SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth | SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production | SDG 13: Climate Action | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Ministry of Textiles | Ministry of Labour & Employment | Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
OECD report, Due Diligence on Recycling Processes in the Garment and Footwear Sector, offers guidance on responsible due diligence in recycling operations within global garment and footwear supply chains. As fashion value chains expand recycling to meet circular economy goals, the report outlines environmental, social, and governance risks that manifest at recycling stages and proposes a structured due diligence framework to help businesses and policymakers identify, assess, mitigate, and monitor these risks within recycling operations.
Core insights
Recycling has distinct risk profiles: Recycling processes, including mechanical, chemical and textile recovery operations, entail higher environmental and occupational hazards than reuse or repair. These include chemical exposure, poor effluent management, waste by-products, and unsafe working conditions, particularly in facilities with weak regulatory oversight.
Due diligence as proactive management: The report adapts the OECD Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) framework to the recycling context, emphasising risk identification, assessment, mitigation and accountability throughout recycling supply chains. Businesses are encouraged to map recycling flows, trace material origins, and evaluate downstream impacts on workers, communities and ecosystems.
Environmental performance and compliance: Effective due diligence embeds environmental compliance, emission controls, effluent treatment and resource efficiency into recycling operations, addressing both legal obligations and stakeholder expectations for sustainable production.
Labour and community considerations: Worker health and safety are central: the report highlights the need for occupational health safeguards, training, protective equipment and grievance mechanisms. It also underscores potential impacts on local communities where recycling facilities operate, urging engagement and impact mitigation.
Transparency and reporting: Clear disclosure of recycling practices, risk assessments and mitigation outcomes strengthens accountability. The report encourages public reporting and stakeholder engagement as part of due diligence systems, enabling verification and continuous improvement.
The report also identifies the operational reality and necessary improvements for India’s recycling sector:
Risk-Based Scoping of Informal Hubs: Companies must identify “choke points”—key actors such as large-scale waste aggregators in Panipat—who control the majority of commodity flow and have visibility over upstream production. This scoping must account for the high prevalence of informality, where 80 percent of all recycling jobs globally are informal and lack legal protections.
Addressing Systematic Labor Vulnerabilities: The sector faces severe labor risks, including the documentation of child and young workers in Indian bleaching facilities often working seven days a week. Migrant workers face additional economic dependency and restricted mobility, increasing the risk of forced labor and exploitation by labor brokers.
Mitigating Chemical and Occupational Hazards: Indian recycling operations frequently lack proper chemical management systems, exposing workers to hazardous fine dust, carcinogenic azo dyes, and skin irritations from bleaching effluents released into open drains.
Institutional Support and Formalization Pathways: Government-led initiatives like NAMASTE (National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem) are highlighted for their role in improving conditions and social protection access for waste pickers.
Design for Circular Integrity: Design choices, such as using mono-materials and reducing material complexity, directly influence the feasibility of safe recycling and the safety of downstream workers in India’s processing units.
What are “Choke Points” in the textile recycling supply chain? Choke points are key points of transformation or stages in the supply chain that include relatively few actors but process a majority of the commodity. These actors have significant visibility and control over the circumstances of production and trade upstream. In the context of India’s textile waste markets, these include large-scale waste aggregators, sorting warehouses in Panipat, and logistics providers who handle the “onward trade” of sorted waste streams to various manufacturing units.
Policy Relevance
The OECD findings represent a transition from unregulated “shoddy” recycling to a formal, due-diligence-led circular economy. By highlighting the dire health impacts in hubs like Panipat—where workers are exposed to hazardous fine dust and chemicals without protective gear—the report underscores the urgent need for the Ministry of Labour & Employment to enforce safety norms in informal clusters.
Addressing Environmental Hazards: The release of chemically contaminated wastewater from bleaching processes into open drains directly impacts local water quality and community health, requiring stricter enforcement from the CPCB.
Supporting Women in the Circular Economy: Women dominate manual sorting and cleaning but often receive a disproportionately low share of the value added; policy interventions must focus on gendered wage equity and health safeguards.
Formalizing Waste Pickers: Recognizing informal waste pickers through social protection systems can improve their vulnerability while maintaining the essential waste management services they provide to urban centers.
Closing the “Fibre-to-Fibre” Loop: Currently, most recycling results in “downcycling” into lower-value products like insulation; policy incentives for technology upgrades are needed to enable true textile-to-textile circularity.
Follow the full report here: OECD: Due Diligence on Recycling Processes