1. Topics for research:
Assessing the Readiness of the Ready-Made Garments Sector of Bangladesh to Establish a
Circular Economy
Project Keywords: Circular Economy, Green Environment, Sustainable Development Goals
(SDG), Waste Management, Recycle, Ready-Made Garments (RMG).
2. Background of Project Research:
The concept of the circular economy (CE) is the main concern to the sustainable development
goals which focuses on environmental quality and economic prosperity that ensure reuse,
reduce, recycle and recover of various assets on the production and services process. The
circular economy deals with products, infrastructure, equipment, and services. It may be
applied to both technical resources such as- metals, minerals, fossil resources, etc. and
biological resources such as food, fibers, timber, etc. Though a few governments around the
world already have emphasized these very issues and other governments have yet to realize
the potential of fighting climate for a circular economy. Most government strategies trying to
keep earth’s average temperature under 1.5ºC are mostly focused on developing green
technology, more renewable energy, and stopping deforestation. Government of Bangladesh
may take the approach of circular economy principles as an opportunity.
The circular economy is a concept that recently gained recognition and popularity for future
sustainable development. This concept is promoted by the European Union and by some
other countries such as China, Japan, UK, France, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland.
The circular economy denotes to an economic model to produce goods and services in
a justifiable way by limiting resource waste and consumption. The circular economy is
embodied in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). It is also involved in the wider
framework of global strategy like green economy, industrial ecology, eco -design of
functionality. In order to ensure efficiency at all stages of the product economy, it aims
to limit the environmental impact and waste of resources. The global, as well as the
population of our country, are constantly increasing and standards of living are trending
upwards. Most of our natural resources are getting pressure from over and/or poorly
managed consumption. Therefore, our behavior and transition need to be changed to a level
of sustainable consumption. Among the developing countries like Bangladesh, circular
economy may ensure the protection of the environment. Additionally, reduce waste
and the emissions of greenhouse gases, organize recycling, and end planned
obsolescence. The circular economy also allows to decrease the dependence on import
resources like-raw materials, water, energy, etc. Besides, it enhances economic growth
by creation of jobs and reducing poverty, and boost innovation. Manufacturing, food
and construction, and some other sectors in Bangladesh have to be addressed as the
challenges of resource efficiency. In Bangladesh, most of the waste is not destined to be
disposed of, but recycling may serve as raw materials for new production or energy. It
confirms the maximum usage of products as well as gives more emphasis on 3 R's-Reduce,
Reuse, Recycle of waste of resources. For example – if existing garment waste materials are
recycled for making new yarns and used in re-manufacturing garments, it will be a business
of more than $4 billion (The Daily Star, 2017). In this study, ready-made garments (RMG)
sector is considered due to the garments sector of Bangladesh demonstrates a sharp growth
when we take into account the share of export in GDP (i.e. share of export in GDP tripled since
1981, of which 83% from Readymade Garments Sector). This sector’s tremendous success
(being second-largest exporter after China), stands as one of the key economic pillars for the
nation (The World Bank, 2017). At present, Bangladesh RMG sector is enriched with more
than 4,000 factories. More than 95% of these factories are patronized by Bangladeshi
entrepreneurs and the remaining ones are owned by foreign entrepreneurs (Hasan, et al.,
2016). Annual garments waste in Bangladesh is approximated to be 400,000 tones that has
an estimated market prospect of $4 billion per year. Nonetheless, recycling of textile waste in
Bangladesh is in its preliminary stage. It is estimated that only 1% of our waste is ultimately
recycled into new garments and about 25% to 47% resources are discarded in fabric and
garment factories (The Daily Star, 2017).
3. Literature Review:
Transforming the linear economy and becoming a circular one is trending and gaining
momentum among academia, industry, and policymakers (Kirchherr et al., 2017) as it is
frequently viewed as the operationalization for business to implement the much-debated
concept of sustainable development (Ghisellini et al., 2016; Murray et al., 2017). Different
authors like Anderson (2007), Su et al. (2013), and Ghisellini et al. (2016) give credit to
introduce this concept to Pearce & Turner (1990). By outlining how natural resources
persuade the economy to provide the inputs for production & consumption and serve as a
sink for outputs like wastes, they attribute the linear and open-ended features of the modern
economic system. The works of Bouldings (1966) undoubtedly influence this concept, which
marks the earth as a closed and circular system with the limited absorptive capacity and
implied from this that the economy and environment should co-exist in equilibrium.
Ellen McArthur Foundation has framed the most famous definition of the circular economy
as "an industrial economy that is restorative or regenerative by intention and design"
(McArthur, 2013, p. 14). Similarly, Geng & Doberstein (2008, p. 231) point out the Chinese
implantation of this concept and highlight the circular economy as "realization of a closed
loop material flow in the whole economic system." Additionally, Webster (2015, p. 16)
emphasizes the restorative design of the economy and the purposes of it to maintain
components, materials, and products at their highest value and utility, at all times. In contrast,
Yuan et al. (2008) underline the core principle of the circular economy as the use of energy
and raw materials through multiple phases. Bocken et al. (2016) point out the characterizes
of the circular economy by defining it as slowing, narrowing, and closing resource loops of
business models and strategies. Further, Geissdoerfer et al. (2016) consider the circular
economy from utilitarian parlance that is as a regenerative and restorative system where
resource inputs and waste, energy leakage, and emission are condensed by slowing,
narrowing, and closing the material and energy loops. And longer-lasting designing, repairing,
reusing, recycling, remanufacturing, and refurbishing can accelerate to attain this system.
Thus, the circular economy would turn goods at the end stage of their life cycle into resources
for others, terminating loops in industrial ecosystems and curtailing waste. It would modify
the economic logic as it replaces production with sufficiency: reusing what one can, recycling
what cannot be reused, repairing what is broken, and remanufacturing what cannot be
repaired (Stahel, 2016).
4. Justification/Rationale of the Study:




This study will be useful for regulatory bodies to take appropriate strategies for
garment/ textile recycling industry, and other stakeholders including entrepreneurs of
recycling businesses, customers and suppliers. By identifying the benchmark of waste
management this study supports and will enhance the capabilities and skills of the
national 3R strategy of waste management.
Help to create awareness and generating the importance of keeping global warming
under 1.5°C.
Under the key objectives of the sustainable development and climate change of the
7th 5-year plan Bangladesh 2016-2020, this research will comprehend many issues, i.e.
- internal waste management, climate change mitigation, green growth strategy.
This project will help to achieve the SDGs goals (6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15) of
environment sustainability.
5. Objectives of the study:
a. To understand the significance of the circular economy in Bangladesh in the context
of Ready-made Garments sector.
b. To collect the views of different stakeholders related to the circular economy in
Bangladesh special reference to the Ready-made Garments sector.
6. Research methodology
This is an exploratory research. By reviewing the existing literature, including laws and
policies, a conceptual model will be prepared to mitigate the existing gap to foster circular
economy in Bangladesh. In light of this phenomenon, this study thus is taking the deductive
approach. The primary overview of methodology according to the objective is given below:
Table 1: An overview of the methodology
Sl
Objectives
1
To understand the
significance of circular
economy in Bangladesh in
the context of Ready made Garments sector.
To collect the views of
different stakeholders
related to circular
economy in Bangladesh
special reference to the
Ready -made Garments
sector.
2
Sources of
data
Secondary
Data collection
method
Journals, articles,
newspaper,
databases, laws and
regulations, etc.
Data Analysis
Primary
KIIs (Key Informant
Interviews), FGDs
(Focus Group
Discussions) and
Survey.
Qualitative and
Quantitative (SPSS
tools, Reliability test,
factor analysis,
regression analysis,
cross tabulation
analysis and group ttest)
Qualitative (Content
analysis)
*Qualitative Data Analysis software, ** Statistical Package for Social Science
Tools to
be used
QDA*
QDA
and
SPSS**
Sampling frame: The population of the study is the individuals and groups related to the
industry, i.e. – professionals, policymakers, industrialists (manufacturing), etc. Moreover, the
industrial journalist, economists, bankers, industrial regulatory parties are also counted in the
population.
Sampling unit: This research will be based on the data from FGDs, KIIs, and a survey. The
sampling unit is given below according to the stages of the research.
Table 2: Sampling unit
Stages/objective Data
collection
method
Second
FGD
Sampling unit
Sampling
method
One FGD with 8-12 participants, all will be Purposive
the notable stakeholder in the industry such
as industry practitioners, policy makers,
industrialists,
industrial
journalist,
environmentalists, economists, bankers,
and industrial regulatory parties.
Second
KIIs
10, all will be the notable stakeholder in the Purposive
industry such as industry practitioners,
policy makers, industrialists, industrial
journalist, environmentalists, economists,
bankers, and industrial regulatory parties.
Second
Survey
220*, respondents from experienced Purposive
garments professionals
*Determining sample requires population identification. To identify sample in this research,
there are two major aspects that this study will consider: (i) Managerial employees and (ii) at
least two years of experience in the selected industry. In Bangladesh, according to the
Bangladesh Garments Manufacturing Enterprises Association (BGMEA, 2020), there were
4621 members in the year of 2018-19 and 4 million workforces in this sector. From the
‘Enterprise level survey’ of ILO and UN women, managerial employees are not more than
6.2% (Matsura, 2020), thus the population can be counted for this research as 223200.
According to the formula of Yamane (1964), we may use the following formula and calculate
the sample size accordingly:
𝑛=
𝑁
1 − 𝑁(𝑒)2
Where N is the population size, and e is the level of precision. While calculating sample size
with this, it can be found that total sample size will be 399. However, there are different
opinion available such as Hoe (2008) proposed 200 as sufficient sample size for data analysis.
Jackson (2001) also mentioned sample size between 200 to 400 can be use for multivariate
data analysis. This study thus considering time and budget, will attempt to collect data from
approximate 220 sample to reveal primary responses.
Instruments: To conduct FGDs and KIIs, a structured questionnaire will be prepared. FGDs will
be conducted in the Hall room and KIIs will be conducted as one to one basis. To make a
survey a structured questionnaire will also be administered. All the questionnaires will be
prepared according to the reliability and validity parameters.
Data Analysis: This research has opted for both qualitative and quantitative data analysis. For
qualitative analysis such as content analysis, analytic comparison, narrative analysis, and
conversation analysis, the QDA tool will be used. For quantitative analysis, such as reliability
test, factor analysis, regression analysis, cross-tabulation analysis, and group t-test, SPSS tools
will be used.
7. Scope of the Study:


As this study will be useful for regulatory bodies to make policies for the national 3R
strategy of waste management, the scope of this study will only be limited to the national
3R strategy of waste management. On the contrary, the circular economy has a broader
scope and also has many functional and strategic capabilities but it is required for separate
study for those objectives.
Though the circular economy should be the subject of study in every industry, this study
is limited to only Ready-made Garments industries in Bangladesh.
References
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Daily
Star.
(2017).
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Waste
into
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Retrieved
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05,
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