Building Value Chain for
Post Consumer Textile Waste
Textile waste crisis
India faces significant challenges with post-consumer textile waste due to its large population and growing fashion industry. India is one of the world’s largest textile producers and consumers, generating a substantial amount of textile waste. In 2019, India generated over 6 million tonnes of textile waste.However,the recycling rate for textile waste in India is relatively low. It is estimated that less than 20% of the total textile waste generated is recycled
Post-Consumer Textile Waste..
Post consumer Textile Waste has a broken value chain and there is no active system for effectively managing Post consumer textile waste. At Green Worms we have embarked on a journey to find ways to effectively manage the post consumer Textile Waste and go to an extent to build a value chain through cross collaboration and in-house projects to find value in low-value and Non-recyclable textile waste.
With the increasing demand for fast fashion and the short lifespan of clothing apparels has led to increase in textile waste generation. Currently large parts of the post-consumer textile waste generated are sent to landfills or burnt. The Post consumer Textile Waste value chain is broken. Green Worms efforts are to fix the broken value chain by Co-creating multiple solutions. We believe that by implementing effective waste management strategies, we can significantly reduce the environmental impact of the textile & fashion industry. This could include promoting recycling, upcycling and enabling Circularity.
Gopika Santosh,
Project Head,
Circular Textile Waste Management
Our Approach to Textile Waste
1.
Textile Waste Collection
Post consumer textile waste is being collected from households majorly through Cloth waste collection drives. Further the collected textile waste is sent to Green Worms’s Textile Waste Circularity Hub.
2.
Textile Waste Segregation
At the Green Worms Textile Waste Circularity Hub the post consumer textile waste is segregated into different categories such as single fiber, mixed fiber, color based.
3.
Swap
Textiles that are in good quality and rewearable are utilized further through Swap Programs. Here we engage local communities to come Swap our their clothes with our pre-loved collection.
4.
Repair & Redesign
The clothes that are damaged but are in repairable condition are repaired and redesigned into beautiful wearables.
5.
Upcycle
Textiles that are low-value and difficult to wear or not possible to be recycled are Upcycled into Reusable products such as bags, pouches, etc.
6.
Channelising Recycling
The Post consumer clothes that are recyclable are being segregated and channelized to sustainability-conscious textile recyclers.
