Introducing circularity in used-textile waste management, with inclusivity at its centre

Textile Recovery Facility is part of a larger attempt to create a value chain for post-consumer textile waste while weaving into it alternate livelihood possibilities for waste pickers  

At her Textile Recovery Facility (TRF) in Hirandahalli where used textiles from around 10 wards of Bengaluru arrive, Indumathi, a waste picker-turned-entrepreneur seems quite exuberant and optimistic. She remembers how during Deepavali the metal roof facility “almost turned into a shopping mall.”

“I was stunned that there is so much demand even for second-hand clothes! During Dasara and Deepavali, locals as well as migrant labourers came here to buy these clothes. The business was fast-moving during the festive month.” 

TRF, run by Indumathi and employing four people, is part of a larger attempt to create a value chain for post-consumer textile waste while weaving into it alternate livelihood possibilities for waste pickers.  

Circular Apparel Innovation Factory or CAIF (an Intellecap initiative) and Hasiru Dala, an NGO, in partnership with Saamuhika Shakti – a not-for-profit organisation that brings together multiple organisations to empower the informal waste picker community – have been working to see if they could introduce systems and processes for the same. 

Under the initiative, used clothes are collected from individual houses, sorted, segregated and, depending on their quality, recycled, upcycled, downcycled or resold. According to the NGOs, this successfully diverted 1,31,000 kgs of cloth from reaching landfills last year between March and December and resulted in an 18-25% increase in the income of the waste pickers directly engaged with the programme.  

After a successful pilot last year with eight wards in the city, the programme has been scaled up to cover 10 wards this year. Five more DWCCs (Dry Waste Collection Centres) are getting operationalised and the aim is to save 800 metric tonnes of clothes from reaching landfills in the next three years.  

The process

In India, more than 80% of PET bottles are recycled, thanks to the value chain established around it. Collecting them makes it a valuable proposition for waste pickers too. The same has not been the case with used textiles. With no formal system in place to create value out of textile waste, most of it ended up in landfills making it among the top three items in landfills. 

“Earlier, it was not known what you could do with post-consumer textile waste. However, through the experiments and pilots done in 2023 and 2024, we have been able to showcase that there is value to post-consumer textile waste, and through methods and processes, we can create a system similar to what we have for plastics in India,” says Zibi Jamal of Sattva Consulting, the facilitator partner in the Saamuhika Shakti collective.  

The first step is to collect the textile waste from individual houses. Waste pickers at the DWCCs in select wards were trained in collecting textile waste and awareness was created among residents. After collection, the first level of sorting happens at DWCCs.  Once a month, when the quantity of clothes becomes a ton or more, they are sent to TRF. A secondary level of sorting happens at TRF.  

“A lot can be thrifted. Some can go into recycling, be made into yarn. A small quantity can be upcycled.  Some can be downcycled and used for stuffing.  There is a small percentage - about 10 to 15% – which can’t be used for anything. They are sent to the waste-to-energy plant in Bidadi,” Jamal explains. 

Closing the loop

It all started when CAIF launched its Closing the Loop on Textile Waste programme in 2021. The idea was to design and implement a circular textile waste management model. 

“This programme, as of today, is scaled up in 10 different cities across India, but it all started in Bengaluru with two entrepreneurs,” says Rahul Chatterjee of CAIF. Hasiru Dala came on board as an on-ground implementation partner and the implementation of the programme in Bengaluru was supported by H&M Foundation and Saamuhika Shakti. 

“Together we onboarded eight DWCC operators as part of the programme and showed them the value that they can reclaim out of the textile waste,” notes Chatterjee who points out that apart from preventing large quantities of clothes from reaching the landfill, the programme impacted the lives and livelihoods of 225 waste workers. 

“Out of them, 33 were directly getting employment out of this and they saw an increase in their income ranging from 18 to 25 percent.” 

Improving results

Kumuda, who runs a DWCC in J.P. Nagar, was one of the first to sign up for the programme. She notes that every day about 10-15 kg of used clothes come into her centre and income from it has been increasing over the period. “We get about  ₹15,000 for a ton of used clothes,” she says.  

Ravi, a division manager with Hasiru Dala, notes that the awareness-building exercises have helped. He is one of the team members who do door-to-door visits twice a week to raise awareness and inform people about BBMP guidelines. 

“As fast fashion started, we saw a lot of textile waste coming into the centres. Earlier, it would go to cement kilns. But right now, there is so much waste that even the cement factory is not taking them in,” says Bianca Fernandes who works with Hasiru Dala.  

“That is when Hasiru Dala identified different kinds of streams where waste pickers can get a livelihood out of. As part of it we collaborated with CAIF for this initiative.” 

Building TRF

As the programme progressed, certain challenges cropped up eventually. The DWCCs experienced space crunch to store the textiles. Additionally, there were legal restrictions that allowed them to collect only from households and not from other sources. Some of the commercial buyers preferred to buy the textiles in bulk from a single entity instead of multiple DWCCs. 

“Factoring in all these learnings, in phase two, we pivoted to a hub and spoke model. We established TRF as the hub and the DWCCs would be the spokes. DWCCs will do the collection, a primary sorting and then sell it to the TRF. TRF will work as the central hub for aggregation, do a secondary sorting based on material and colour and then sell it to different buyers such as the recyclers, upcyclers, downcyclers and resellers. The TRF can also collect from other sources because they do not have such restrictions. They can collect from commercial entities, schools, hostels, and so on,” explains Chatterjee.  

The second phase of the project aims to impact the livelihoods of 500 waste pickers between 2024 to 2026. 

Skill as a service model

The team also works on a ‘skill as a service’ model which CAIF introduced in partnership with Sambhav Foundation, yet another NGO which is a Saamuhika Shakti partner. Under the model, women from the waste picker families are trained to make upcycled products using textile waste. 

“We work with informal waste picker women and upskill them so that they don’t remain at the lower end of the waste picking spectrum, but move on to production and higher value chains,” says Padmini Ram from Sambhav Foundation.  

“We get upcycled cloth from Hasiru Dala. We work on creating products such as bags, artefacts and so on from them and the products are sold to a buyer. The women get trained here to make the products and they get a share of the profits that’s earned from selling them,” she explains. 

Currently 12 women are being trained under the programme.  

Future of hope

Sagaya Mary, at her DWCC near R.V. Road, has finished the sorting for the day. All the clothes have been packed and neatly stacked away. The vehicle from TRF is expected to arrive the next day to collect them. 

“We have delivered clothes five times to the TRF. We are making profits,” Mary says.  

Three months since becoming operational, TRF has processed 42 tons of textile waste. It is yet to turn profitable though. But Indumathi is optimistic. 

Drawing hope from the sales during the Deepavali season, she believes the facility would see financial success in about two years.

She says, “So far, we have recovered only 10% of our initial investment. It may take a while. But I feel good that we are not sending clothes to landfills, we are saving the earth, we are able to generate employment for people, and it’s helping me build a career.

Published - November 28, 2024 09:00 am IST