India’s fashion paradox: As the industry booms, it is being buried under heap of its own waste

India’s textile and clothing industry is massive when it comes to job creation, employing around 45 million people. It contributes 2.3 per cent to the country’s GDP and accounts for 12 per cent of all exports. However, there is a growing issue that receives far less attention: the industry generates approximately 7,800 kilotonnes of waste every year—equivalent to the combined weight of more than 120 million people—and most of it ends up in landfills, mixed with everyday waste.

According to a recent report by the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), the textile industry is the third-largest contributor to dry municipal solid waste, following plastics. Currently, only 34 per cent of India’s textile waste is reused — through repair or conversion into new products — and just 25 per cent is recycled into yarns, the essential base for new fabric production.

Most of these recycled yarns fail to meet global quality standards. The remainder of the waste is incinerated, downcycled, or landfilled, revealing that current waste management practices are insufficient to address the issue at scale.

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