Dhaka Garments & Washing Ltd. -Product Development, Innovation and Sustainable Washing

Dhaka Garments & Washing Ltd. is the countrys’ one of the top denim manufacturing and processing plants. Dhaka Garments & Washing Ltd. strives for sustainable and accountable business practices in Bangladesh.

Akib Rahman, Director, HAMS Group of Industries gave an interview with Textile Focus (a widely circulated textile magazine). The report focused on the strategies and tactics behind doing innovative products and sustainable processes in Dhaka Garments and Washing Ltd.

In 1998 HAMS Washing & Dyeing Ltd. was launched. Now it is assigned a new name: Dhaka Garments & Washing Ltd. DGWL is a 64 line state of the art denim green project, which started its journey in 2019 under the leadership of Engr. Md. Shafiqur Rahman, Managing Director, HAMS Group of Industries and President, The Institution of Textile Engineers & Technologies (ITET), Bangladesh.

The sewing line is based on the lean concept which improves productivity & reduces wastage. They have fully automated high-tech machinery in their facility. HAMS now consists of four major concerns i.e. HAMS Garments, Dhaka Garments & Washing, HAMS Fashion and Victoria intimate.

DGWL has its own dedicated in-house R&D team. Research and development team always keeps an eye on the current market trend and try to forecast the upcoming market demands.

Sustainability is the ability to exist and develop without depleting natural resources for the future.

1. Environmental Sustainability: They are maintaining low liquor ratio in their computerized automatic front loading machineries. For maintaining sustainability they are using meta-flow, ozone & laser machines. Also they are using Environmental Impact Measuring (EIM) software by which they are saving huge amounts of water, chemicals & energy usage as well as minimizing impact on worker health.
2. Corporate Social Responsibility: DGWL is also involved in many CSR activities such as building mosque in local community, donating to orphan students, providing medicines to injured workers free of cost, offering food & clothing to the poor, free operation to distressed worker etc.

DGWL has set up an efficient biological ETP plant considering the sustainability aspects. DGWL is working on a plan so that they can reuse wastewater.

Compared to other treatment methods the ETP has certain advantages:

• It has enhanced efficiency in terms of organic content removal.
• Cost–effective due to very low chemical consumption, low labor cost, less sludge treatment & disposal cost.
• Environment friendly & safe.
• Sludge can be utilized as composed fertilizer.

Akib Rahman, Director, HAMS Group of Industries stated-

“We aspire to become the largest denim manufacturer with the highest quality and sustainability standards. Bangladesh has huge potential in the denim industry. Bangladesh denim industry is currently one of the top producers of denim for EU & USA markets. I feel the industry needs to give more emphasis on diversifying the product portfolio and focus on high value added products. In addition, we need to increase our resource efficiency, reduce waste & ensure more sustainable practices going forward.”