Solid waste management is an essential process in garments and textile sector.

1. Bangladesh
University of
Textiles
Solid Waste
Management
In Garments Industries in Bangladesh
Submitted To:
Dr. Mizanur Rahman
Guest Faculty
Submitted By:
Name: Tapu Saha
ID: 2013-3-5-029

2. Contents
• What is waste?
• Waste Management
• Source of garment wastes
• Negative impact on environment
• Concept of 3Rs
• Recycling of waste garments and
textiles
• Stages of recycling
• Reuse of garment wastes

3. What is waste?
• Waste is an unwanted or undesired material or substance.
• It is also referred to as rubbish, trash, garbage, or junk depending upon the
type of material and the regional terminology.
• In living organisms, waste relates to unwanted substances or toxins that are
expelled from them.

4. Waste Management
• The human control of the collection, treatment and disposal of different
wastes. This is in order to reduce the negative impacts waste has on
environment and society.
• Waste is directly linked to the human development, both technologically and
socially.
• The compositions of different wastes have varied over time and location, with
industrial development and innovation being directly linked to waste
materials.
• Some components of waste have economical value and can be recycled once
correctly recovered.

5. Source of garment wastes
• Although the majority of textile waste originates from household sources,
waste textiles also arise during yarn and fabric manufacture, garment-making
processes and from the retail industry.
• These are termed post-industrial waste, as opposed to the post-consumer
waste which goes to jumble sales and charity shops.
• Together they provide a vast potential for recovery and recycling.

6. Negative impact on environment
• Waste pollution is considered a serious threat by many and can broadly be
defined as any pollution associated with waste and waste management
practices.
• Typical materials that are found in household waste, and which have specific
environmental impacts, include biodegradable wastes, batteries, aerosols, oils,
acids and fluorescent tubes.

7. Concept of 3Rs in waste management
The 3Rs to be followed for waste
management:
1. Reduce
2. Reuse
3. Recycle

8. Recycling of waste garments and textiles
• Recycling of waste raw materials left by garment factories has emerged as a
good income generating source for many people in recent times.
• As the informal sector requires small investment, it attracts a good number of
investors who are employing thousands of people, mostly from under-
privileged classes.
• The garment leftovers, called jhoot by the people involved in the trade, are
virtually turned into useful materials.
• Every bit and pieces of waste raw materials starting from cut-pieces of clothes,
zippers, buttons, thread, elastic fasteners, used plastic packets, broken cloth
hangers, empty bobbins to rejected pants, shirts and t-shirts are sold from the
garment factories.

9. Recycling of waste garments and textiles (Continued)
• Textile recycling is the method of reusing or reprocessing used clothing, fibrous
material and clothing scraps from the manufacturing process.
• Textiles in municipal solid waste are found mainly in discarded clothing,
although other sources include furniture, carpets, tires, footwear, and
nondurable goods such as sheets and towels.
• After collection of the textiles, workers sort and separate collected textiles into
good quality clothing and shoes which can be reused or worn. Damaged
textiles are sorted to make industrial wiping cloths.
• If textile re-processors receive wet or soiled clothes however, these may still
end up being disposed of in landfill, as the washing and drying facilities are not
present at sorting units.

10. Recycling of waste garments and textiles (Continued)
• Clothing fabric generally consists of composites of cotton (biodegradable
material) and synthetic plastics. The textile's composition will affect its
durability and method of recycling.
• Fiber reclamation mills grade incoming material into type and color. The color
sorting means no re-dying has to take place, saving energy and pollutants. The
textiles are shredded into "shoddy" fibers and blended with other selected
fibers, depending on the intended end use of the recycled yarn. The blended
mixture is carded to clean and mix the fibers and spun ready for weaving or
knitting.
• The fibers can also be compressed for mattress production.
• Textiles sent to the flocking industry are shredded to make filling material for
car insulation, roofing felts, loudspeaker cones, panel linings and furniture
padding.

11. Recycling of waste garments and textiles (Continued)
• For specialized polyester based materials the recycling process is significantly
different.
• The first step is to remove the buttons and zippers then to cut the garments
into small pieces. The shredded fabric is then granulated and formed into small
pellets. The pellets are broken down polymerized and turned into polyester
chips. The chips are melted and spun into new filament fiber used to make
new polyester fabrics.
• Some companies are creating new pieces of clothing from scraps of old
clothes.
• Ninety-nine percent of used textiles are recyclable.

12. Stages of recycling
Typically, recycling technologies are divided into primary; secondary, tertiary.
1. Primary approaches involve recycling a product into its original form.
2. Secondary recycling involves melt processing a plastic product into a new
product that has a lower level of physical, mechanical and/or chemical
properties.
3. Tertiary recycling involves processes such as pyrolysis and hydrolysis, which
convert the plastic wastes into basic chemicals or fuels.

13. Reuse of garment wastes
• The unusable parts and extremely shredded clothes are recycled into waste
cotton.
• Mattress, pillows, cushions, seat stuffing and padding in cars, public buses and
rickshaws are usually done with these recycled clothes and processed cotton.
• Even bandages are being reproduced with leftover white cotton fabrics.
• While buttons, zippers, elastic fastener, hangers and plastic bags are resold to
mini garment accessory sellers.
• Unused buttons, zipper, elastics fasteners are mostly purchased by local tailors,
said an accessory seller.

14. Think green, work green, save the earth
Thank you
Tapu Saha |Bangladesh University of Textiles