Textiles Committee upgrades Navi Mumbai Textile Recovery Facility

India’s circular economy drive received a boost with the upgradation of the Navi Mumbai Textile Recovery Facility, where state-of-the-art automated sorting successfully diverted over 450 metric tons of post-consumer apparel from municipal landfills last quarter. To scale these sustainability metrics across the entire textile value chain, the Textiles Committee teamed up with Refiber to advance fiber-identification technology to track post-consumer waste from collection to secondary yarn production.

Experts point out, growing consumer demand for eco-certified fabrics requires commercial stakeholders to adopt rigorous traceability systems. Integrating digital tracking directly into our fiber sorting operations ensures absolute transparency for global apparel buyers, says Dr Tapan Kumar Rout, Project Coordinator. Despite opportunities in recycled yarn exports, domestic manufacturers face challenges due to high energy costs during shredding and inconsistent feedstock quality from unorganized local collectors.

Nevertheless, sector analysts project, increasing these automated recovery frameworks will decrease virgin cotton dependence by 12 per cent by the end of 2027, positioning India as a premier destination for compliant, closed-loop garment manufacturing.

Established in the early 1960s to ensure quality standards, the Textiles Committee operates under the Ministry of Textiles, driving statutory quality control and market research across national fibre, yarn, and fabric categories. With ambitious expansion plans focused on scaling automated digital recycling hubs nationwide, the organization targets a 20 per cent increase in domestic textile waste valorization, supported by robust financial allocations and public-private manufacturing partnerships.