Page 44 - baseline

Circularity: Present Scenario

Textile circularity in India is still in the early stages of development.
While there is a growing awareness of sustainable practices in the
textile industry, there are still challenges to be addressed in order

to implement circularity in the textile value chain.

The lack of infrastructure and technology are two The following is a partial and non-exhaustive list of
major challenges that limit progression of circularity institutions providing circularity courses that have
in the sector. In addition, the industry has limited been visited during the baseline assessment. Existing
Government support for undertaking circularity. challenges faced while bringing circularity in the
Moreover, the consumers are also not inclined sector have also been documented during discussions
Figure 14: Cotton fibre fluffs from beam Figure 15: Airjet machine
towards buying sustainable products. with them.

Efforts are underway to address these challenges and l NIFT, in collaboration with UNEP, has introduced
promote textile circularity in India; companies such the Fashion Innovation and Sustainable Design
as Birla Cellulose, Reliance Industries, PurFI, Kishco for Circularity, a Postgraduate Diploma Program.
and many others are working on textile recycling and
repurposing. l NID has established the “Innovation Center for
Natural Fiber”, focusing on capacity building in
Organizations such as ‘Fashion for Good’, ‘Textile natural fibre development and utilization through
Exchange’, ‘Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF)’, design, engineering and technology innovation.
and industry partnerships such as Su.Re are promoting
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd., Arvind, Welspun, l SVPITM, Coimbatore, has conducted a “Sustain
Reliance, Pratibha Syntex, Shahi Exports, etc., to set able Development in Textile Value Chain” training
circularity goals and are collaborating with internal and programme.
external stakeholders to achieve them.
l IIT Delhi practices sustainability and circular
During the assessment, overall readiness of the practices through their incubator programme.
Textile & Apparel ecosystem stakeholders was
analyzed, which included both direct (involved in a l Sasmira’s Institute of Design and Textiles (SIDT)
specific stage of the value chain) and indirect actors, and The Academy for Sustainability (TAS) have Figure 16: Powerloom machine Figure 17: Selvedge waste
such as Government regulators, non-governmental launched a series of educational workforce
organizations (NGOs), innovators, educational and development programs, including certificate and
research institutes. diploma programmes on the Fundamentals of
Sustainability, Fashion Sustainability, ESG, Deciphering the Textile Value Chain systems to achieve optimum efficiency. Weaving
majorly involves following characteristics of loom
Findings on the circularity practices are further Circularity, Sustainable Design, Corporate Social
machinery:
segmented based on stakeholder involved and Responsibility, and Sustainability Reporting for the Spinning & Weaving
summarized as following: Fashion and Textile Industry. Stakeholders in the fibre and yarn production value
l Handloom - no selvedge waste is generated.
chain contributed to mapping associated fibre and
Initiatives by the Academia yarn waste in the pre-consumer processes. Waste is l Power loom – no selvedge waste is generated.
Circularity focus: Circular design, used as a raw material for various applications, with l Rapier– selvage waste is generated on both sides
Research and academics play an essential role in innovation research, capacity building, or without pre-processing, indicating the prevalence of the fabric.
fostering circular textile technologies, discovering new circular business models of circularity practices in the sector. l Airjet – selvage waste generated on one side.
l Waterjet – due to water usage, wet selvage waste
textile materials, and guiding the next generation of
is generated.
textile professionals. The Baseline Assessment began Being a product with a low profit margin, cotton fibre
with academic stakeholders, as it is the starting point is often spun by large-scale units with sophisticated
for the entire ecosystem.

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