Coimbatore’s Textile Waste Reinforced FRP Pilot: A Circular Economy Innovation

Coimbatore, the textile hub of Tamil Nadu, is renowned for its thriving spinning mills and apparel industries. But with this prosperity comes a significant environmental challenge — mountains of textile waste, often destined for landfills or incineration. In an inspiring move toward circular economy practices, the city has launched a pioneering initiative: using textile waste as reinforcement in FRP manhole cover.

Supported by the Coimbatore Corporation, local engineering institutes, and sustainability entrepreneurs, the pilot initiative intends to address infrastructure durability and textile waste management at the same time. Traditionally, FRP is reinforced with glass fibers, but this new approach replaces a portion of the glass content with shredded polyester and cotton blend waste, sourced directly from mills in the Tiruppur-Coimbatore belt.

Why This Matters

Every year, the textile sector in India produces more than one million tonnes of post-industrial trash. These scraps, often non-biodegradable, are seldom reused. By integrating them into the matrix of manhole covers, Coimbatore is pioneering a new form of green composite material — one that’s lighter, cost-effective, and offers acceptable strength for medium-load municipal applications.

These textile-reinforced FRP covers undergo compression molding similar to traditional methods. Lab results show that tensile and impact strength remain within permissible IS standards for urban applications, while reducing raw fiberglass use by up to 30%.

Urban Benefits

• Waste diversion: Two to three kilograms of textile scraps are recycled into each manhole cover.

• Cost reduction: Lower fiber input and locally sourced waste bring down production costs.

• Sustainability: Decreases landfill pressure and carbon footprint from synthetic fiber production.

• Employment boost: Sorting and processing textile waste creates new livelihood opportunities.

Already installed in test sites across RS Puram and Peelamedu, these covers have shown excellent weather resistance, holding up against Coimbatore’s tropical climate and monsoonal downpours.

If expanded, the pilot might encourage comparable strategies in Bengaluru, Ludhiana, and Surat—other textile-heavy cities that are having trouble managing post-industrial waste.