Bangladesh University of Textiles

Solid Waste Management

In Garments Industries in BangladeshSubmitted To:

Dr. Mizanur Rahman

Guest Faculty

Submitted By:

Name: Tapu Saha

ID: 2013-3-5-029

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

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 thetype of material and the regional terminology.

• In living organisms, waste relates to unwanted substances or toxins that areexpelled from them.

Waste Management

• The human control of the collection, treatment and disposal of differentwastes. This is in order to reduce the negative impacts waste has onenvironment and society.

• Waste is directly linked to the human development, both technologically andsocially.

• 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.

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.

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.

Concept of 3Rs in waste management

The 3Rs to be followed for waste management:

1. Reduce

2. Reuse

3. Recycle

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 clothhangers, empty bobbins to rejected pants, shirts and t-shirts are sold from thegarment factories.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Reuse of garment wastes

• The unusable parts and extremely shredded clothes are recycled into wastecotton.

• Mattress, pillows, cushions, seat stuffing and padding in cars, public buses andrickshaws 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 tomini garment accessory sellers.

• Unused buttons, zipper, elastics fasteners are mostly purchased by local tailors,said an accessory seller.

Think green, work green, save the earth

Thank you

Tapu Saha |Bangladesh University of Textiles