Responsible textile waste management is an important step towards a more sustainable and circular future. This Independence Day, ReFiber, powered by OterRi, is inviting citizens to participate in ‘Freedom from Unused Garments’, a collection drive on 15 August 2026. Citizens can schedule a doorstep pickup of their unused garments through the ReFiber app, with collected textiles directed towards reuse, recycling and further processing. The initiative encourages citizens to extend the lifecycle of their garments while contributing to more responsible textile consumption.
The campaign is being undertaken in collaboration with Tisser, Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and Lions International, bringing together stakeholders from the industry, sustainability and community ecosystems.
The virtual initiative will be graced by Ms. Vrunda Desai, Textile Commissioner, Maharashtra Government, as Chief Guest. Extending her best wishes to ReFiber and its partners, Ms. Desai has expressed support for the initiative’s focus on encouraging citizen participation and greater awareness around responsible textile management, reuse and circularity.
The campaign builds on ReFiber’s Mumbai Textile Circular Economy Demonstration Project, conducted on World Environment Day 2026. The demonstration collected 2.7 tonnes of post-consumer textiles, generating 275 collection orders from 257 citizens through 15 laundry partners across 28 branches. It demonstrated the potential of leveraging existing city service networks to facilitate organised first-mile textile collection without creating parallel logistics infrastructure.
Mr. Shrikant Bhangdiya, Chairman, ReFiber Initiative, said,” “The success of the Mumbai demonstration has given us important insights into how textile waste collection can be made more organised, accessible and scalable. The response from citizens and our network partners has shown that there is a clear opportunity to build greater participation around responsible textile management. Our aim is to take these learnings forward and work towards a model that can be replicated across cities and eventually support a nationwide movement for textile circularity. ‘Freedom from Unused Garments’ is an important step towards that larger vision.”
Mr. Manoj Wanvari, COO, OterRi & ReFiber, said,” Textile circularity requires collective participation from citizens, industry, government and sustainability partners. Our Mumbai project demonstrated how technology and existing service networks can enable an organised first-mile collection ecosystem. Through this campaign, we aim to make responsible garment collection more accessible and strengthen pathways for reuse and recycling, with the learnings eventually contributing to a model that can be replicated across cities.”
The campaign also underscores the importance of collaboration between government, industry, sustainability organisations and citizens in developing a more organised textile collection ecosystem. Building on the Mumbai demonstration, ReFiber aims to take these learnings forward and explore their potential to support textile circularity at a wider scale across India.
