Recycling Indian clothing - Lucy Norris

Cloth and clothing is never just thrown out as rubbish in India. Until it is literally falling apart, it is too useful to be wasted. Treasured pieces can be preserved for favorite younger relatives, and suitable, serviceable clothes gifted to a maid. But what happens to the increasing surplus of clothing that is 'too good for the maid'? The most problematic category of all is that of old silk saris, once the most valuable clothing in the home and potentially the most redundant.... Hidden out of sight in warehouses, factories, workshops and the backstreets of slum neighbourhoods, vast quantities of old, unwanted clothing that have been bartered for pots are recycled for the local and global markets.