TIRUPPUR: ‘Recycled cotton’ yarn is gaining ground in the district in the last few months. Garment unit owners are preferring this instead of cotton yarn as the price of the latter has been hovering over Rs 350 per kilogram in all categories. The other reason according to unit owners is that the recycled cotton yarn when mixed with another fibre -- like polyster -- provides good quality and comfort.
According to various estimates, the price of recycled cotton yarn (open-ended cotton) is priced between Rs 220 - Rs 285 per kilogram. This price difference offers much-needed relief for garment makers and exporters.
Explaining the process, Usha Yarn - area sales manager M Bhoobalan told TNIE, "Recycled cotton is made from waste and leftover pieces from garment or hosiery. These leftover pieces are segregated according to their colour and later sent to the crusher. The crushed elements look similar to the cotton fibre, but these are not strong and cannot be spindled to make a yarn. So, polyester elements are added and this makes the fibre to be spindled into a yarn (recycled yarn). Earlier, garment unit owners avoided recycled cotton yarn, but due to the rising prices of the cotton yarn, they choose recycled ones.”
Listing out the advantages he said, "The recycled cotton yarn is already dyed, hence there is no need to dye it once again. In this case, no extra chemical process or extra water wash is required. A lot of time is saved when the recycled cotton yarn is used. Besides, several top world brands are insisting on recycled cotton yarn, and they also insist on getting Global Recycled Standard (GRS) for recycled yarn."
About the production of recycled yarn, Open-Ended Spinning Mills Association - President M Jayapal, said, "Increasing price of cotton has affected the trade of cotton yarn. So, yarn mills are offered to increase the price and this has tremendously affected the garment units. This has forced us to find alternatives and recycled cotton is the best option. There are more than 600 open-ended mills in Tamil Nadu. The usage of recycled cotton yarn in the garment industry began several years ago. But the abnormal increase in the price of cotton yarn has pushed garment and export units to turn towards recycled yarn."
Speaking about the disadvantages of recycled yarn, Mukul Garment’s owner Rajendran said, "For the past several months, I have been using recycled cotton yarn for my export garments. Recycled cotton yarns have a slight colour variation when it comes to primary colours. Many feel recycled cotton is inferior in quality. There is a slight difference in comfort level too. However, many knitting units mix recycled cotton yarn with normal cotton yarn while stitching stripes and checks, and the output becomes good which is much better than cotton yarn.”
Tiruppur Exporters Association (TEA) Treasurer P Mohan said, "Many garment units catering to domestic consumption have moved to recycled cotton and a few exporters are already using the recycled cotton yarn in Tiruppur. But, if foreign buyers insist on recycled cotton and specify GRS, which sets a benchmark for presence and quantity of recycled material in fabrics, many exporters will surely use recycled cotton yarn."