Circular economy practices, challenges & opportunities in the Bangladesh ready-made garment (RMG) industry

Abstract

Bangladesh is the second largest garment exporter in the world. Manufacture and production of garments have negative impacts on the environment in the form of natural resource consumption, energy usage, water pollution and GHG emissions. Circular economy in the Bangladesh Ready-made Garment (RMG) sector offers an opportunity to capture more value from its exports while addressing the adverse environmental impacts. This thesis contributes to the literature by exploring current circular economy practices, challenges and opportunities in the Bangladesh garment industry. The study was done by collecting responses from semi-structured interviews of industry experts and conducting a thematic analysis of the data. The findings show that CE is not yet a widely understood concept among RMG experts. Key practice was found to be recycling while challenges included financial barriers, lack of incentive and governmental regulation, insufficient infrastructure, consumer attitude. The results of the thesis provides insight for entrepreneurs to introduce or develop circular strategies in their business. Manufacturers could look into and practices discussed in the study and find collaboration possibilities with relevant initiatives to increase circular value of their operations.