September 2025

Rethinking Textile Waste: Four Ventures Giving Discards a New Life

‍

Every year, India generates over 1.3 million tonnes of urban household textile waste. In cities like Bengaluru, more than 50-70% of this waste is landfilled or burnt. This is due to broken collection systems and textile being mixed with other waste, with only a small fraction, about ~14% finding its way back into high-value circular chains.

Backed by Saamuhika Shakti, Enviu is working to eliminate textile waste at the source. Each venture plugs into a different source of the textile waste stream — from household to hotel rooms and is built to empower and encourage inclusion of waste pickers through employment and new livelihood opportunities. Enviu  is testing and building new, practical pathways proving that textile waste can be a resource with value, dignity, and a future.

  • Qilin makes it simple for people to resell and buy pre-loved clothes online
  • Second Spin partners with hotels and institutions to recover discarded textiles and turn them into new yarns and products
  • The Good Felt transforms hard-to-recycle polyester discards from household into premium non-woven sheets
  • Re-Mined is piloting a circular denim model that turns both pre-and post-consumer denim waste into new denim fabrics

Together, these ventures are diverting textile waste from landfills and showing that it can be the beginning of something new. This photo essay showcases four ventures rethinking what we call “textile waste.”‍

‍

Photos by: Enviu‍

‍

‍PHOTO STORY

‍

Qilin

PC: Enviu

‍

Once stigmatized, thrifting is now the choice of India’s youth fueling a $3 billion market set to triple by 2032.

Qilin started by testing its platform with Gen Z, a generation that loves vintage fashion, values sustainability, and wants an easy way to share their wardrobe and style. A Qilin promotional poster at one of Bengaluru’s favoured hangouts of the Genz crowd.

PC: Enviu

‍

Selling on Qilin is simple. The image shows how to register and sell garments: Register → upload a photo of the garment → add relevant details → and your pre-loved piece is ready to find a new home.

‍

Qilin aims to be a user-friendly app based platform for people making conscious choices about their fashion consumption. It helps people find new homes for their old clothes, while empowering youth to find their unique style and express themselves through more sustainable choices.  Check out Qilin on Instagram!

‍

Second Spin

Second Spin works with institutions like the Taj, where the textile consumption is high but post use solutions are completely missing from the picture. Second Spin team checking the stored end-of-use linens at The Pauls’ Hotel in Bengaluru . The venture collects linens, towels and other post use textile discards from hotel partners.

‍

At the Bengaluru sorting facility, trained sorters carefully separate collected linen. To make this process faster and more accurate, the team uses FibreSENSE, a tool by KOSHA.ai that identifies the fabric’s composition. KOSHA.ai, is a start-up supported by Social Alpha, one the Saamuhika Shakti partners. This partnership shows how collaboration across the ecosystem can create new opportunities to work together.

‍

The uniforms collected from hotels are turned into new upcycled products for hotels while the bedsheets, linen and towels are recycled into new yarns.

‍

Re-Mined

Denim holds strong value in the second-hand market but not every pair finds a new home. Re-Mined is turning used denim from partners and transforms it into new fiber, validating it for market use.

‍

These fibres are being developed along with denim manufacturers to make it fit for the brands and consumers. This image shows post-consumer denim turned in fibre.

‍

New Denim fabric samples developed from post consumer denims.

‍

The Good Felt

The Good Felt is turning the hardest-to-recycle, polyester-heavy textiles from post consumer household waste into high-performing non-woven sheets. These materials are now used in cars, construction, and fashion—proving that post-use waste can be a valuable resource! In the picture is a felt bag made from the discarded clothes collected from across Bengaluru.

‍

‍

The clothes discarded from households are often polyester heavy, of low value and end up in landfills. Now, working with our Saamuhika Shakti partner, Hasiru Dala, these clothes are collected and sorted by waste pickers and waste entrepreneurs managing the Dry Waste Collection Centers. This waste is turned into durable, high performing felt sheets by The Good Felt.

‍

These innovative ventures by Enviu, demonstrate a powerful approach to tackling India's significant textile waste problem at scale. By creating practical and valuable pathways for discarded textiles, from online re-sale platforms to transforming hard-to-recycle materials and developing circular denim models, they are not only diverting waste from landfills but also fostering a more sustainable and dignified future for textile resources.

🎥 For more insights, watch: Conversations from the Field: Giving Textile Waste New Life with Scalable & Inclusive Ventures

September 2025

Rethinking Textile Waste: Four Ventures Giving Discards a New Life

‍

Every year, India generates over 1.3 million tonnes of urban household textile waste. In cities like Bengaluru, more than 50-70% of this waste is landfilled or burnt. This is due to broken collection systems and textile being mixed with other waste, with only a small fraction, about ~14% finding its way back into high-value circular chains.

Backed by Saamuhika Shakti, Enviu is working to eliminate textile waste at the source. Each venture plugs into a different source of the textile waste stream — from household to hotel rooms and is built to empower and encourage inclusion of waste pickers through employment and new livelihood opportunities. Enviu  is testing and building new, practical pathways proving that textile waste can be a resource with value, dignity, and a future.

  • Qilin makes it simple for people to resell and buy pre-loved clothes online
  • Second Spin partners with hotels and institutions to recover discarded textiles and turn them into new yarns and products
  • The Good Felt transforms hard-to-recycle polyester discards from household into premium non-woven sheets
  • Re-Mined is piloting a circular denim model that turns both pre-and post-consumer denim waste into new denim fabrics

Together, these ventures are diverting textile waste from landfills and showing that it can be the beginning of something new. This photo essay showcases four ventures rethinking what we call “textile waste.”‍

‍

Photos by: Enviu‍

‍

‍PHOTO STORY

‍

Qilin

PC: Enviu

‍

Once stigmatized, thrifting is now the choice of India’s youth fueling a $3 billion market set to triple by 2032.

Qilin started by testing its platform with Gen Z, a generation that loves vintage fashion, values sustainability, and wants an easy way to share their wardrobe and style. A Qilin promotional poster at one of Bengaluru’s favoured hangouts of the Genz crowd.

PC: Enviu

‍

Selling on Qilin is simple. The image shows how to register and sell garments: Register → upload a photo of the garment → add relevant details → and your pre-loved piece is ready to find a new home.

‍

Qilin aims to be a user-friendly app based platform for people making conscious choices about their fashion consumption. It helps people find new homes for their old clothes, while empowering youth to find their unique style and express themselves through more sustainable choices.  Check out Qilin on Instagram!

‍

Second Spin

Second Spin works with institutions like the Taj, where the textile consumption is high but post use solutions are completely missing from the picture. Second Spin team checking the stored end-of-use linens at The Pauls’ Hotel in Bengaluru . The venture collects linens, towels and other post use textile discards from hotel partners.

‍

At the Bengaluru sorting facility, trained sorters carefully separate collected linen. To make this process faster and more accurate, the team uses FibreSENSE, a tool by KOSHA.ai that identifies the fabric’s composition. KOSHA.ai, is a start-up supported by Social Alpha, one the Saamuhika Shakti partners. This partnership shows how collaboration across the ecosystem can create new opportunities to work together.

‍

The uniforms collected from hotels are turned into new upcycled products for hotels while the bedsheets, linen and towels are recycled into new yarns.

‍

Re-Mined

Denim holds strong value in the second-hand market but not every pair finds a new home. Re-Mined is turning used denim from partners and transforms it into new fiber, validating it for market use.

‍

These fibres are being developed along with denim manufacturers to make it fit for the brands and consumers. This image shows post-consumer denim turned in fibre.

‍

New Denim fabric samples developed from post consumer denims.

‍

The Good Felt

The Good Felt is turning the hardest-to-recycle, polyester-heavy textiles from post consumer household waste into high-performing non-woven sheets. These materials are now used in cars, construction, and fashion—proving that post-use waste can be a valuable resource! In the picture is a felt bag made from the discarded clothes collected from across Bengaluru.

‍

‍

The clothes discarded from households are often polyester heavy, of low value and end up in landfills. Now, working with our Saamuhika Shakti partner, Hasiru Dala, these clothes are collected and sorted by waste pickers and waste entrepreneurs managing the Dry Waste Collection Centers. This waste is turned into durable, high performing felt sheets by The Good Felt.

‍

These innovative ventures by Enviu, demonstrate a powerful approach to tackling India's significant textile waste problem at scale. By creating practical and valuable pathways for discarded textiles, from online re-sale platforms to transforming hard-to-recycle materials and developing circular denim models, they are not only diverting waste from landfills but also fostering a more sustainable and dignified future for textile resources.

🎥 For more insights, watch: Conversations from the Field: Giving Textile Waste New Life with Scalable & Inclusive Ventures

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