HOW TO CUT DOWN TEXTILE WASTES
The youngster talks about the perils of fast fashion and the impact of textile waste on the environment along with steps to curb it
Fast fashion is probably the most overwritten topic in the past few years. But I think there’s still something left to say. You’ve likely heard of industries releasing pollutants into rivers — the amount of water it takes to produce a pair of jeans or the emission of greenhouse gases from industries.
While these are an accurate amalgamation of impacts for most countries, in India, where the tailoring sector comprises 80% of the garment industry, we’re forgetting something.
On my 15th birthday, I visited a tailor to get an outfit stitched. A common occurrence, you’d say. But that once, I noticed something that never caught my attention before — the piles of textile trimmings strewn across the floor! I asked the tailor what he did with all the waste. “We throw it away,” was the reply. Realising for the very first time the consequences of our tailors’ textile waste on the environment, I did a little more digging. Despite my research, I found no organisation focusing on managing textile waste from tailors; all the textile waste was going directly to the landfills.
Determined to tackle the problem, I started ‘Pharz’, an initiative to upcycle pre-consumer textile waste from tailors to make masks and bags. Through Pharz, we’ve been able to prevent 2,875 meters of pre-consumer textile waste from reaching landfills. From the ‘waste’, we’ve sewn 11,000 masks and 250 bags, half of which we’ve donated to NGOs, especially those helping women and children.
Additionally, we could provide employment to 9 tailors, supporting them through the pandemic, while reaching over 100 tailors through our awareness campaigns, supporting them with our designs to create their own masks and bags for customers using waste they have.
Despite what Pharz has been able to achieve, there’s still a long way to go for India to effectively deal with textile waste from tailors, and it’s important for us to pull our weight to ensure we minimise the environmental impact from such wastes.
The textile
waste management community had adopted the ‘5Rs’ of waste management (instead of the conventional ‘3Rs’). They are:
I started ‘Pharz’, an initiative to upcycle
pre-consumer textile waste from
tailors to make masks and bags.
Through Pharz, we’ve been able to
prevent 2,875 meters of preconsumer textile
waste from reaching landfills.
1
Refuse — Think twice before you choose to stitch a garment; avoid it when it’s not necessary.
2
Reduce — Reduce the number of tailoring scraps you produce. The next three ‘Rs’ will show you how.
3
Reuse — Reuse your clothing and minimise the need for stitching more garments. Donate your clothes to charity or hand it down to the next generation so it gets used for longer.
4
Recycle — Recycle your clothing where possible. You may leave your clothing at the GHMC ‘Give and Share’ kiosks or order an online pickup with the Clothes Box Foundation to recycle your clothing. Segregating your recyclables from your waste at home also helps you recycle textiles you’ve thrown away.
5
Repurpose — Upcycle your old clothing (e.g., cutting your old jeans into shorts or converting a baggy shirt into a dress); many online resources can help you do this. Fix torn garments by sewing; avoid buying new garments.
A study by the Waste and Resources Action Program in the UK has shown that increasing the life of a textile by even 9 months will reduce carbon emissions, waste, and water footprints by 20–30% each.
Not addressing the problem of textile waste from our massive, unorganised tailoring sector will only worsen it. So, here’s a humble request: do your bit and save the planet. Be responsible;
buy less and use more.
(Annika Naramreddy is a 12th grader from Oakridge
International School, Hyderabad, with a deep passion for issues of
social justice.)