The air inside Panipat’s recycling factories is heavy with lint that glints in the light before settling over every surface like a film of dirty snow. At her work station, 27-year-old Neerma Devi cuts through collars and seams, tugging sleeves apart and feeding scraps of used clothes into a roaring machine. Each cut unleashes another cloud of lint into the room. Her dupatta is wound tightly across her face to stop her breathing in the fibres, but she says it does little. By the end of her shift, her chest is tight and her skin itches, and some nights she is left choking for breath.
This suffocating world is the backbone of a global trade. Panipat, in north India, is known as the “castoff capital of the world”. Shipments of discarded clothing from Europe, North America and east Asia are shredded here by thousands of workers, spun back into yarn and woven into rugs, throws, sheets and cushions destined for international retailers.
