Panipat, India —
Inside the dusty, dimly lit cotton recycling unit, Rajesh stands beside a shredding machine, feeding white fabric into sharp blades.
These are the remnants of clothes discarded in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and elsewhere that arrive in the northern Indian city of Panipat by the truckload, spilling over in loose, overflowing heaps.
Inside warehouses, garments pile up to the ceiling. In one unit, discarded clothes are stripped of zippers and buttons. Elsewhere, fibers are spun into thread, dyed, bleached, and rewoven into rugs, carpets and blankets.
Workers move inside the units…