Author(s): Ananya Mitra Pramanik and Garima Anand

Abstract:
The terminology of "sustainability" is fairly new having been coined only in the late nineteen eighties. Although the concept of sustainability in the context of textiles is age old and was practiced across cultures. This paper traces the genesis of sustainability and its different facets. It tracks the emergence of challenges in the path of sustainability and the techniques to combat them. The findings of this study are relevant in the current times as the world struggles with increasing textile waste. Waste is generated from all industries but the textiles industry is particularly one of the most polluting industry. Although textiles are one of the largest growing and employment generating sectors but it is also the most polluting. This industry not only consumes vast resources during production but after production the textiles are also often quickly discarded which adds to the landfill sites. The waste textiles dumped at the landfill sites takes eons to decompose and often leads to emission of poisonous gases. The landfill sites also sweeps into the ground and pollutes the ground water level. This paper uses secondary research methods from various books, publications, as well as electronic sources to conduct this research.