Apparel waste is a growing business in Bangladesh. There are two categories of waste, one from woven fabric, another from knit fabric. One factory, Simco Spinning and Textiles, has the capacity to produce 15 tons of yarn a day from cotton clips that are cut out during the garment stitching process.

The idea is to turn the scraps into materials demanded in the fashion world. And simultaneously, dealing with two purposes: business growth and the hazardous issue of waste management. These wastes are recycled for making new yarns or re-manufacturing garments. Around 50 lakh people have their livelihood in this business, with more women workers than men. They annually produce 18 crore to 20 crore pieces of garments, mostly T-shirts, which are exported to India, Malaysia, and Bhutan.

The key source of raw material in the entire business comes from leftover fabrics and other accessories of export-oriented garment factories. The regenerated yarn has a good market in developed parts of the world, with people becoming more sensitive to environmental impacts caused by industrial pollution. Waste factories have to face some challenges also. One of those is the increasing prices of waste resulting from a monopoly on the business by a syndicate. Also, small hosiery traders do not get soft loans or cash credit loans and have to borrow money from other sources at high-interest rates.