The Hidden Life of Textile Waste in Bangladesh’s Garment Industry

When we consider the garment industry, we often think about finished clothes: shirts, trousers, dresses, and jackets that travel from factories to shops around the world. However, my IFS has made me look at a different part of the fashion system, the materials that are left behind before clothes even reach consumers.

My study focuses on informal waste management in Bangladesh's garment industry. More specifically, I am conducting a systematic literature review on how post-industrial textile waste is managed, what role informal actors play, and what the outcome means for sustainability and global textile value chains. 

Post-industrial or pre-consumer textile waste includes fabric scraps, cutting waste, rejected materials, leftover textiles, and other residues created during garment production. These materials seem useless at the first glance, but the literature shows that they often continue to have value. They can be collected, sorted, sold, reused, recycled, or downcycled. This means that textile waste does not simply disappear after production. Instead, it enters another system, one that is often informal, less visible, and not fully reorganized in official sustainability discussions. 

One important part of my study is understanding the role of informal actors. These may include waste collectors, local traders, sorters, small recyclers, and other workers who handle textile waste outside formal company systems. Their work may not always be documented or protected. But it contributes to keeping materials in use. In this sense, we can already see informal waste management as a form of circularity. 

So far, I have gained one of the most interesting insights from my reading. The circular economy is often discussed as something modern, technical, and policy-driven. It is connected to recycling technology, traceability systems, brand responsibility and sustainability, and sustainability goals. However, in Bangladesh, informal actors have already been practicing certain forms of circularity by recovering and redistributing textile waste. Their work shows that circular practices do not only arise from formal innovation. They can also come from everyday survival, local knowledge, and informal economic networks.

At the same time, informal waste management systems face many challenges. Workers and small traders may have limited bargaining power, limited income, unsafe working conditions, and little formal recognition. Waste flows may also be difficult to trace, which creates challenges for global brands and sustainability standards. As textile recycling becomes more valuable, there is also a risk that formal recycling companies and global supply chain actors may take greater control over waste streams while informal ones are pushed aside. 

This creates an important question for my study: when textile waste becomes valuable, who gets to benefit from it?

In global textile value chains, companies create value not only by producing and selling garments. You can also create value from waste. Fabric scraps and leftovers can support recycling businesses, help factories reduce waste, allow brands to make sustainability claims, and provide income for informal workers. However, benefits have not always been shared equally. This is why governance is important. Governance refers to the rules, standards, policies, and power relations that decide how textile waste is managed and who is included in the process.

My research questions focus on three areas. First, I want to understand what roles the informal sector plays in managing post-industrial textile waste in Bangladesh. Second, I want to identify the main challenges faced by informal waste management systems. Third, I want to examine what these practices mean for sustainability and governance in the global textile value chains.

Since my field study is a systematic literature review, my area of focus is the existing research. I am studying academic articles from databases like Web of Science and Scopus. Through this process, I am learning how different researchers are describing textile waste, informal recycling, circular economy, and global value chains. Some studies focus directly on Bangladesh, while others provide comparisons from other countries or broader theoretical perspectives.

Overall, this topic has changed how I understand waste. Waste is not only an environmental problem. It is also connected to work, income, inequality, responsibility, and global trade. The fabric pieces left behind in garment factories may seem small, but they reveal bigger questions about sustainability and justice in the fashion industry.

For me, the most important lesson so far is that a sustainable textile system should not only focus on recycling materials. It should also recognize the people and networks that already manage those materials. If informal actors are ignored, circular economy strategies may become incomplete. A fairer approach would include them in future discussions about textile waste, recycling, and global value chain governance.