Many Indian households repurpose torn t-shirts as dusters, ripped bedsheets as floor cleaners and use faded curtains to wrap blankets in during the months of summer. Fast fashion has led to a growing surplus of unwanted clothing that is contributing to our existing mountains of textile waste. Throwing them away is the easiest solution, and also the worst. We need to recycle, repurpose, reuse.
One way to recycle clothes is to donate them to charity from where they will be distributed amongst the millions of poor people who don't have clothes or can't afford to buy clothes. But what if you could give something old, and also get something new? That is where our story begins.
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Kolkata, the city of joy, is known for its rich culture, literature, film, food, coffee houses, and historical landmarks. It is also a city of contrasts with wealth, industry, and the homeless and poor. One of India's largest and most densely populated cities is also home to one of India's oldest landfills - Dhapa, choked with the daily waste generated in Kolkata homes.
Sujata Chatterjee, an engineer by education but a social entrepreneur by choice says,
My research led me to realise that fabric waste is actually a huge environmental problem. The World Economic Forum states that up to 60 per cent of clothes produced today are lying around somewhere unused and thereby wasted. This problem has a huge impact on natural resources like the water of our country.
While one section of society has more than the required clothes resulting in the generation of waste, another doesn't have enough to meet basic needs. Ms Chatterjee adds,
We live in a country where the social disparity is huge. We are struggling with the problem of wastage and excess. But there are still so many people, in the rural area, who need clothes as essential. And, there are so many women who need work and empowerment. So, the idea came to me why not use our excess? Why not use what we consider as waste as a tool to empower ruler communities? And that is how the idea or model of Twirl is formed. It forms the link between two ends of the society.
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Meet Sujata Chatterjee, founder of Twirl.Store - an award-winning social initiative that aims to reduce fabric waste and empower women. Their vision is to make retail a sustainable circle that benefits both society and the environment.
Twirl.Store collects unwanted clothing and fabrics from individuals, housing societies, and organisations all over India and repurposes them. The mission is to transform "waste to wonder" while also providing a source of income for rural women, or as they describe it, "twirl your trash".
The clothes collected are then either given to those in need or upcycled and put back into circulation in a new form.
Where does Twirl.Store get clothes from? Ms Chatterjee tells,
We work with fabric waste predominantly. It is the unwanted clothing of individuals and fabrics from individuals. We also take defective pieces from manufacturers, excess fabric from retailers and wholesalers.
Taking us through the process of upcycling clothes, Ms Chatterjee says,
We collect all these materials, segregate and upcycle them into a range of products which are in the categories of bags, accessories, home décor, and gift items.
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In the six years since it was founded, Twirl.Store has collected more than a staggering 1.2 lakh kilos of clothes and fabric, distributed more than 30,000 kilos of clothes and essentials, and upcycled more than 90,000 kilos of fabric into products.
And doing all of this is a team made up entirely of rural girls and women. In fact, Twirl.Store has empowered over 200 women and in so doing contributed to many of the United Nation's (UN) Sustainable Development Goals including gender equality, economic growth, reduced inequalities and responsible consumption.
Calling Twirl.Store an "all girl organisation" where except for the collection and delivery part, every role is performed by women from less advantaged backgrounds, Ms Chatterjee shares,
I had a wish and a commitment to ensure women empowerment and reach out to the women who are probably not getting equal work opportunity. Outside our urban cities, there are still many women who cannot work because either they are located far away or they cannot abide to the strict working hours or they have family commitments.
Twirl.Store provides work to those who do not have excess to it, empowering women to upskill themselves and earn a little.
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This humungous effort has earned Sujata many accolades and recognition. Her work has been acknowledged by the UN India, UN Women, and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP).
But for Twirl.Store, the biggest achievement is the change that is coming in the rural communities they work with. And it all begins here: with the daily receipt of bags and bags of clothes that are taken to their storage room. There the clothes are divided by quality and usability - can they be donated or upcycled to make something else?
The clothes are also segregated by type and style of fabric - cotton, denim, silk, kantha and embroidery. The clothes then go through a process of steaming, which is done to sanitise and clean out all bacteria, dust and other external dirt. The clothes are dried in the sun, which also works to remove strong odours and make them smell much fresher.
The process of cutting that follows requires manual dexterity and the skill to cut different types of fabric - from cotton, denim and nylon to chiffon, silk and natural fibres. There is a different technique for each one.
Explaining the process of training women, Santana Halder, Supervisor at Twirl.Store shares,
Firstly, we give training to assess the depth and level of their expertise. Once the training ends, we check and segregate workers based on their knowledge and training level. We have different training programmes. Based on their knowledge, each one is assigned a product. We train those who are at the beginner stage or are not apt for stitching, etc to make carry bags. So, nobody is sitting idle, everybody gets to do some or the other work, easy or difficult we keep them engaged.
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The all-important stage of stitching something old into something new is where Twirl.Store's range of 200 products takes shape. These products are all one-of-a-kind, unique, single-piece products, with no two pieces alike. They are all available for purchase on their website, they are shipped all over India. And, you can even return the clothing items when you are done using them.
Twirl.Store says it is perhaps the only brand in India that has a buyback policy for all clothing bought from it. They let the customer buy, wear, enjoy and then return Twirl clothing back to the store when you no longer want to wear them, as long as it is within nine months of the date you first ordered them.
Returning the clothes will earn the customer twirl points, which can be redeemed for any other product on the site, while the clothes you returned under the buyback will either be given to those in need or to upscale fabrics.
Headquartered in Kolkata, Twirl.Store works with rural communities in the districts surrounding Kolkata, such as South 24 Parganas, through their rural centres. In fact, there are more than 25 such centres where local women are taught the skills of cutting, stitching and preparing the cloth which will then be transformed by them into various products. This is empowering the women, giving them basic livelihood, improving their standard of living, and giving them a sense of purpose and belonging.
Of course Twirl.Store also has once-a-month donation drives, distributing clothes in nearby villages, or amongst street children, or then to poor children through non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Ms Chatterjee aims to work with more and more corporates and organisations. She adds,
I look forward to giving them upcycled corporate gifts and products for their daily needs. It is when organisation and more people at large embrace upcycled products and accept the handcrafted upcycle, then we can slowly move to a better world and that's the future I see. And my wish is to take these upcycle products, made by the women of rural Bengal, across the world. We have already started this journey but let us take it even further and I hope more people come forward to support us in the journey.
As they say, be the change you want to see. Well, Sujata Chatterjee and Twirl.Store are certainly living that philosophy. With this social initiative collecting clothes from all over India, you don't have to only be in Kolkata to twirl that trash.
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