The following are the challenges in re-cycle and re-use:

1.   How to collect consumer waste

2.  Absence of regulation and traceability

3.  Excessive cost in recycling

4.  Limited technological infrastructure to process textile waste

The issue can be addressed by:

  1. Collection of waste with known potential to re-cycle

  2. Boost up re-cycling facility and capacity, and

  3. Finally, by having a mechanism in place to monitor and control waste management.