Kenya-Bangladesh textile waste project launches at SAF
The organiser of Bangladesh’s Sustainable Apparel Forum (SAF), Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE), has told how 60 speakers and 20 exhibitors from around the world participated in its fourth edition, which took place in Dhaka on March 16.
Speakers included government ministers, ambassadors from the US, European Union and Sweden, International Labour Organization country director Tuomo Poutiainen, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Faruque Hassan and head of Laudes Foundation’s labour rights programme, Naureen Chowdhury, plus representatives from Spinnova, Epic Group, H&M, Recover, Good Fashion Fund, Sustainable Apparel Coalition and development organisations GIZ, UNIDO, USAID and WaterAid. A number of the aforementioned were also listed as among the event’s partners.
Meanwhile, the crop of companies who exhibited on the day ranged from YKK to American & Efird, Reverse Resources, Recover, Agroshift, Smartex, Shahjalal Poly Industries, Merchant Bay, Eurofins and more.
Attendees notably witnessed the launch of Closing the Loop on Textile Waste, a new initiative which “aims to build a circular and inclusive textile value chain in Bangladesh and Kenya”. Funded by Washington, DC-based organisation P4G (Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030), itself financed by the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands, the project involves collaborators BAE, BGMEA, Dutch venture builder Enviu and Belgian fibre recycling technology developer Purfi.
Another highlight was a roundtable on the topic of the country’s “journey towards circular fashion”, moderated by BGMEA director Vidiya Amrit Khan, during which participants were reportedly positive about the potential of scaling domestic circularity minded exports to $100 billion in value by 2023.
BAE founder, SAF organiser and owner of Bangladesh-based denim manufacturer Denim Expert Ltd, Mostafiz Uddin, described the forum as “so critical” in the context of facilitating discussions around collective pathways to net-zero, circular fashion, textile-to-textile recycling and “optimum utilisation of natural resources”.
Learn more about Mr Uddin and his work with Denim Expert Ltd in our features section here.
Image courtesy.
