Known as the "cast-off capital" of the world, Panipat is one of the biggest hubs globally in the textile recycling industry. Textile waste arrives in Panipat from Kandla port in Gujarat where shipping containers bring in worn, discarded clothes from across the world. As the loaded trucks arrive in various workshops across Panipat, the clothes are first sorted and then sent further ahead to different areas depending on their condition. Clothes that are not damaged, mutilated or torn are kept to be sold as they are, after minor refinements.
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The task of sorting is usually carried out by women, who spend eight-nine hours every day segregating huge piles of clothes. All metallic objects are removed from the clothes - zips, chains, buttons, and even the odd leftover coin in a pocket.
Explaining the process, Raajbala, one of the workers at a sorting workshop said,
We usually get a mixed load of clothes, which we then sort here. Once it is sorted, it is converted to yarn. We separate it all by colour like black, navy and pink, among others. We get old blankets, we shred them. The cotton is separated, and then new blankets are made, these are sent to the mill.
And that is the simple explanation of how this mammoth industry works. Clothes and rags - cotton, hosiery and woollen - are imported at cheap rates. They are ripped apart and recycled to make yarn, and the yarn is further used to make a host of household and handloom products.
In fact, the blankets that Panipat is best known for producing are also made of a recycled yarn called shoddy yarn. It is a woollen yarn obtained by shredding discarded woollen clothing that arrives here from all over the world.
Sonu, Owner of a Rug Manufacturing Workshop said,
We get our material from the textile waste of big companies. This is the material that has been discarded or is torn and unusable. This is the material they cannot export because it is below standard quality. So, we buy all that kind of material from them and recycle it. Then we sell it ahead in the market.
Most of the artisans in Panipat are migrants from across the country, who have come to the city with the prospect of work. Despite the threat of fast fashion, international competition, cheaper yarns and technology, small-scale industry owners like Sonu aren't overly worried about the survival of the recycling trade in Panipat.
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Sonu believes,
Till the time there are factories in Panipat, there will be waste material. And till the time there is waste material, labour will be required. Humans have harnessed science, and science has led us to progress. There will always be work for labour.
Back to our recycled cloth whose journey is not even half told. We visited Manpreet's recycling plant in Panipat, a place he manages with his father Pritam. A truck, filled to the brim with clothes waiting to be turned into yarn, arrived at the plant. Manpreet Singh, MD, Home Textiles India Limited explained,
The raw material that we buy arrives here already sorted into different colours. When it gets here, we first shred it, colour by colour. The garments are cut into small pieces, and then recycled. The carding machine is where these garments are turned back into cotton fibres. After that, the fibres are further cleaned and mixed. The short fibres are dropped, and the good fibres are carried forward in the process. After that, it goes to our drafting section. Then it goes to the open-end machine. That is where the final step of the process takes place – making yarn, which is then used to produce yarn cones.
This process – taking about an entire day – opens a world of possibilities for fabric waste, bringing it back to its original state: fibre, which is then spun into yarn, the building block of textile production. Shirts, towels, curtains, bed covers and shawls are only a few of the many products which this yarn goes into making. In an industry populated more by machines than by people, products like rugs, throws and dhurries (handwoven rugs) are all made on looms operated by hand, adding a touch of tradition to the recycled yarn.
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Nijamuddin, Handloom Artisan explained,
When the yarn arrives, it goes on the binder. It coils around the binder, and once coiled the cone is spun. Then the cone goes to the warping machine, on which the warp is made. The warp is then brought onto the loom, after which filling is done, which takes about one to two hours. After filling, the loom is started, which again takes an hour to an hour and a half. Then we put the yarn in the nali, which is spun on the charkha. The master explains the design to us, and how it needs to be done on the charkha. We show the master a sample, which he checks thoroughly – its length and breadth. Having checked it, he gives us the go-ahead to operate the handloom.
Even though the use of handlooms is not widespread in Panipat, it is through the artisans who work by hand that this ancestral craft is still being preserved.
Nijamuddin has been working on the handloom for the past 15-20 years. Talking about his work he said,
I make around 25-30 dhurries (handwoven rugs) in a day. It takes me about 30-45 minutes to make a dhurrie. These days, mechanised looms are more in demand than handlooms. And today's children, today's new age artisans work more on machines.
The numbers vary, but estimates suggest that Panipat recycles over one lakh tonnes of discarded clothing every year. The process of recycling used here reduces the need for chemicals, the need for landfill space, and reduced energy consumption and also wastewater. All in all, a massive benefit for the environment.
Manpreet Singh said,
You know how much we people are recycling per day, particularly Panipat, it is around 10 lakh kilograms. We are saving a lot of water and the environment in order to protect Mother Nature. If we have recycled a certain garment, you never know, it might land up in someone's house as a curtain, a bedsheet on which someone sleeps. You never know which t-shirt was recycled to make it, or which garment was recycled for it.
In a society where consumption is ever-rising, managing the clothes and textiles we already own seems to be a small step, but can go a long way in reducing the waste burden on the environment.
Textile recycling can only be promoted if people use recycled products in their daily lives. And for that one need look no further than Panipat whose recycling industry is known all over the world as a shining example of where traditional tools embrace critical goals of the times for a more sustainable future and a healthier planet.
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