A partnership to promote RMG waste recycling in the country
Sustainable fashion brand Re/DRESS partnered with Reverse Resources, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, to spread the message of circular fashion and waste recycling among Bangladeshi RMG producers and consumers
In 2019, Bangladesh produced nearly 5,77,000 tonnes of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) waste. Almost half of this, 250,000 tonnes, was 100% pure cotton waste.
This finding by Circular Fashion Partnership, a cross-sectorial project to support the development of the textile recycling industry in Bangladesh, was accompanied by an estimate that factories in Bangladesh could sell this cotton waste to the recycling market for up to $100 million.
Traditionally, garment factories follow a linear model (take-make-waste), which means they promote the production of new clothes, their use by consumers and ultimately, their disposal. This process is unsustainable, and also bad for the environment as it increases emission of greenhouse gases.
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On the other hand, circular fashion focuses on making and designing clothes and also discarding them in a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly way.
Re/DRESS is a sustainable fashion brand which makes clothes from nearly 100% recycled cotton and polyester. It recently partnered up with Reverse Resources, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform which matches textile waste with the best possible recycling solutions.
Together, they want to spread the message of circular fashion and waste recycling among Bangladeshi RMG producers as well as consumers. They also want everyone to know of Bangladesh's incredible potential in recycling cotton.
"We have created our collections using almost 100% recycled textile to show that it can be done," Teresa Albor, founder and designer of Re/DRESS told The Business Standard.
Reverse Resources calls themselves "an Uber of textile waste that allows the industry to plan and oversee the textile flows end-to-end from the source of the waste to recycling, and build the longest circular life cycles for the fibres."
The platform traces textile waste to more than 15 largest textile-to-textile recyclers from hundreds of factories in real-time.
Head of Operations at Reverse Resources, Mumit Hassan said they were intrigued by the fact that despite being an international brand, Re/DRESS makes their products in Bangladesh and has a local outlet, as well as partnerships with brands like Aarong and Yellow in Bangladesh. The brand has also sold its products at exhibitions.
Although they both live in Dhaka (Teresa for the last four years), Teresa and Mumit actually met in Copenhagen during the Global Fashion Summit. Mumit believes "it was a happy accident" and their collaboration means they can be better educated about recycled materials.
He said after learning about Re/DRESS, they were interested to know about the demand for such products, what the consumer response is etc. "Re/DRESS is not just a brand, it also promotes recycling for other brands. And like them, we also want everyone to adopt circular fashion."
Reverse Resources is currently acting as Re/DRESS's information and knowledge-sharing partner. "We have partnerships with other brands that involve more physical work, but with Re/DRESS, we connect mostly for knowledge sharing. Since we have been working in this area, we have certain insights on circular practices and we share them with Re/DRESS," he said.
Teresa added to it by saying, "Reverse Resources is the information partner of Re/DRESS. We depend on them for up-to-date information on all aspects of cotton recycling."
Reverse Resources has also provided a waste flow dashboard on the brand's website which tracks total volumes, disposal, destinations, and more than five companies (including Beximco and Square Textiles) in Bangladesh that are actively recycling cotton waste.
The spreadsheet shows the latest figures for the recyclers, such as how much they are recycling each month. It also has contact information of the companies, something Teresa believes will not only help other companies willing to recycle, but also media houses who want to know more about the state of waste recycling in Bangladesh.
Not only is recycling good for the environment (if you make a T-shirt with recycled cotton instead of conventional cotton, you will save more than 5,000 litres of water), but it can also create a great alternative source of textile fibres for us, since we currently import them. In 2019, 1.63 million tonnes of staple cotton fibre at a value of an estimated $3.5 billion was imported.
According to the Circular Fashion Partnership, if cotton waste was recycled within Bangladesh, half a billion dollars spent on cotton imports could be saved. Creating waste, exporting them and then buying cotton yarn creates a counterproductive situation, Mumit believes.
He said, "If we recycle the material here, we have the users right here, and we have all the production here as well." And without the additional transport cost, the recycled waste can be directly fed into the factory and then used to make the garment.
Mumit said his organisation has found out that Bangladesh has the most amount of recyclable waste. "Bangladesh is the second largest producer of RMG; we are also producing a lot of waste every day. As we have so much waste, our country is also a big destination for 100% cotton material."
"If you look from a brand perspective, 100% cotton is just a regular product. But if you look from a waste or recycling perspective, it is the most recyclable material," he added.
Both Re/DRESS and Reverse Resources believe Bangladesh has the potential to become one of the biggest cotton recycling hubs in the world. It is only a matter of time, and effort put in by our RMG manufacturers and recyclers. The sooner the factories can adapt to recycling, the better it might be for a wider global acceptance of their products.
"If you cannot use a certain amount of recycled materials, you won't get entry to a certain market," said Mumit.
Teresa said the senior management in Bangladesh's RMG factories is concerned about the environment, and even European legislation is now demanding recycling among manufacturers. Consumers are also more interested in responsible fashion.
"You have consumers saying, hey, I want to be responsible, you have government legislation, and you have buyers wanting more recycled products. And Bangladeshi manufacturers are incredibly responsive. We believe, in a few years, it will become a common thing," she opined.
With that being said, convincing large factories to sell their scraps to recyclers is not easy. "What is waste to us, is actually very valuable raw material to recyclers. If a factory works with recyclers, there is an opportunity for it to know where its waste is being recycled," said Mumit.
However, if regulations demand it, then they have to do it. And Bangladesh is known to adapt to changes; it has the highest number of green garment factories.
Moreover, Bangladeshi RMG products already have global acceptance. So, factories may not need to worry about whether their recycled products will get a market.
When Teresa Albor was in the UK talking to a few retailers about her brand Re/DRESS, most of them, if not all, were impressed by the fact that the clothes were made in Bangladesh with almost 100% recycled materials.
"The first retailer I went to was called 69b. I was talking to the owners and they went like, 'Wow! This is a great story coming from Bangladesh.' And they said they would like to order 100 pieces!" she recalled.
Recycled clothes can seem more expensive than regular ones. While that is true, it is also true that the cost can go down in the long run and make these clothes more affordable.
"If you look purely on a material level, there is an opportunity to reduce cost because virgin material (general cotton or regular cotton/polyester) is more expensive than recycled material," said Mumit.
"It costs a little bit more to weave or knit with recycled yarn, because you have to run your machine a little bit slower and in this industry, speed is everything," said Teresa. But she added that scaling up production and getting the system operating smoothly can reduce the cost.
