Textile circularity in India is still in its early stages. While most waste is recycled, reused, downcycled and used in other industries, and individuals unknowingly engage in circularity, the country needs to scale up identified circular practices and promote novel innovations throughout the value chain.
- A just-released ‘Baseline Assessment Report’ on ‘Approaches for Circular Textiles and Apparel Industry in India’ says that while there is a growing awareness of sustainable practices in the industry, there are still challenges to be addressed in order to implement circularity across the value chain.
- Significant challenges and gaps continue to hinder implementing, formalising and scaling, and novel circular practices.
- The report has been jointly published by the Centre for Environmental Education (CEE), Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited and GIZ - India.
STRIDES TOWARDS CIRCULARITY: The Indian textile and apparel industry is making significant strides towards circularity. By leveraging traditional practices of reusing and recycling textiles and adopting circularity principles, the industry can contribute to waste reduction, resource conservation, and the overall sustainability of the sector.
- A large part of the textile waste generated is sent to the landfill and incinerated instead of being recycled or reprocessed. There is a need to ‘self-disrupt’ existing practices and transition to a more circular approach.
- Promoting a common understanding is therefore crucial from a sustainable development perspective for the entire textile sector.
THE REPORT: The study was conducted across the value chain and involved various stakeholders across India that provided valuable insights into resource consumption, waste generation, and potential areas for improvement.
- It was found that while considerable opportunities exist to reduce wastage, challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, limited government support, and lower consumer demand for sustainable products exist.
- The report aims to create awareness among key stakeholders to drive circular approaches, reduce waste, and create closed-loop systems.
Outcome of Baseline Assessment: The baseline assessment supported in identifying potential categories of interventions for implementing circularity across the value chain by overcoming barriers to circular economy transition.
The study will be used as a foundation for the project’s future activities, as listed below:
- Innovation Challenge: Identified circularity focus points in each stakeholder group will be addressed through six priority action areas across the entire sector. The same will also be used to identify the criteria for innovation challenge, which aims to bring together diverse next-generation startups contributing to the circularity sector. A jury will evaluate the three most suitable circularity practicing businesses for pilot scale implementation from numerous innovators nationwide.
Circularity Trainings & Workshops: Baseline assessment identified training needs in circularity aspects for top management, middle management, and ground/field workers within textile & apparel value chain stages. - Creating a Circularity Textile Manifesto: A textile circularity framework with a holistic approach that considers all aspects of the product life cycle will be created from learnings of Baseline Assessment, this includes, material selection, product design, supply chain management, waste management, consumer engagement, data and metrics and stakeholder engagement.
Policy white paper: Several circularity-enabling stakeholders, including academic institutions such as NIFT and NID, subject expert organisations such as Su.Re, CAIF and FFG, research organisations such as ATIRA and SITRA, and leading organisations such as ABFRL, Arvind, H&M and Shahi Exports, etc. will collaborate to frame a policy white paper, which will be presented to the Ministry of Textiles, GOI. It will outline the initiatives and measures required to promote circular economy approaches in the Textile & Apparel sector.
WHAT THEY SAID:
The Textile and Apparel sector is a major economic sector in India. Thus, the integration of sustainability and circularity principles in the value chain is imperative for the larger good of our planet and its people.
— Prajakta L Verma
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textiles
Government of India
The world needs multi-pronged, holistic action to tackle the climate crisis. The Indo-German Bilateral Cooperation holds this principle at the core of their developmental interventions in India, with a mission to build a future worth living. One crucial component of their multifaceted work in the country is to integrate the concept of Circular Economy in high impact economic sectors.
— Mohamed El-Khawad
Cluster Coordinator-Environment
Climate Change and Biodiversity in GIZ – India
While there is support from Government agencies across the country for the cause of circularity, the efforts are still at very nascent stages. The report explores the current state of circularity practices in the industry, including the adoption of sustainable materials, circular product design, and closed-loop systems. It further tries to identify key drivers and barriers to the adoption of circular practices in the Textile and Apparel industry in India. Eventually, the idea of this report is to unearth approaches and strategies that companies can adopt to make circularity a reality in their operations.
— Naresh Tyagi
Chief Sustainability Officer
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited
This report includes first-hand data on India’s textile and apparel industry, including current practices on sustainability and circularity, existing gaps and challenges and potential areas for pilot implementation from innovations. The study addresses textile industry circularity and stakeholders at each step of the value chain, including design, manufacturing, distribution, retail sale, and consumer use.
— Kartikeya Sarabhai
Director
Centre for Environment Education
