According to a report by the Ministry of Textiles of India, the country produces 70.73 million tons of textile waste annually, most of which is not used productively and is primarily viewed as an environmental problem.
According to a report by the Ministry of Textiles of India, the country produces 70.73 million tons of textile waste annually, most of which is not used productively and is primarily viewed as an environmental problem.
At the MSME Sparks 2026 event, dedicated to the Indian MSME ecosystem, Devansh Peshin, Regional Program Manager at Enviu, stated that this problem also presents a business opportunity. He also outlined the obstacles to scaling up circular solutions.
Enviu, headquartered in the Netherlands, implements programs in Europe, South and Southeast Asia, and East Africa. At the event, Peshin presented the results of four years of field research and listed necessary policy changes.
Peshin noted that globally, the textile waste problem amounts to 92 million tons. However, the use of recycled products is complicated by low clothing quality, mixed fabrics, and rapidly changing fashion trends. A significant portion of this waste is sent to landfills or incinerated.
Enviu's approach involved identifying gaps in the textile waste value chain to launch businesses to address them. The organization collaborated with seven MSMEs managing textile waste in 14 cities, as well as textile clusters such as Tirupur, Karur, and Panipat, to study local collection, sorting, and recycling systems.
Thanks to these efforts, 4.4 million kilograms of textile waste were diverted, while simultaneously creating 2900 green jobs, most of which are women. For instance, Krishna, a third-generation waste collector in Bengaluru, was able to transition from informal collection to running his own higher-income business after working with Enviu.
The work also revealed shortcomings that existing recycling systems cannot solve. The Indian recycling system mainly deals with cotton through mechanical recycling, but mixed fabrics containing polyester and elastane remain difficult to process. Furthermore, institutional waste generated in hotels, hospitals, and spas was largely outside formal collection systems.
These gaps prompted Enviu to support new ventures focused on polyester recycling, institutional textile waste management, and textile reuse. Peshin asked: 'If we stop viewing textile waste as trash and start thinking of it as an asset lying in your closet, can we build a reuse movement and a circular economy based on it?'
Peshin argued that successful scaling of circular business will depend not only on technology but also on economics. He reported that currently, only 39% of textile waste generates positive value for waste management enterprises. Moreover, only 2% enters recycling pathways, while 55%–70% ends up in landfills or incinerators.
According to the Ministry of Textiles report presented during the session, the textile recycling market is expected to grow to $3.5 billion by 2031, which could create one hundred thousand new green jobs if the share of post-consumer waste converted into value increases from 39% to 55%.
Peshin emphasized that achieving this goal requires first improving the level of collection and sorting: increasing the number of textile recovery facilities, optimizing collection, and increasing added value at the sorting stage. He called on waste management firms to move beyond simple collection and engage in material recycling and recovery to create higher value-added products.
He predicted that the next wave of circular business would be linked to innovations in materials, technical textiles, and recovery infrastructure, where the number of participants is currently small.
Peshin stressed that while technology is important, building a circular textile economy also requires viable business models, supportive policies, and financing. He advocated for tax reforms that ensure equal conditions for recycled products compared to virgin raw materials. He noted that if recycled products are taxed the same as primary products, which have fifty years of efficiency experience in their ecosystem, it creates a problem for recycled components.
He added that sorting and repair cannot be fully automated, and called for government support specifically for this labor-intensive work, as well as the implementation of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system that should encourage durability, recyclability, and reuse-friendly design, instead of only penalizing waste after its creation.
Regarding MSMEs, Peshin advised that collaboration depends on understanding the business's place in the value chain. He noted that 'there will always be opportunities for collaboration' in this area, as financing for sustainable textile enterprises has become more accessible.
He stated that there is currently 'no shortage of capital,' pointing out that incubators and investors are increasingly supporting circular enterprises with commercially viable solutions. However, he cautioned against waste imports: Panipat recycles imports from the EU, USA, Korea, and Japan, but only one Indian port has legal permission, and exports often lack traceability. Peshin believes India does not need imports; domestic pre- and post-consumer waste is sufficient to create solutions.
Peshin concluded that circularity must be both a flow of goods and information, providing waste collectors and recyclers with channels to inform brands about recyclability. For India, this opportunity includes securing livelihoods, reducing dependence on virgin materials, and the emergence of new MSMEs specializing in resource recovery. Currently, this opportunity is being realized through specific interventions, such as polyester recycling, institutional waste, and reuse models, rather than regarding textile waste as a whole. Whether it will expand further depends on tax policy, EPR design, and whether the model working in 14 cities today can cover over one hundred untouched cities.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the second-largest driver of the Indian economy, contributing 30.1% to GDP and 45.73% to exports. Nevertheless, the adoption rate of artificial intelligence (AI) in this sector remains low. At the BCIC summit on AI in manufacturing, it was noted that the use of AI in organized manufacturing is less than 25%, and even lower among SMEs, lagging behind China, Germany, and the USA.
Ragini Varma, Director of Business Development at Fynd, speaking at the MSME Sparks 2026 masterclass titled 'Autonomous Retail: Rewriting the SME Scenario with AI,' noted that entrepreneurs' hesitation is linked to a misunderstanding of AI's functions. She emphasized that AI is not just ChatGPT, but a tool that helps perform tasks autonomously, making them faster and higher quality.
Fynd, an AI-powered e-commerce platform, allows brands to manage websites, physical stores, and marketplace listings, such as Amazon, Myntra, and Flipkart, through a unified system that includes built-in AI tools for customer support and creativity.
Every small business owner faces similar difficulties: manually checking inventory before reordering, comparing prices between the website and the store manually—often after the customer has already noticed the discrepancy—and answering the same question on WhatsApp for the fifth time in a day. Errors can occur in this routine: a missed order, an incorrect price, or a lost customer due to long waiting times. Varma explained that this can lead to viral sales remaining unmanageable because every step depends on human memory.
AI bridges this gap by tracking inventory, prices, and orders in real-time and flagging what needs attention, while the seller retains the right to approve every action. According to her, AI works not as a replacement, but as a second pair of eyes that never gets tired or distracted. Varma clarified that the process is a cycle in which humans participate as much as AI.
Brand owners often have to juggle the roles of accountant and model. Varma points out that one person's capabilities are limited. This is particularly evident in creative tools: Fynd AI Studio and Fynd Generative Media can transform a single product photo into studio-quality images, model shots, and marketing videos based on a text prompt.
Regarding support, the AI assistant Kaylee answers standard customer queries and flags urgent complaints by tone. Like other Fynd tools, it improves through the analysis of its own business data. Varma stated that the company constantly observes, learns, adapts, and makes decisions. She recommended customer support as a primary function, calling it 'always king,' since an unhappy customer rarely returns.
The rest of the functionality is aimed at solving coordination issues by providing a single dashboard displaying inventory, orders, and prices across the seller's website, marketplaces, and stores. Fynd AI PIM transforms one photo into a marketplace-ready listing, taking care of about 80% of the routine catalog creation work, according to Varma's estimates.
In logistics, Varma believes SMEs lose the most time trying to reach 'one customer service manager who will connect you with someone who says: 'Hey, where is my order?''. Fynd Manage Logistics aims to close this gap by connecting the brand seller's website and all marketplaces where they sell to a single source of inventory, allowing B2B and B2C orders to be tracked and fulfilled from one place, rather than a dozen disparate ones.
Fynd also has an AI consulting division that helps SMEs determine their starting point. Varma stressed that the company's goal is not only to make money but also to care about the development of its clients' businesses. This consulting covers various industries: from industrial B2B stores managing offline and online sales, to accounting firms handling GST filings and bookkeeping, as well as food service establishments managing customer requests.
Puma uses Fynd Store OS to ensure visibility of 'infinite aisle' inventory in stores, and Fynd also powers the backend for JioMart.
The most common mistake, in Varma's opinion, is imitation without diagnosis. She criticized the trend in India where 'everyone does what others see,' and advises against it. Entrepreneurs often purchase a whole suite of tools when the real problem lies in one narrow point. Varma gave an example: spending money on a $100 tool when the task can be done by a $10 bot means solving the wrong problem.
Her recommendation is to first address that single bottleneck and then choose a tool appropriate to its cost, instead of radically changing the entire system at once. Fynd positions itself as a bridge between large conglomerates and small businesses, possessing modularity that allows sellers to start with one problem and add tools as they grow. Varma's advice to those skeptical of AI was simple: do not let AI run your business. She concluded: 'Either AI dictates the terms to you, or you dictate to AI. Be the latter.'
Sustainable development has ceased to be merely a corporate social responsibility issue. Wilma Rodrigues, Director of Transformation at Saahas Zero Waste, believes it represents a business opportunity.
During the five-day MSME Sparks 2026 event, which highlighted India's MSME ecosystem in Bengaluru, Rodrigues delivered the keynote address on the third day. Under the theme 'From Waste to Value: Making Circularity Work for Small Businesses,' she leveraged her 12 years of experience at Saahas Zero Waste to demonstrate that circularity is no longer a secondary focus but a primary necessity for fifty million small and medium enterprises in India.
According to Rodrigues, India generates 62 million tons of waste annually, with up to 80% being either dumped or incinerated instead of being recycled. Only a small fraction is actually subjected to secondary recycling, despite the country's push towards closed-loop systems, which increasingly demand developed economies.
She noted that 'fifty percent of the world's economy comes from nature,' citing raw materials, food, clothing, and housing as examples. Rodrigues emphasized that the exponential growth of the last century was achieved within a linear system, and now SMEs must exercise caution and make the necessary pivot.
Saahas Zero Waste operates across three verticals: a zero-waste program for large generators such as campuses and tech parks; an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) vertical covering plastic and e-waste; and a closed-loop retail segment that sells refurbished goods to communities. However, contrary to common perceptions about turning waste into wealth, most of Saahas's revenue does not come from selling recycled materials. Approximately 40% comes from selling materials to recyclers and consumers, while the main share is generated through service fees, as about 70% of the waste the company handles has no inherent economic value.
Rodrigues stated that 'there is limited capital inflow into this sector due to the belief that waste management does not require fees or investment. This mindset is what stalls the sector.' The company reached a peak revenue of about 86 crore rupees in FY24, after which it declined to approximately 60 crore rupees with minor losses over the next two years. Rodrigues attributed this to a slowdown in EPR regulation, noting that Saahas preferred to absorb the financial hit rather than dilute its environmental and social commitments.
With over 400 employees, most of whom are women, the company processes about 100 tons of solid waste daily and diverted 40,000 tons last year through recycling, composting, biogas, and reuse channels, achieving a landfill diversion rate of 96%. Rodrigues stressed that while technology helps close the loop, people are indispensable because they must participate in the system—whether it is collecting segregated waste, aggregating and sorting it, or the recycling itself, which implies adequate remuneration.
She linked Saahas's work to multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, including those related to poverty, decent work, sustainable cities, and partnerships.
Currently, Saahas has attracted only small amounts of capital—about 8 crore rupees from so-called 'aligned investors' willing to commit to long-term collaboration. In the next five years, the company plans to grow into a business worth 200 crore rupees and is exploring a transition to a stewardship model, which she advised the audience to explore through the Purpose Foundation. Answering audience questions, Rodrigues urged entrepreneurs in second and third-tier cities to enter the waste sector through partnerships, rather than alone, citing the new Solid Waste Management Rules 2026 as a strong positive factor. Regarding the waste issue in Bengaluru, she pointed out that nearly 40% of the city's waste is generated in tech parks and large generators, and strongly urged citizens and businesses to manage waste locally rather than offloading the task onto public spaces. She concluded: 'We must be the change we wish to see. This is the path forward not only for Bengaluru but also for Chennai, NCR... for all of India.'
