00:07Hello, everyone, and welcome to the SAM Conversations. I am Jia Srivastav, and today we'll be talking
00:14about fast fashion, global trade, and what really happens to a T-shirt after we stop
00:19wearing it. Joining me is Mania Rastogi, a contributor to South Asia Monitor who writes
00:24on development, sustainability, and regional issues in South Asia. Her recent article,
00:30Fast Fashion Geopolitics and Unequal Sustainability of a Discarded T-Shirt, looks at the global
00:36journey of a single piece of clothing who ends up paying for it. Mania, it's a pleasure
00:41to have you with us. Thank you, likewise. So, Mania, we usually think of fashion as a matter
00:49of consumption. When does it become a matter of international politics? Okay. So, as long
00:56as a consumer is using a particular product, it's fine. But when a particular fashion product
01:01is being discarded by a consumer, it enters into second-hand markets, it enters into global
01:06chains, it enters into waste chains, it enters into recycling chains, and that exists across
01:12the border, right? And that is why the idea of fast fashion diplomacy comes into picture.
01:17That means the politics of trade, responsibility, power of a particular piece of item when it
01:24has been discarded off by its consumer. And why it is becoming important to understand
01:31is that I want to point here Ulrich Beck idea. He says that the idea of risk society is very
01:39much linked to the idea of globalization. That means if we produce something in one country,
01:43the repercussions obviously would have to be felt on different countries as well. So,
01:47this idea of consumerism, this idea of fast fashion being produced in one particular country,
01:52let's say Western countries, because they are the most consumerist cultures right now,
01:56it is producing environmental concerns and recycling concerns for the other countries. So,
02:00that is where this comes into picture.
02:03Right. So, like a t-shirt is never clearly just a t-shirt and this takes me to Europe because
02:09what it rules say on paper and what happens to its clothes in practice can look very different.
02:13So, if Europe tightens its environmental rules but its discarded clothes still travel abroad,
02:20where does its responsibility actually end?
02:23Okay. So, Europe, if I talk about particularly, is why because Europe has been seen as the most
02:30consumerist culture or economy right now, right? And Europe, in its own nation, within its own
02:37border, has extended its environmental concerns so good that none of the other countries can compete
02:44with it, right? Because when I talk about its extended producer responsibility strengthening mechanisms,
02:49they are perfect, right? When I talk about its recent, in May 2026 only, they have, you know,
02:58prevented the people or consumers or basically their brands to produce or to destroy the waste materials
03:06which are unused and footwears and all of that thing. But the problem is that Europeans,
03:14Europe's circular economic mechanism lies within its borders only. However, what the problem with
03:19fast fashion or with the problem with any of the fashion material is that it enters into a global supply
03:26chain,
03:27it enters into multiple countries. So, the circular economy of Europe is only a part of the solution,
03:35not the bigger solution itself. What is required here is the cooperation of all the other countries,
03:39within which, for that matter, the recycling is involved into, within which the waste production
03:47or waste generation is involved into. So, cooperation within other countries is actually required to make
03:53this process a wholly actual circular economy and not wholly the European counterpart.
03:59That is a very important point. So, responsibility does not simply stop at the border.
04:04And once these clothes cross it, they land in markets where they mean something very different
04:08to the people receiving them. So, like second-hand clothing creates livelihoods across the global south.
04:14So, why can the same trade also become a form of waste transfer?
04:19Okay. So, both the things are there. Positives are also there, negatives are also there.
04:25Let's just explain this whole idea with help of certain life instances. If I talk about the positive of
04:31it, let me take you to Ghana's Kanta Manto market. That is the world's biggest second-hand market.
04:39Yes. So, what happens there is that all the material is coming from the Western countries, from the developed countries,
04:47right?
04:49Into those markets. And it is generating employment. It is providing multiple livelihoods to those people
04:56and everything, right? Secondly, the problem is, for example, of the other area, let's say,
05:06Chile's Atacama Desert. What is happening there is that these fashion products or these consumerist articles
05:12are coming on to these countries from Western developed countries, right? But they are, one, unusable.
05:18As in, they are trash. What is a product in a Western country has been reused, has been used or
05:26reused with full
05:26maximum potential up to their borders. But when it's unusable, it is coming as a trash to other countries,
05:33particularly global South countries. And secondly, the problem about its recycling issues also exist.
05:39Why? Because recycling of such highly synthetic products, 40%, not 40, 60% of those products,
05:46of those fashion products are petroleum-based products. So, of course, recycling of them becomes
05:52naturally difficult, right? It's not economical for the global South countries. And that is why satellite
05:58images of the Atacama Desert of Chile has shown that the piles of products have been kept there.
06:05They're simply nothing but plastic landfills because they cannot be used. They are not in usable
06:11conditions. Two, they cannot be recycled. So, this is the whole problem. If employment generation is
06:17there, then you can equal or I would say an adverse amount of negativities are also involved in the process.
06:24Right. So, the trade can be source of income and burden at the same time.
06:28Okay. So, let's bring this closer to home now. Panipat has turned discarded clothing into an industry.
06:34Does that make India part of the problem or part of the solution?
06:40Okay. India, if I talk about specifically Panipat hair, Panipat has been a recycling unit
06:47or industry in terms of wool, wool and industry since way back. And it has developed extraordinary
06:56recycling facilities or conditions. Way back, the idea of this reuse, repair, recycle, resale was
07:05existing in Panipat in India before this whole idea of circular economy as a buzzword came into picture
07:10at the global NRA. Right. And recently also, India on its level has developed, the ministry of textiles
07:18has developed various initiatives. One of them is TENSE, eco-initiative, something like that.
07:24Textile eco-initiative. It talks about recycling the used products and the unused products and all of that.
07:31So, India, if specifically for Panipat, I have to talk about is that India cannot be simply called
07:39as a dumping ground for Western waste. Right. Which is why India has been actively recycling things.
07:46Right. But that does not make me agree to the point that none of the problems are being involved
07:53in our home country as well. There's a contradiction, of course. Why? Because always when this recycling
07:59thing happens, it has an equal amount of environmental burdens and cost attached to it.
08:03Pollution is there, right? Right. The problem is of the local workers who are actually involved
08:08into this intense recycling things. So, India herein can appear as an opportunist country. As in,
08:17it can be a possibility for India to develop on its greener, safer, technologically induced
08:24and more advanced recycling facilities for that matter. Right. So, yes, India is doing good.
08:32Okay. So, that leads us to the biggest question of all. Who is actually supposed to fix this? Like,
08:40what would it take to make the entire life of a T-shirt not just its production but also a
08:45part of global governance?
08:48Okay. Suggesting solutions obviously is very easy at this point of time. But if I am to provide you
08:55a very feasible solution as per my expertise in this whole process would be simply that money should
09:02follow the product. I would explain it. It means that when a seller is selling a product to a consumer,
09:13a certain proportion of that price of that profit should be kept equivalent to that product in the
09:20global environmental fund, right? For that fashion to talk. And when the consumer discarded,
09:27discards that material, that item, that fashion item, be it the case that it is entering into multiple
09:36international borders. Either it is entering into Ghana or India or Chile or any country for that
09:42matter. The sole responsibility of it getting recycled come under the local people, the local communities,
09:49right? So, the money that has been kept there by the producer should be utilized and should be revived
09:57at the last stage, at the last breath of that fashion product where it actually needs to get recycled.
10:03So, the local communities, the local workers who are actually involved into recycling of that product should
10:07make use of that money from environmental fund and they should develop better recycling of this waste product.
10:15And that is why I believe that that would help the complete circular economic initiatives of the
10:22government or of European Union for that matter would be achieved.
10:27Thank you so much, Mania. That gives all of us a lot to think about. Thank you so much for
10:32the
10:32insightful reflection and joining on the S.A.N. conversations.
10:37Likewise, I hope that it's sagacious. Thank you.
10:40Yes, it is. And thank you to our audience for tuning in. We'll see you the next time. Until then,
10:45bye-bye.
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