Textiles Ministry Release ‘Textile Waste Value Chain in India’ Report

Ministry of Textiles recently released the report titled “Mapping of Textile Waste Value Chain in India”. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of textile waste generation, recovery pathways, recycling technologies and opportunities to strengthen circularity across India’s textile value chain.

Scope of the Report

• The study examines the entire textile waste value chain, including pre-consumer waste generated during manufacturing processes and post-consumer waste generated from discarded textiles
• It also identifies recycling practices across clusters, documents emerging technologies and outlines policy recommendations to strengthen India’s circular textile ecosystem.

Highlights of Report

• Textile Waste Generation in India: It estimates that India generates approximately 73 lakh tonnes of textile waste annually.
  • Of this, 42% originates from pre-consumer sourcessuch as manufacturing waste, while 58% arises from post-consumer disposal.
• Recovery and Recycling Trends: More than 70% of the total textile waste is currently recoveredand routed into recycling, upcycling, downcycling or reuse streams.
• Pre-consumer Waste Recovery: Around 95% of pre-consumer textile waste is recovered, reflecting the strength of recovery networks across the value chain.
• Closed-Loop Recycling in Spinning Sector: Spinning sector has established a benchmark for closed-loop operations, with nearly 100% of spinning waste reintegrated in situ into production.
  • Reasons for High Recycling Rate: Soft waste generated during spinning is immediately reused within the same process due to
    • Homogeneous waste streams
    • Proximity between generation
    • Processing and established quality standards for recycled inputs.
• Post-Consumer Waste Management: About 55% of India’s post-consumer textile waste is diverted from landfills, largely through an extensive informal collection and sorting network.
  • Livelihood Impact: This informal ecosystem sustains around 40–45 lakh livelihoods, predominantly women from marginalised communities
    • They are predominately engaged in the collection, sorting and redistribution of used textiles.
• Textile Recycling Clusters: It shows that Panipat is emerging as a major hub for mechanical textile recycling, with waste from several textile clusters transported there for processing.
• Importance of developing recycling infrastructure at the cluster level can significantly improve efficiency and enable recycling closer to the source of waste generation.
• Future Market Potential: It projects that India’s textile recycling market could reach US $3.5 billion by 2030, with the potential to generate around 1 lakh new green jobs.
• Emerging Recycling Technologies: highlights two major recycling pathways
  • Mechanical Recycling
    • Currently the most widely used method in India.
    • Involves shredding textile waste into fibres for reuse.
  • Chemical Recycling
    • Emerging technology capable of recovering fibres at the molecular level
    • Enables textile-to-textile recycling, improving circularity.