Textile waste recycling is moving from a niche sustainability intervention to an increasingly important part of the textile value chain. As brands and manufacturers look beyond virgin raw materials, the ability to recover textile waste and return it to production is becoming central to circularity. Yet the scale of the challenge remains significant.
Textile Exchange’s 2025 Materials Market Report notes that less than one percent of the global fibre market in 2024 came from pre- and post-consumer recycled textiles, underlining the gap between the ambition for textile-to-textile recycling and its current scale.
Devor Recycling is one such firm, building its position around mechanical recycling, converting textile waste into recycled fibres designed to re-enter the apparel supply chain. Based in Udaipur, Rajasthan, the company combines textile-industry experience with process discipline to address one of the sector’s most persistent challenges: producing recycled fibres with the consistency required for commercial spinning and downstream applications.
Building a Textile-to-Textile Recycling Platform
Devor Recycling was established as an initiative led by Jayant Mali, the Director's father, who brings more than three decades of experience in the textile industry. The company began on a small scale in Udaipur, close to Bhilwara, a major textile hub, before expanding in response to growing demand for sustainable fibre solutions.
The business initially operated at around 90–100 tonnes a month and has since scaled to approximately 300 tonnes a month, with annual mechanical recycling volumes exceeding 3,500 tonnes. Its focus has remained firmly on the apparel value chain, producing fibres that can move into spinning and subsequently into fabrics for brands.
This positioning is particularly relevant as the industry seeks to improve textile traceability and increase the use of genuine textile-derived recycled materials. Textile Exchange has highlighted the need for better tracking of recycled feedstocks, with its updated reclaimed-material documentation framework designed to improve information on the source, composition and origin of recycled inputs. For Devor, therefore, recycling is not simply about processing waste. It is about creating a material that can meet the expectations of the next stage of the textile supply chain.
Experience-led Product Development
The company is supported by more than 50 years of cumulative textile-industry experience across its wider team.
While Devor is a bootstrapped venture, its leadership combines the director's engineering background with the textile expertise of his father and experienced industry associates.
This blend of technical and sector knowledge has shaped the company’s approach to product development. Its recycled fibre offerings, including DPure recycled cotton fibre and DIndigo recycled indigo fibre, are developed around the requirements of spinners and downstream textile manufacturers. Rather than treating recycling as an isolated manufacturing activity, Devor works with spinning and product-development teams to understand where different waste streams can create commercially viable applications.
The distinction becomes particularly important with post-consumer waste, where varying fibre compositions can make sorting and processing more complex. Devor currently processes around 30–35 percent of its capacity through post-consumer waste and intends to increase this proportion as downstream applications develop.
Quality, Compliance & Traceability
Consistency is one of the central challenges in mechanical textile recycling. Devor addresses it through defined SOPs covering procurement, sorting, production and recycling, supported by trained teams and in-house quality-control processes.
The company is also a Global Recycled Standard (GRS)- certified textile waste recycling facility. Its operations follow requirements relating to social and safety compliance, while documentation is maintained across the supply chain from procurement through sales. According to the company, approximately 95 percent of its supplies currently go through the GRS framework.
This emphasis on traceability reflects a wider industry shift. Textile Exchange’s recent work on textile-waste traceability has pointed to the historical lack of standardised information about recycled feedstock, making documentation and source verification increasingly important for brands seeking credible circular-material claims.
“Devor’s experience has also been shaped by experimentation. Before establishing product-market fit, the company processed close to 100 tonnes of waste through trials and incurred losses while determining how different waste streams could be converted into consistent, commercially usable fibres. That process helped the company refine its manufacturing architecture and prepare for larger-scale operations”, shares Jayant Mali, Director. Devor’s next phase is centred on scale, automation and deeper participation in the apparel circular economy
Scaling Capacity for the Next Phase
Devor’s next phase is centred on scale, automation and deeper participation in the apparel circular economy. The company is already seeing demand from open-end spinning applications, particularly denim, alongside growing interest from knitting applications. It has also established relationships with several leading textile companies in India, with the Inditex team having visited its facility to understand its recycling operations and growth plans.
At the same time, Devor recognises that scaling mechanical recycling requires more than additional machinery. Sorting and sourcing still involve considerable manual effort, while maintaining uniform quality across batches demands coordination across the entire production chain. The company is therefore introducing automation to improve productivity while continuing to build a skilled workforce.
“With its existing capacity largely utilised, Devor is preparing to expand toward a long-term target of around 1,000 tonnes per month. The roadmap also includes building a larger professional team and potentially operating multiple factories and providing 500-plus green jobs under professional management”, speaks Jayant Mali.
The larger ambition is clear: to establish Devor Recycling as a significant textile-waste recycling platform in India, capable of supplying consistent recycled fibres at scale while helping manufacturers move closer to a more circular textile value chain with actual social impact on the ground.
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