Landmark Group has inaugurated the first textile recycling facility in the region in Dubai World Central, marking a significant step towards waste reduction and sustainability promotion in the Middle East. Key representatives from the UAE Circular Economy Council and the retail sector attended the ceremony including UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri and Landmark Group chairwoman Renuka Jagtiani, who officially opened the state-of-the-art facility.
Landmark Circulife, the new facility, will process discarded textiles and fabrics to turn them into valuable recycled fibres that can be used again to create new items. These fibres will be utilised to make a variety of products, from clothing to home furnishings, which will help the area reduce its reliance on virgin materials and stop the textile waste loop.
The plant is expected to have a major environmental impact by avoiding thousands of tonnes of garbage from getting up in landfills, with an initial capacity of 2,000 metric tonnes of textile waste annually. The larger sustainability initiatives of Landmark Group heavily rely on this facility. By 2050, the company wants to be climate-positive throughout its whole value chain, and this facility is essential to that long-term goal.
In order to promote circularity in the fashion and textile industries, this facility is an essential step. The goal is to establish a closed-loop system that gives used textiles a second chance at life, which will help the environment and the people who rely on it, opined Renuka Jagtiani at the inauguration.
Landmark Circulife’s introduction is in line with the UAE’s larger Circular Economy Policy, which seeks to minimise waste, maximise resource utilisation, and promote sustainability in all sectors of the economy. Approximately 11,000 metric tonnes, or 5 per cent of the UAE’s textile waste, will be handled by the facility, which is set to grow significantly.
As a major contributor to the UAE’s efforts to reach its sustainability goals, it is anticipated to help reduce 140,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions over time, save 107 GWh of electricity, and conserve millions of litres of water.
Renuka Jagtiani, Chairwoman of Landmark, said: “We firmly believe that protecting our environment is a shared responsibility that cannot be achieved in a silo. We took the first steps of our sustainability journey over a decade ago with the launch of Splash’s sustainable collection. Since then, we have introduced several initiatives across various stages of our products’ lifecycles and operations to reduce our environmental impact and drive greater circularity. Our recycling facility is a crucial step in the region’s fashion and textile industry towards closing the loop on product lifecycles to achieve circularity.”
