Reliance Industries to scale up production of sustainable textiles

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Aug 28, 2019

Reliance Industries aims to scale up its sustainable textile production and increase the number of PET bottles it processes each year for textiles from 2 billion to 6 billion in the next two years.

Reliance Industries is increasing its focus on sustainable textile production, specifically textiles made from recycled PET bottles, ET Bureau reported. The business aims to produce textiles that are sustainable as well as affordable to make them suitable for mass use. To allow for an increase in production, Reliance Industries plans to process six billion PET bottles a year by the end of 2021.

“For us, sustainability is not a fashionable word, we are making fashion out of it and it is a sustainable business,” Reliance Industries’ chief operating officer of petrochemicals, Vipul Shah, told the Economic Times. “It is time we look at sustainability beyond corporate social responsibility.”

Reliance has launched R|Elan as its recycled-plastic eco-friendly textile brand and is tying up with a range of clothing brands to use the textile. “The demand for these products will grow, but nobody is going to pay a premium for sustainable products,” said Shah. “We have to create a mass movement with the right pricing that makes commercial sense. Premium pricing for sustainable clothing will not lead to a substantial change, which is what the environment needs.”

One designer already on board is Narendra Kumar who used R|Elan textiles for his recent collaborative collection with Alcis Sports. The “Alcis x Nari” collection uses the recycled-plastic textile for a range of athleisure and gym wear. Kumar is also working with Reliance on a plan to create a circular economy where customers can return used clothing in-store to prevent it from ending up in a landfill. 

Reliance is not only concentrating on the value section of the market for its sustainable textiles, it is also working with luxury fashion brands. R|Elan recently teamed up with designer Amit Aggarwal for a runway presentation at Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai last week. Aggarwal used R|Elan textiles in his “Flux” collection which used innovative tailoring methods to showcase the textile’s design potential.