Rethinking, recycling and loving again: India’s circular fashion economy

In recent years, the textile industry has been drawing criticism for its growing negative environmental and social impacts due to fast fashion and the culture of fashion influencers. The global textile industry’s greenhouse emissions are known to be greater than all international flights and shipments combined. It is considered one of the biggest polluting industries after food and construction, and its supply chain is in urgent need of change.

However, the industry’s transition to building a sustainable ecosystem cannot be achieved overnight. The business models have for many years followed a straightforward path of ‘take, make, wear and throw away’. Producing 13 million tons of global textile waste that ends up in landfills or is incinerated.

According to anthropological estimates, the history of clothing 100,000 – 500,000 years ago, from animal hair and natural materials such as grass and leaves, mainly play the role of modern textiles. Humble beginnings were followed by a series of new innovations, clothing and fashion as visible expressions of social identity.

Today, the fashion industry employs more than 300 million people across the value chain globally. In India, the sector provides direct employment to over 45 million and over 100 million in allied industries. Statistics show that heritage business structures require a more positive approach to both planet and people.

Statistics show that a slow, but increasing level of awareness among the sector’s stakeholders is finding innovative solutions that are building the foundation of a circular fashion economy, which is restorative and regenerative in nature.

Building an ecosystem of green micro-entrepreneurs

Mumbai-based Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) – an IntelCap-backed DOEN Foundation initiative – describes itself as an ecosystem-builder that will accelerate the transition of the apparel and textile industry towards circularity. People at CAIF work mainly on two levels: First, they create an innovation pipeline for brands, helping them achieve their 2030 sustainability goals to reduce their carbon footprint. Second, their focus is on building ecosystems and designing circular textile waste models to close the leakage cycle. In November 2021, partner with sustainable innovators Enviu and the IKEA Foundation to build capacities and skills among India’s informal waste workers to unlock green jobs among marginalized communities.

“In the absence of an organized system to help these waste collectors identify and track waste from factories and households, we asked ourselves some basic questions – ‘How can we use their understanding of waste ecology?’ Can we provide them with knowledge, capital, network and solution options?” Venkat Kotamaraju, Director, CAIF and Climate Solutions, Intellecap told Mongabay-India.

With the aim of creating an organized way to collect textile waste, the group has started pilot projects in Mumbai and Bengaluru area. The main focus is on training waste workers to separate post-consumer waste and helping them become “green micro-entrepreneurs”, who are told to distinguish between repaired, recycled and used clothes.

According to Kotamaraju, at present, waste disposal workers are not properly trained to identify the composition of the fabric. “Usually own clothes and factory waste are sold by the kilo. We’re giving you the skills to help you recognize that a ripped t-shirt is not the same as denim. When you understand the monetary value of clothing and direct it to the right recyclers or fabric collectors, we reduce waste to the environment. He added that eventually the idea is to set up hyper-local collection and sorting centers for both producers and consumers to bring circulars into reach.

For this, CAIF works closely with anchor partners – Hasiru Dala and Sahas Zero Waste in Bengaluru and Asar Welfare in Mumbai. These partners identify waste collectors in these areas, and are then trained in various aspects of material integrity. So far 38 teams of waste collectors have been trained. CAIF initially aims to increase the number to 250 employees, which will create a framework for responsible waste collection.

Build accuracy in Second hand market

As the former CEO of fashion brand Okai, Kirti Poonia is credited with growing the business and building a community of artisans, especially women. However, in the process, she identified a problem with overstuffed clothing, mostly due to changes in women’s bodies. “An average woman goes through 31 body changes in her lifetime,” Punia said.

Part of the problem, however, was the environmental impact that fast fashion had on the planet. Recognizing that the problems in the fashion industry are systemic and multifaceted, she felt the need to find solutions to social or environmental problems of capitalism because this makes it easier for brands to adopt.

Her solution to fashion pollution is Relove – a technology-enabled system that enables brands to run their thrift stores. Poonia along with her partner and co-founder Prateek Gupte launched a fashion brand on Instagram in November 2021. They have collaborated with 30 brands in nine months.

What makes Relove stand out is their direct partnerships with brands, allowing shoppers to experience the true story of the clothing.

“We’re building accuracy into an austerity process marred by ambiguity,” Punia said. “No one knows the origin, source and owner of the clothes sold under the name of Second Fashion.”

Reselling clothes adds life to them. According to Gupte, every time a garment is resold, it saves “six times its weight in CO2”. “You’re eliminating the entire cycle of producing a resource-intensive product,” he says.

Underscoring the change in attitude especially among Gen Z, Gupte shares that they are receiving orders from across the country, which is showing the acceptance of secondhand clothing culture in the country. “The average time we sell a pre-loved garment is six days,” he added. Considering that this segment will reach 64 billion dollars in five years, the proven business model will definitely create a strong business.

Price disputes in a circular fashion

Not all brands have a resale policy. Even India does not have a strong textile waste collection system. However, India has been a textile hub for decades and is a leading importer of used garments. While the latter only contributes to the garment waste burden in India, recycling factories have become fodder for several sustainable brands. One of them is Dudlage, a Delhi-based fashion label that has been turning factory scraps into limited edition collections since 2012. Their latest initiative involves collecting post-consumer waste so that Indian consumers can responsibly dispose of unwanted clothing. .

While Dudlage argues that he has the advantage of being a first mover in the sustainable fashion industry, one of the questions he was frequently asked in the early years was pricing: Why are their clothes more expensive than trash?

The high unit pricing controversy particularly limits the reach of all sustainable brands to the large consumer base in India, whose fashion preferences are still driven by many e-commerce sites and fast-fashion brands selling at low prices. “The price tag associated with slow fashion labels is the true cost of slow production, which is better for the people who make the products and the planet,” said Kriti Tula, co-founder and creative director of Dudlage.

Meanwhile, Kotamaraju examines the pricing puzzle through the economics of demand and supply, highlighting that fast fashion’s affordability is the result of affordable operating models, off-shore manufacturing and low-cost labor, among others.

“The unit cost is basically why it’s so important to promote the circular economy,” he said. “However, due to the complex value chain, adoption of sustainable practices has been slow. A company whose infrastructure is designed for the cotton economy will increase its value as it switches to alternative, more sustainable materials.

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Read more: From Farming to Fashion: How National Institutions are Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum.

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Banner imageCAIF focuses on decarbonizing the industry and zeroing out textile waste. Photo from CAIF