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According to a recent study of the global textile market, Bangladesh can make at least US$6.0 billion per year from textile and apparel waste.
Entrepreneurs should cease exporting cheaply and shift their focus to recycling as the potential for textile waste grows.
Higher sourcing costs and low profit margins are the main obstacles to extending the sourcing of apparel made from recycled or other sustainable textile materials, according to the most recent report by the US Fashion Industry Association.
Due to variables including a highly diverse supply chain and vendor base, the additional complexity of traceability, and meeting special legal criteria, sourcing apparel made from recycled textiles demands significant financial and human resources.
On the other hand, given the severity of the environmental effects, an increasing number of western businesses, from fast-fashion retailers to luxury brands, are giving priority to clothing manufactured from recycled or other sustainable materials.
Industry experts estimate that Bangladesh's largest export is clothes, valued about US$47 billion yearly. This sector also accounts for 0.4–0.5 million tonnes of garbage, or jhut, mostly consisting of cutting debris, scraps, and fluff.
About 0.6 million individuals, mostly women, are employed in Bangladesh by 20,000 to 22,000 traders who are involved in the jhut business, and an additional 1.0 million people depend on the garment subsector in an indirect way.
Only 5.0 percent of the wastes are recycled by some ready-made garment manufacturing facilities, which employ recycled fiber to generate yarn, textiles, and exportable RMG. The majority of the wastes are directly exported.
About 30-35 percent of the waste is recycled domestically to make products like infant clothing, pillows, car-seat covers, quilts, mattresses, and so on.
However, local textile millers and exporters of clothing and terry towels are opposed to exporting jhut, and the exporters want financial incentives so they may increase their export revenues.
Depending on the colors and sizes of the waste, traders in the jhut industry typically collect rubbish in bags weighing 60–70 kg with prices per sack ranging from Tk 2.0 to Tk 70.
Since the wastes are chemically regenerated into cotton and subsequently made into yarn and garments, the white-colored jhut is the most popular among them on the export market.
The Bangladesh Textile and Garment Waste Processors and Exporters Association (BTGWPEA) estimates that the country exports garment trash annually worth $500–600 million USD.
According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) figures, Jhut exports reached US$116.54 million in the most recent fiscal year (FY23), up from $64.68 million in the previous fiscal year.
"Bangladesh's garment waste has a high demand in many countries because it is used to manufacture a variety of products," said BTGWPEA President Syed Nazrul Islam. India and the EU receive the majority of Bangladesh's exports of clothing.
There are barely 30 to 40 dealers at Mirpur Jhut Palli who are involved in the jhut or kata-kapor trade out of the 285 stores here, according to Mirpur Kata Kapor (scraped textiles) Babosayi Samobai Samity.
The government reduced the price of sorted white "jhut" from $350 to $140 to $600 per tonne and color unsorted "jhut" from $350 to $235 per tonne. Additionally, the dealers are making millions of dollars in foreign currency by exporting garbage.
If given the necessary governmental backing for local value addition, Bangladesh may generate US$4.0 billion to US$5.0 billion yearly by recycling textile wastes, according to Md Shahidullah Azim, Vice-President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).
The remaining textile waste, or 60%, is sent to countries like India, Hong Kong, Sweden, and others, where it is recycled and sold back as recycled yarn to the local ready-to-wear industry at a higher price.
Notably, there are already businesses that have built recycling facilities, such as "Recover" from Beximco and "Cyclo" from Simco, along with numerous more modest facilities that recycle Jhut around the nation.
2.57 million tonnes of garment products were shipped from Bangladesh in fiscal year, while 0.31 million to 0.38 million tonnes of jhut were manufactured.
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