Reciclagem de resíduos do setor têxtil e confeccionista no Brasil: panorama e ações relacionadas Waste Recycling in the Textile and Clothing Sector in Brazil: An Overview and Related Actions

Brazil stands as one of the world´s largest producers in textile and clothing sectors. Besides stimulating the country's GDP by generating millions of direct and indirect jobs in the sector, Brazil is an important producer of cotton fiber, yarns, and plain and knitted fabrics. However, this activity creates various environmental problems such as the generation of solid waste from industrial and clothing processes, as well as from post-consumer discards. This study aimed at presenting an overview of this problematic and at pointing out the current potentialities for the development of textile recycling. Scientific literature, patents, legislation and other bibliographic resources were analyzed and information from agencies and institutions related to the textile, clothing and environment sectors was gathered. In addition, samples of textile waste provided by a recycling industry were manually analyzed in order to identify problems related to its processing. Along with an overview of the textile-recycling sector in Brazil, this paper provides a description of the main problems linked to the activity, including the lack of stimuli to textile recycling at the national level.