Arvind Limited, India’s largest textile to technology conglomerate, and PurFi Global LLC, a sustainable technology company specializing in rejuvenating textile waste into virgin quality products, announced a joint venture to reduce the amount of textile waste going to landfills.
As the fashion industry has embraced calls for more circular and sustainable supply chains, PurFi’s proprietary technology – supported by more than 30 patents and 400-plus registered trade secrets – has emerged as a proven and complete solution for rejuvenating textiles back into virgin-like fibers.
Punit Lalbhai, Executive Director, Arvind Ltd said, “We share the common value system and excellent working relationship with PurFi Global, and this partnership will not only provide an innovative solution to deal with the issue of textile waste but will also strengthen our motto of being Fundamentally Right. We look forward to working with these technologies to fuel the next set of growth in textile manufacturing and at exceptionally less environmental impact.”
Unlike the traditional ‘one-and-done’ recycling approach, PurFi’s technology can rejuvenate waste materials into virgin-like fibers 17 times, and it can be done at scale, transforming textile manufacturing into a truly closed loop cycle.”
PurFi and Arvind will locate the first in a series of planned fiber rejuvenation facilities near one of Arvind’s manufacturing facilities in India.
This facility will process textile wastes – white cotton, colored cotton, denim and synthetics – into virgin-like fibers for reuse from two lines, where each line will have a 5,500-ton capacity per year with plans to expand over the next five years.
The investment for these two lines is envisaged at Rs. 200-250 crores.
Expansion plans include an additional production line that removes elastomers from fabrics utilizing another of PurFi’s proprietary technologies.
Currently, 85% of the world’s apparel contains elastomers, which make it very difficult to recycle or rejuvenate.
PurFi’s technology is the first commercially viable technology proven to safely remove elastomers without the use of toxic chemicals and preserve the host fiber while having the ability to recycle the elastomers that were removed.
The joint venture is slated to start construction in the fourth quarter of 2022 with full production expected to commence in the fourth quarter of 2023.
