PETALING JAYA: A social enterprise advocating for textile and fabric circularity has urged the government to provide more accessible fabric recycling bins for the public.
Kloth Circularity co-founder Nik Suzila Hassan said although Malaysians are proactive about fabric recycling, the country does not have enough bins for the purpose.
“The government needs to work together with NGOs to provide more accessible and convenient fabric recycling bins, or offer pick-up services for the community,” she said.
Nik Suzila said collection bins ought to be placed in strategic locations, such as in residential areas, malls and petrol stations.
According to the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation, fabric waste constituted 432,901 metric tonnes (31%) of Malaysia’s total waste in 2021.
In 2022, Kloth Circularity collected about 1.9 million kg of textile and fabric waste, while 3.1 million kg was collected last year from 500 collection bins in Malaysia (98%) and Singapore (2%).
“Almost everything in our houses is made from fabric. Curtains are usually polyester, while bedsheets are often a blend of cotton and polyester. These are all the things that contribute to global warming when disposed of,” said Nik Suzila.
She said textiles and clothing release methane when decomposing in landfills, significantly contributing to global warming, adding that synthetic fabrics could take more than 200 years to break down.
Nik Suzila said clothing and textiles in bins are either recycled through donations or sale, or upcycled, which involves repurposing them into new products.
Upcycling, downcycling and recycling
Kloth Circularity partners with Life Line Clothing Malaysia for recycling initiatives that see textiles and clothing processed at their factory. The upcycling is done by women from marginalised communities under the Kloth Woman Up programme.
“We have produced many upcycled tote bags, pouches, aprons and others, combining materials like denim, songket, batik, (and fabric from) cheongsams and sarees,” she said.
Andrew Jackson from Life Line Clothing Malaysia said collected goods are first weighed at the factory and hand-sorted to a conveyor belt before being further separated into over 560 categories based on their next best use.
“If they are in good condition, they will be recycled. If not, they will be sent for downcycling depending on their material. Absorbent materials in poor condition will be repurposed as cleaning cloths, while synthetic materials may be used as process-engineered fuel,” he said.
Jackson said Life Line Clothing sends materials that cannot be recycled for upcycling by Upcycle4Better, a community-driven lifestyle brand that aims to bridge the gap between sustainability and fashion.
“We have many things that involve denim and fabrics from baju kurung and suit jackets,” he said.
Jackson, the group’s head of marketing and business development, said the fabrics used for upcycling are cut on-site to ensure design consistency, and then sent to about 50 home-based needleworkers in the Klang Valley to create new products such as pouches, shoe bags and makeup bags.
