Panipat, India, is known as the "world's discarded clothing capital," processing about 1 million tonnes of old clothes from China, Europe, and North America each year. Around 300,000 workers sort, cut, and shred them into carpets, cushions, and other products sold back around the world. Local workers are chronically exposed to cotton lint and fiber dust, commonly suffering chest tightness, itchy skin, and breathing difficulties, with rising cases of respiratory disease, migraines, skin infections, and even cancer.

Key Points

  • Panipat swallows about 1 million tonnes of old clothes from China, Europe, and North America each year, and about 300,000 workers depend on this trade
  • The area has 400 dyeing plants plus more than 200 illegal workshops, 80% of wastewater is discharged directly, and groundwater tests show manganese, lead, cadmium, nickel, and other heavy metals above limits
  • Data from the China National Textile and Apparel Council: from 2005 to 2024, waste textile recycling volume grew 12% annually on average, and annual use of recycled fibers exceeded 3 million tonnes

Panipat: The Hidden Cost at the Bottom of the Global Old-Clothes Cycle

Panipat, India, is called the "world's discarded clothing capital." Each year it processes about 1 million tonnes of old clothes from China, Europe, and North America. Around 300,000 workers sort, cut, and shred these clothes, which are eventually made into carpets, cushions, and other products and exported to global markets.

Worker Rani's job is to cut collars, tear off sleeves, and feed scraps into machines. With every cut, cotton lint rises into the air, and the workshop is filled with visible textile fibers. She wears only the thinnest cotton gauze mask, which offers limited protection. After work each day, her chest tightens and her skin itches, and she often wakes at night feeling suffocated. Doctors tell her medication can only temporarily relieve the symptoms, and the only cure is to quit, but her whole family relies on this job for income.

Water and Soil: Visible Pollution

Panipat has about 400 licensed dyeing plants, plus more than 200 hidden "black workshops," and about 80% of wastewater is discharged directly into the environment. Some factories dig pits in the ground and pour sulfuric acid wastewater into them, letting it seep down. Official test reports confirm that local groundwater contains manganese, lead, nitrates, fluoride, and heavy metals such as cadmium, nickel, zinc, and copper far above safety standards. Nearby villagers develop rashes after drinking it, and some have been diagnosed with cancer.

The chairman of the local dyeing association insists that operating illegally under strict rules is "no longer possible." But labor department officials privately admit that the working conditions here are "unbearable," that most factory owners do not care about worker safety, and that he has seen too many workers develop respiratory problems, migraines, skin infections, and even cancer.

In one investigation, India's National Green Tribunal found that 31 of 32 bleaching workshops were operating illegally and ordered them closed. But soon afterward they reopened under different names, and no one pursued the fines.

China's Path: Recycling Is Growing, but the Utilization Rate Still Needs Improvement

China is also advancing the recycling of waste textiles. According to data from the China National Textile and Apparel Council, from 2005 to 2024, energy consumption per unit of output value in the textile industry fell by more than 65%, waste textile recycling volume grew 12% annually on average, and annual use of recycled fibers exceeded 3 million tonnes.

Zhengzhou Hengcheng Old Goods Recycling Company processes piles of old clothes through automated sorting and disinfection into recycled fibers. Cheng Qianhong, head of the company's old goods recycling department, said: "We work with several clothing brands to produce new clothes from recycled fibers, forming a closed production loop."

For every 1 kilogram of waste textiles utilized, emissions can be reduced by 3.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide and 6,000 liters of water saved, roughly equivalent to a week's water use for an ordinary household. But although old clothes recycling bins are now common in residential communities in most Chinese cities and free door-to-door collection is also popular, much of the collected old clothing still ends up in waste incineration plants, apart from the portion that enters secondhand markets. Add hard-to-recycle items such as worn bedsheets, plush toys, and geotextiles from construction sites, and China's overall waste textile recycling rate remains below 30%.

Source: The truth about global old clothes recycling: Indian workers trade their lungs for money, cancer cases among workers surge, will you still throw away clothes? · Originally published on 2025-10-14