Circular textiles waste models in India’s Silicon Valley has got a shot in the arm with the H&M Foundation expanding its inclusive circularity by tying up with two new partners and the waste pickers continuing to play a lead role.
New partners: This new textile recycling setup within H&M Foundation's initiative Saamuhika Shakti has taken on board Stichting Enviu Nederland (Enviu) and Intellecap's Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF).
- Together with the existing collective, they will include waste workers already within the Saamuhika Shakti programme into two work streams.
The working: The micro-entrepreneurship with CAIF will lead the waste-entrepreneurship model and use Bengaluru's existing dry waste collection centres (DWCCs) as a network of hyperlocal centres to aggregate and segregate post-consumer textile waste.
- There, CAIF will work with 6–7 waste entrepreneurs running the DWCCs to adopt the Circular Textiles Waste Model, by building textile waste sorting capacity at their centres and training the waste sorters and waste pickers in the handling of this kind of waste.
- Their intervention will focus on enabling textile waste collection, sorting, and selling to generate revenue for waste pickers.
- The circular B2B linen enterprise with Enviu will work to create a circular B2B textile service model, starting with the hotel industry.
- Waste hotel linen will be recycled and brought back into the loop as new towels, integrating waste pickers in the process.
By December 2023, Enviu looks to collect and divert from landfills close to 30–35 tonnes of cotton waste sorted by waste workers. - Enviu also aims to employ waste workers in alternative livelihood opportunities in the hotels' laundry, logistics, and warehousing services.
Saamuhika Shakti: This new textile recycling setup within H&M Foundation's initiative Saamuhika Shakti is contributing to a larger multi-year textile-recycling programme across India, adding on a social perspective and ensuring that the voices of waste pickers are part of the equation.
- The larger programme is also seed funded by IKEA Foundation.
The backdrop: India accounts for 8.5% of global textile waste generation. Out of total textile waste circulation in the country, domestic post-consumer collection contributes 51%, 42% comes from pre-consumer sources, and 7% is imported post-consumer waste.
- Innovations in textile waste management are emerging, but as of yet, the economic value chain bypasses the waste picker.
What they said:
Our goal is to generate additional income streams through textile waste. Through this initiative, we are promoting inclusive circularity and improving waste pickers' livelihood opportunities.
— Maria Bystedt
Strategy Lead
H&M Foundation
