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STTT Bandung Polytechnic as one of the vocational colleges under the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) has an important responsibility and role in developing competent industrial human resources (HR) in the textile sector.

This step is realized through the Tri Dharma of Higher Education (Education, Research, and Community Service) and other programs that support the creation of competent and globally competitive industrial human resources.

The Bandung STTT Polytechnic held a webinar with the theme "Sustainable Textile", which was part of a series of events on the 100th anniversary of the Indonesian Textile Education Grand Launching. Also coinciding with the commemoration of Kartini Day on April 21, 2021, the interactive talkshow in this webinar presents speakers and moderators who represent Kartini in the textile sector who have inspired many, especially in the field of sustainable textiles.

They include the Director General of Small, Medium and Various Industries (IKMA) of the Ministry of Industry Gati Wibawaningsih and Aryenda Atma as Founder & Creative Director of Pable.id, and guided by Pipit F. Hayati (GM for Indonesia PT. Testex) as the moderator.

The textile industry is one of the industries that makes a large contribution to state revenue. But on the other hand, the textile process is often asked to apply environmentally friendly concepts by many parties. Sustainable textile is an effort to create a green industry that is environmentally friendly. The implementation of sustainable textiles itself has been widely carried out in the realm of small and medium industries (IKM).

"We are implementing strategic steps to support sustainable textiles in the IKM sector, including by providing guidance and socialization in textile IKM regarding natural fibers as raw material for sustainable textiles," said the Director General of IKMA at the Ministry of Industry.

This effort is in line with the objectives of green industry development, namely to create a sustainable industry, in the context of efficient and effective use of natural resources in a sustainable manner, preserving the environment and providing benefits to the community.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Industry in an effort to encourage the industry towards a green industry collaborates with pentahelix, namely the collaboration of five stakeholder elements, which include government, academics, business people, communities and the media, which play an important role in industrial development, especially in the natural coloring industry.

"We have also collaborated through a memorandum of understanding between the Directorate General of IKMA of the Ministry of Industry and the Directorate General of Plantation and the Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the District Government of South Central Timor (TTS), as one of the strategic steps for the development of the woven IKM sector through the provision of cotton fiber raw materials. Each party has duties and responsibilities in accordance with the main tasks and functions of each Directorate and Regional Government, "said Gati.

Recycle waste

Aryenda Atma said, together with Pable, she has applied the circular economy concept by recycling used cloth and clothing waste into woven fabrics that have a characteristic #wearecircular.

"To implement a Closed Loop System in the Circular Economy, Pable extracts the maximum value from potential textile waste by recycling and reprocessing it into renewable materials (secondary material), so that it can be reused into ready-to-work materials in the form of cloth without having to exploit new materials (virgin material). ), "Said Atma.

He also explained about the principle of recycle-reduce-reuse which is carried out at Pable. "This process starts from a sorting process based on the type of material and textile color, manual or automatic cutting or chopping processes, a humidification process to strengthen the fiber, making fiber as the first output from recycled processing, fiber spinning, spinning fiber to yarn, which is then carried out. the weaving process to become cloth, "he explained.

In addition to pushing towards a green industry, sustainable textile also has economic potential that needs to be maximized with good plans and strategies. "The potential for textile waste processing is still very wide, and this requires efforts and cooperation from many parties to be able to help and exploit the potential of textile wastes into new products that have added value and distinctive characteristics," added Atma.

He explained that his party is preparing plans and strategies for the future to contribute to the circular economy, starting from product development, providing education about the circular economy, and taking a corporate approach. "For that, we need the support of the government, industry players, and also the community," he concluded.