Hong Kong – Crystal International, one of Asia's largest knitwear manufacturers, has has outlined the comprehensive work taking place to minimise its operational waste generation and disposal in its global factories.
To move ahead towards the vision of 'Zero Landfill', the Group says it is working relentlessly to adopt holistic waste management and put circularity into practice. Crystal’s sportswear factory in Vietnam and lifestyle wear factory in China successfully attained zero production waste to landfill by diverting 100 per cent of its production waste away from landfill and incineration through recycling and waste-to-energy.
"Further to the Group’s waste management practices across the entire production and supply chain, including reduction at source via managing material purchasing and utilization, the factories stepped ahead and fully uncovered the value of fabric waste with various initiatives through collaboration with qualified waste co-processing partners," says Crystal.
The sportswear factory in Vietnam recycled fabric waste to pillow cores and plastic powder. These recycling initiatives successfully reduced more than 125,000kg of carbon emissions per year originated from the waste treatment and disposal.
The factory also recovered energy and made use of fabric waste material for cement production by a thorough process of mixing fabric waste with cement raw materials and co-processing at least 1400°C in cement kiln. Around 5,900kg of cement could be produced by recycling over 117,000kg of waste.
Meanwhile, the lifestyle wear factory in China established a comprehensive waste collection system, which encompassed waste streams. In addition to recycling fabric waste into yarns, other waste such as sludge and food waste were recycled into bricks and fish feed respectively. To fully utilise all sorted waste, non-recyclable waste was sent to waste co-processing partner for energy recovery. In 2022, the factory diverted 3,040 tonnes solid waste from landfill.
“Waste is not a waste, we upcycle and recycle fabric waste from factories to create new styles. We always embed circularity into our design to manufacturing stages and rethink how fabric waste from operation could generate positive impact. Look forward to collaborating with different partners to explore new circularity opportunities,” said Catherine Chiu, Vice President, Global Sustainability of Crystal International. "Circular economy is one of key enablers to remedy waste issue in the supply chain and achieve net zero. Crystal International will continue to scale up circularity and upcycling with other stakeholders, paving the way for an eco-friendly and sustainable fashion industry."
Crystal International Group offers a range of product categories across five segments; Lifestyle wear, Denim, Intimate, Sweater, and Sportswear and outdoor apparel. It operates a multi-country manufacturing platform, with around 20 production facilities across Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
