Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF), an initiative of Intellecap and part of the Aavishkaar Group, is dedicated to advancing the sustainable textiles and apparel industry by promoting circularity. CAIF’s mission is to develop ecosystems and capabilities that shift circular practices from niche to mainstream.

Activities 

In Phase 1, CAIF’s involvement in Saamuhika Shakti centred around key strategic activities:

• Supporting Waste Entrepreneurs: Assisting grassroots-level Waste Entrepreneurs to spearhead Circular Textile Waste Management (📖 Your old clothes are not trash) activities, including citizen awareness, collection, sorting and selling
• Establishing the CTWM Model: In Bengaluru, Waste Entrepreneurs (📷 A day sorting textile waste at the Dry Waste Collection Center managed by Kumuda Ma) have been instrumental in setting up the CTWM model across eight wards, moving closer to the goal of ‘Closing the Loop on Textile Waste’

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In Phase 2, CAIF aims to scale up by creating a hub and spoke model to boost green job creation.

Textile Recovery Facility or TRF (Hub): A central facility for aggregation, secondary sorting and selling of textile waste

• Dry Waste Collection Centres (Spokes): 16 centres, including the eight established in Phase 1
• Market Linkages: Developing and maintaining market connections that enable Waste Entrepreneurs to sustain and grow their businesses
• ‍Capacity Building: Train waste workers to effectively participate in the CTWM model
• Job Opportunities: Creating employment through a skills-as-a-service model  
• Financial Access: Piloting a financing instrument to improve access to affordable finance for waste micro-entrepreneurs

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Impact

• Environmental Impact: Between February 2023 and August 2024 CAIF’s efforts helped to divert around 204,000 kg of post-consumer textile waste from Bengaluru landfills
• Job Creation: Created ~60 jobs for waste pickers and waste entrepreneurs, including 21 women. These individuals have engaged in various roles, such as collectors, sorters, waste entrepreneurs, drivers etc
• Skill Upgradation: Supported 200+ waste pickers (170+ women) and 12 women from waste picker families with upskilling or reskilling in CTWM operations, sorting, and upcycling

Market Linkages:

• Textile Recycling: Established markets for recyclable clothes, which make up about 50% of the collected waste and engaged with leading textile recyclers in Panipat and Tiruppur to improve domestic post-consumer textile waste recyclability through enhanced sorting techniques

Household Service:

• Textile Waste Collection: Implemented door-to-door collection services for 180,000 households across eight wards in Bengaluru, supported by awareness campaigns to ensure proper segregation of textile waste

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By empowering waste pickers, particularly women and spearheading innovative textile waste management solutions, CAIF is not only paving the way for a sustainable future in Bengaluru but also creating dignified livelihoods for the communities driving this transformation.
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