Setting out with a fund of 13 million euros (about $15.28 million), the Re-Start Alliance launched its first flagship project, Cluster Collective, in New Delhi on Monday, aiming to scale up textile-to-textile recycling.
The initiative will focus on select geographies, or clusters, as they are referred to, with the first program being rolled out in Ludhiana and Indore. The cluster-focused program is being implemented by IDH, a global organization that works with public and private stakeholders to make global value chains more sustainable and inclusive. The four-year initiative will focus on realizing the economic potential of textile-to-textile (T2T) recycling in India.
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Re-Start is a textile recovery alliance launched two years ago in New Delhi and convened by the Laudes Foundation, with founding partners Canopy, Fashion for Good and IDH. The alliance is focused on bringing one million tons of recycled fibers back into supply chains by 2030.
The alliance aims to create the enabling conditions needed to scale textile recycling, with an initial focus on India. Over the past two years, Re-Start has concentrated on convening and connecting India’s textile recycling ecosystem to reduce duplication of efforts and fragmentation.
India is a particularly important location for this effort, as one of the world’s largest producers of cotton, jute and silk, with extensive processing infrastructure and a skilled workforce across activities ranging from spinning to apparel production. This makes it a key sourcing destination for most global brands.
While the task itself is huge, given the vast geography of India, industry analysts point to the fact that there has been a complete lack of a cohesive approach and the physical distance between major clusters, including Tirupur in the south, Ludhiana in the north and Surat in the west, among others, makes it harder. They also comment that while the industry has increasingly acknowledged the importance of recycling, with numerous discussions and conferences dedicated to the topic, practical implementation has been constrained.
This year has added to the sense of pressure within the industry stemming from fast-changing geopolitical conditions, including steep U.S. “reciprocal” tariffs of 50 percent on India, compared with 20 percent for neighboring Bangladesh.
“Taking on the task of setting up additional infrastructure for recycling is just not a priority,” a small manufacturer from Tirupur told Sourcing Journal. “Survival is the focus at the moment.”
However, others believe recycling is becoming an essential part of sourcing and that it is overdue to factor it into long-term planning.
At Bharat Tex, India’s largest sourcing fair held in February, the Indian government reaffirmed its intention to make textile recycling a focus area and to help turn plans into reality. Signs have been encouraging, with the government creating a task force centered on the cluster approach.
Jagjeet Singh Kandal, country director at IDH, told Sourcing Journal that the path forward begins with assessing gaps in infrastructure requirements and using finance facilities to address them. He said training and capacity building within the clusters themselves will be critical to success. “We are in touch with the government because this is also a high-profile area for them,” he said, adding that IDH is part of the government task force working on the cluster approach, for which some public funding is available.
Kandal noted that cluster-based approaches are already proven and widely used in other sectors. “By focusing on existing textile hubs that are already processing and producing, this approach will connect aggregators, recyclers and manufacturers in a coordinated and structured manner, creating long-term value for all stakeholders,” he said. As a result, clusters can benefit from shared infrastructure, shared investment opportunities and stronger market linkages to accelerate scale. Sourcing companies, he added, will gain improved traceability, access to a fully connected supply chain and collective demand for recycled textiles.
“It’s not just about infrastructure, but also about setting up governance,” Kandal said, describing the program as geography-based. Within each cluster, there are distinct segments of players, from raw material sourcing and collection to sorting, upcycling, downcycling and handling residual waste. “Each one really needs to be tuned in,” he said.
“The beauty of this cluster approach is that we are bringing together a lot of individual activities that have already been happening. They’re not new, but they’ve been isolated and operating in small silos,” he said. “It’s been a very transactional ecosystem. We want to bring it together with synergy, so that it results in savings and efficiencies.”
A key objective, he said, is scalability. “Today, the biggest challenge is that recycling is not scaled because it’s being done as individual businesses, not stitched together,” he said.
The goal is to help create a complete supply chain that also meets the needs of global brands. “There is demand from brands, but they don’t know where to source material at scale,” Kandal said. Several brands have publicly committed to incorporating recycled materials into their products, creating long-term demand driven not only by environmental considerations but also by commercial interests. While proof-of-concept recycling projects exist, brands are seeking large, reliable volumes. “The cluster approach enables the delivery of large quantities of material at one place, meeting latent demand from brands that know what they want but don’t know how to get there,” he said. Improved efficiency should ultimately help lower raw material costs, he believes.
India generates approximately 7.8 million tons of textile waste annually and is among the world’s largest contributors to the problem. Unlocking value from this waste represents a significant economic opportunity, particularly as local and international regulations increase demand for compliant recycled materials, according to a report by Fashion for Good.
Harshitha Venati has been appointed as the alliance’s lead for partnerships and engagement and will be responsible for driving its strategy.
Capital will be raised from a mix of grant funding and returnable investment capital. Investment capital will be deployed as debt through an Alternative Investment Fund or Non-Banking Financial Company managed by Navaka. The Navaka Social Business Fund already has these vehicles in place, which will facilitate capital deployment starting with the initial €13 million. There is hope that additional funding will follow as industry support builds.
Although it has taken two years to launch the alliance’s first official flagship project, Kandal said significant behind-the-scenes work has been underway. He said the scale of the challenge has become clearer, prompting higher ambitions. “Earlier, no one was bothered because it wasn’t visible. Now we know what the problem is and that solutions exist,” he said. “The success is in bringing all these different players to one table and creating a program that connects what were previously individual silos.” He credited the Laudes Foundation’s catalytic funding with helping kickstart the initiative.
Textile Exchange’s 2025 Materials Market Report highlights significant potential for post-consumer textiles to be used as feedstock for recycled materials. Currently, only about 1 percent of the global fiber market comes from pre- and post-consumer recycled textiles, according to the report.
Among the challenges in scaling up is not just reducing fragmentation in India’s textile recycling ecosystem, but also the need to address labor conditions and create dignified jobs for waste workers.
The alliance is set to launch more projects over the next 12 months, through its founding partners.
