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Textile wastes are now being used as material for building construction. Researchers in Europe have developed a panel with textile waste that improves both thermal and acoustics of buildings and reduces energy impact associated with the production of construction materials and greenhouse gases emissions.
The textile waste has been reintroduced in the productive chain in order to obtain the panels for interior fittings used in construction. These panels can enhance the thermal behavior by reducing twice the thermal conductivity of other commercial materials. At the same time, the introduction of textile fibers can also improve the acoustic behavior of the panels in terms of sound absorption.
The use of recycled materials contributes to significant reductions of energy consumption derived from the manufacturing process while reducing the environmental impact on its incineration and storage at landfills. Used waste does not require any special treatment since they are remnants of quality control products such as manufacturing off cuts or remnants of threads. Because of these environmental issues, an European law was enacted in 2002 in order to encourage the management and recycling of material waste. There are about 5.8 million tons of textile waste discarded in the European Union every year, and only 25 per cent of this waste is recycled.
Following the signing of a deal between the Ministry of Trade and Industry and two companies to construct a garment and footwear factory in the Kigali Special Economic Zone, (KSEZ), textiles in Republic of Rwanda is set to get a boost. While Albert Supply Rwanda will construct a garment factory, Rwantan will be principally into making of belts and shoes. As part of policy of promoting local factories in the textile and footwear industry, the government allocated KSEZ to investors in order to ease the process of land acquisition and construction of factories. However, the minister said the land meant for industries in the SEZ is going to be expensive. One hectare of land in the SEZ would cost $535,000.
With the help of Minicom’s 2016-2017 budget, the government purchased five hectares of land in the SEZ to facilitate investors in the textile and footwear factories. Albert Nsengiyumva, the proprietor of Albert Supply said his company will commence construction activities and the plant will be operational by end of next year. On the other hand, Bede Bedetse, the owner of Rwantan said that upon completion, his factory will produce high quality shoes and belts similar to those imported from abroad.
Techtextil India is being held in Mumbai, September 8 to 9, 2016. This is an event for technical textile and nonwoven sectors. Several editions of the event have been held over the past years in Frankfurt, India, Middle East and Russia.
Six specialized tracks ranging from emerging new technologies for advanced technical textiles to future prospects of the technical textile industry; the growing market for active wear/performance wear; the medtech and hygiene sectors; and high performance applications of nonwovens as well as the growing sectors of protech and composites will be covered over the two-days.
Techtextil India’s business-oriented approach will prove highly valuable for machinery and end product manufacturers, raw material and fabric suppliers, and textile industry players. The show will represent the entire cross section and stakeholders of the industry at a common platform as they look to share their knowledge about global trends and developments, market potential, opportunities and future prospects in the Indian technical textiles industry.
Over the last couple of years, India has been growing at a steady pace in the technical textile field, with perceptible signs of growth being observed in a few specialised fields. The market size is projected to be Rs1.58 lakh crores for 2016-17, with a growth rate of 20 per cent during the 12th Five Year plan.
Jute mills in Bengal are facing a host of issues ranging from intense competition to cheap Bangladeshi imports. While production decreased by three lakh tons, consumption of jute products went down declined by 2.5 lakh tons. Falling demand for jute bags and worker problems are plaguing jute mills, prompting many to shut down.
There are around 59 jute mills in Bengal, employing close to 4, 00,000 people, and almost all are currently making losses because of market conditions. Synthetic bags are cheaper than bags made of natural fiber, and the jute industry would have been in dire straits by now had jute as packaging material for various commodities not been made mandatory.
However, the law was tweaked in 2012-13 to allow greater use of plastic bags as packaging material for sugar and food grains. This was done based on food grain production projections but actual output fell short of estimates. That means the law allowed sale of more plastic bags than was required in the market and the piled up inventory of plastic bags from 2012-13 continues to be used.
Now, policy intervention, both long-term and short-term, is being considered to address the issues impeding the growth of the jute industry upon which the economy of West Bengal is highly dependent.
The first Dumfries House Wool Conference will take place at Dumfries House in Scotland from tomorrow September 9. This will be a gathering of key members of the fashion, interiors and wool industry organized by The Campaign for Wool. It is supported by Marks & Spencer.
The event, which has been referred to by the Prince of Wales as the ‘Davos of Wool’, will be the largest and most prestigious international gathering of wool experts ever held in the United Kingdom. Topics to be discussed at the conference are related to: animal welfare, sustainability and quality, environmental issues and slowing down fast-fashion turnover.
Among those taking part are: Steve Rowe, Marks & Spencer CEO; British designer Sir Paul Smith; Paolo Zegna, Chairman of Ermenegildo Zegna; Nicholas Coleridge CBE, President of Condé Nast International and chairman of The Campaign for Wool among others. Industry leaders and other key speakers will discuss the future of wool industry, key objectives to achieve etc.
As a part of the event, The Campaign for Wool and the International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO) will preside over the signing of The Dumfries House Wool Declaration. The Declaration will agree, among other things, that the major wool-growing countries conform to the strictest standards of animal welfare as embodied in the IWTO Specifications for Wool Sheep Welfare.
Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) has teamed up with the London College of Fashion on a sustainability project which aims to explore the concept of circularity. The project were students from BA Fashion Jewelry and BA Fashion Design and Technology (women’s wear) courses who were grouped into 33 teams and given the task of creating women’s capsule collections using materials and garments gathered as part of H&M’s in-store garment collecting scheme.
The scheme was designed in such a way so as to encourage consumers to donate unwanted garments of any brand at H&M stores. The company then reuses or recycles them in its efforts to embrace a circular business model. A panel of experts headed by H&M’s UK sustainability manager Catarina Midby, designer and founder of non-profit community Fashion Revolution were formed. Others in the panel include Orsola de Castro and Dilys Williams, Director, Center for Sustainable Fashion.
One of the winning collections, titled “Dissimulation and Exposure” made use of denim and jersey, two of the most common recycled fabrics. This so, in order to create deconstructed garments that is both structured and delicate using a series of patchwork and weaving techniques. Other winners included ‘Something New’ a collection based around a fabric made using scraps of unwanted garments and aiming to waste no textile in the production processes. The other was ‘Playful Activists’ which reused children’s garments to create colorful fabrics.
Midby said promoting garment recycling is a key step as the company works towards becoming 100 per cent circular, a long-term ambition they revealed at a conference in London earlier this year. The winning collections will be showcased across five H&M stores around London and at the London Fashion Week from September 16-20.
A Japanese garment factory in Myanmar, has refused to take back workers striking over newly imposed daily production requirements which they say was nearly impossible to meet. The workers, at Sakura factory located in Hlaing Tharyar township’s industrial Zone 3, have been protesting against increased workload heaped by the company on them since July 29.
At the end of August, the Yangon Region Arbitration Council ordered the factory owner to take back 316 striking workers with compensation for time spent protesting. Instead of following the ruling, the owner decided to appeal the decision to a higher council. Union leader Ma Cho Cho Latt, who has worked with the company for six years said that their clothing production section was told it would have to produce 135 items each day with only 32 workers starting on August 1 only in the last week of July.
The factory forced the workers to produce more clothing. Besides their normal quota, factory officials added about 10 more items of clothing to the primary target. That was not possible because there were not enough workmen to finish the task. While on July 29, more than 300 workers protested. Even after four negotiation sessions held by the Labour Relation Department a settlement could not be reached. This forced the dispute to reach the Council. Besides ordering the rehiring of the workmen, the council also vetoed the increased clothing production quota.
Besides calling for a settlement, protesting workers have now added a slew of demands that could better the factory conditions. The Japanese factory owner, Ito Kiyokazu, started the Sakura garment factory in 2006. He owns four other factories in Myanmar.
The Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC) which had initially estimated cotton production at 14.1 million bales in Pakistan has slashed it by 20 per cent to 11.27 million bales for the current season. Last year too, the country missed the crop production target by around 30 per cent and remained around 10 million bales, which according to the Finance Minister hit the GDP growth by 0.5 per cent. And the prospects for current season are not bright as well and the country may face significant shortfall in the crop production.
Representatives of provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab; Plant Protection Department, Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), cotton growers from Punjab; Sindh and Balochistan, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) attended a recent meeting where they were informed that the health of cotton crop was better this year and would result in more yield than last year.
Due to better prices, the confidence of growers was restored gradually to a great extent. Growers are using better quality fertilizers and quality spray to enhance production. However, sowing area decreased by 21 per cent in Punjab while it increased by 2 per cent in Sindh, with overall decrease by 15 per cent than the last year. This decrease in area has proportionately depicted in the production as well. Representatives of the provincial government explained the methodology for crop assessment and informed the House about the crop estimates.
In a welcome move, garment and footwear unions in Cambodia have agreed to the demand of $179.60 as the minimum monthly wage for 2017. This will take the figure up almost a 30 per cent from this year’s wage of $140. The decision was taken during a weekend of talks organized by IndustriALL Global Union, FES and the American Center for International Labor Solidarity. Seventeen unions including IndustriALL affiliates took part in the discussions to determine the new wage demand that is based on living costs, inflation and social factors.
Ath Thorn, President of IndustriALL affiliate, the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union thinks this number is still not enough yet. But he agreed that a demand higher than this cannot be met because of the economic and political situation prevailing in the country. The garment and footwear industry in Cambodia employs more than 600,000 people and is the country’s biggest export sector. The next tripartite meetings on wages are scheduled for September 12 and 26.
Exports from Bangladesh have moved up for readymade garments, leather and leather goods, jute and jute goods, frozen fish, pharmaceuticals among many other sectors in August. According to data published by Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), the country earned $3.3 billion in August alone. The amount is 20 per cent more than the income made via exports in the same month last year and 16.53 per cent higher than the target. However, July witnessed a 3 per cent drop in exports, but now the combined figure for July-August represents a 8.42 per cent rise.
Analyst hope the 2016-17 fiscal will end with a more than 10 per cent growth in exports. Political stability and avoiding a repeat of July 1 Gulshan attack holds the key to achieving higher exports. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Vice President Nasir Uddin too hopes exports would continue to grow. He thinks the buyers' concern over rise of terrorism in the country that peaked with the killing of 17 foreigners and five others at the Gulshan cafe has been largely addressed by the government's determined efforts to tackle militancy.
