Bangladesh garment industry could save $500 million a year by recycling cotton
Bangladesh’s garment industry, the world’s second-largest exporter of clothes, could reduce its annual spending by half of a billion dollars if it recycled cotton waste from its factories and fabric mills, a circular economy group said on Wednesday.
In 2019, the South Asian nation imported about 1.6 million tonnes of cotton, at a cost of $3.5 billion, while generating 250,000 tonnes of cotton waste that might have been recycled, said new analysis from the Circular Fashion Partnership (CFP), a project that promotes recycled materials popular.
The “100% natural cotton waste”, which include cuttings and yarn from the finish of bobbins, could reduce imports by 15% and save about half a billion dollars, in line with the CFP.
“These findings demonstrate a circular fashion system could breed not only environmental but financial benefits for a country,” said Federica Marchionni, CEO of the nonprofit Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), that leads the partnership.
Currently, local collectors of cotton waste tend to use it as filling for mattresses or export it abroad for recycling. Manufacturers also incinerate cotton for energy, according to Holly Syrett, GFA’s senior sustainability manager.
But the waste is informally managed rather than well traced.
“By segregating waste at source and establishing traceability, we can make sure that textile waste always reaches its highest value,” Syrett said in emailed comments.
In 2018, the global fashion sector’s greenhouse gas emissions were about 2 billion tonnes - and this should be halved by 2030, to align with global climate goals, the GFA said.
Reducing planet-heating emissions and boosting circularity go together, it added.
According to 2020 research by the GFA and consultancy McKinsey & Company, the style industry makes up about 4% of global emissions, equal to the gross annual total of France, Germany and Britain combined.
Under the 2015 Paris climate accord, practically 200 countries decided to slash their emissions to net-zero by mid-century and limit global conditions rise to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times.
Bangladesh’s carbon emissions are minimal when compared to developed world, but its economy is heavily reliant on the garment industry which accounts for 80% of its exports and employs a lot more than 4 million people.
Launched in February, the CFP brings together clothing brands, recyclers and manufacturers to identify ways the sector in Bangladesh can transition to a more sustainable system.
On Wednesday, the CFP said Next, Primark and Benetton were among the latest fashion brands to become listed on the initiative, which already includes big retailers like H&M and C&A.
“Bangladesh produces arguably the most recyclable textile waste of any apparel-producing country,” Nin Castle, head of recycling at Reverse Resources, a CFP partner, said in a statement.
Castle urged the united states to foster a recycling industry to reap the “great things about cost and carbon footprint reduction” and to gain “massive competitive edge”.
Buying recycling capacity may also help create jobs, said Syrett. “You will find a huge potential ... and we hope that more recyclers will establish in Bangladesh,” she added.
Faruque Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said factories were “enthusiastic” about the circular economy, but urged caution before potential impacts for manufacturers - and solutions - were better known.