site.btaEnvironmentalists and Textile Artist Team Up to Offer Way of Dealing with Textile Waste by Creating Something Beautiful

GB 10:32:01 07-02-2022
LN1029GB.106
106 - ECONOMY - TEXTILE WASTE - PROJECT

Environmentalists and Textile Artist Team
Up to Offer Way of Dealing with Textile Waste by
Creating Something Beautiful


Pernik, western Bulgaria, February 7 (BTA correspondent Elka Robeva) - Environmentalists and a textile artist have teamed up for a project aiming to show how the problem with the mountains of textile waste can be addressed by creating something beautiful. They use discarded old jeans, t-shirts, knitwear and other textile waste to weave one-of-a-kind rugs and wall art.

They have already produced 17 colourful rugs.

The project uses mostly cotton, flax and wool textiles. Two containers have been up - one in Sofia and one in the Black Sea city of Varna, to collect those. "That is all material that would have otherwise ended up in the city dump," says the Pernik-based Gergana Kodjebasheva - Kantardjieva, who is among the founders of the project.

Every third Saturday of the month they empty the containers. The collected textiles are sorted, disinfected, and separated into categories. The soiled pieces are discarded and those with minor flaws are mended for re-use. The rest is cut into strips to be woven. The strips are batched by colour and content.

It takes between 2.5 kg to 10 kg textile waste to make a 90x150 cm rug.

The project collected 17,160 kg of material until November 2021.

The design of the rugs and wall art is created by textile artist Maria Ganeva. She earned her bachelor's degree in textile art at the Sofia Academy of Fine Art and went on to study in China. She says weaving, which is a traditional Bulgarian technique, makes great contemporary art.

The project gives her a chance to experiment with unconventional materials - which is what textile waste is for her - and upcycle it. She says the environmental aspect of the project and knowing that one is doing something for the planet, gives her a sense of fulfilment.

It is a demonstration project and is aims to show that as much as 95 per cent of the textile waste can be upcycled. Kodjebasheva calls it "the circular economy in action".

It can reduce the amount of waste that is collected and deposited by the garbage trucks, creates a new niche on the market and new jobs.

Kodjebasheva believes that the project also has a great social potential because it can potentially involve people from social care homes in all stages of the operation and give them a source of income. The project team are holding talks with local government officials in Pernik and Varna for that.

Bulgaria generates some 166,000 t of textile waste every year and another 10,000 t come from the textile companies. A large part of that is incinerated after being added to refuse-derived fuel. The cleaner stuff is turned into textile padding or industrial textiles.

All EU member states are required to have divided textile waste collection after January 1, 2025.

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