Surabaya, Indonesia, July 1, 2025 – Aryenda Atma starts her day by waking up early, preparing her kids for school, before moving on to visit her storage facilities where mounds of recycled textiles with interesting patterns and colors sit – think ivory layered with pink stripes or blue and black combinations.

Atma is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pable, a local textile-to-textile recycling company based in Surabaya, East Java. To date, the company has been recycling 270 tons of textile waste from across Indonesia, collected from several of their pilot programs, such as “Portable”, designed for people to drop their textile waste at a disposal site, and the “Uniform Disposal Program”.

It all came from humble beginnings. In 2017, Atma saw a pile of fabric waste as tall as five meters in a facility on the outskirts of Surabaya, and she couldn’t brush off the distressing view easily.

Aryenda Atma, Founder and CEO of Pable, a textile-to-textile recycling company in Surabaya, Indonesia

“I was visiting my family back home in Surabaya, and a friend had asked for my help to scout storage buildings available for rent, and that’s where I saw heaps of textile waste. On the way back home, I kept thinking about where the waste had come from, why it was there, and what would happen to it. I tried to look it up online but didn’t find much,” said Atma in an interview with GGGI.

Atma was working a corporate job in Jakarta at the time. Still, the thought of contributing back to the community by addressing textile waste seemed more and more appealing to her, even by taking small steps. Atma’s background in marketing, coupled with her husband’s business acumen, was how Pable came to life in 2020. They also sought expertise from an old friend, who possessed the know-how of textile recycling.

2020 was also the same year when COVID-19 struck the world, making Atma realize that businesses need to build back better and pivot to sustainability in this fleeting world.

Reviving Traditional Weaving Through Modern Sustainability

The first two years of Pable were difficult for Atma and the co-founders. Like most businesses staggering in the beginning, Atma was handling everything on her own. She was sure about one thing, though: connecting traditional craftsmanship with modern recycling initiatives.

On a short day trip to Pasuruan, about 69 kilometers from Surabaya, East Java, Atma came to learn about local communities adept at weaving textiles. They make ends meet by making mops and doormats, which they distribute to big cities like Surabaya and Malang. They use traditional weaving machines manually operated by hand, and such skills have been handed down from one generation to another. Many of their products embody traditional patterns, allowing cultural heritage from generations to be preserved.

From waste to yarns and fabrics: Pable’s recycling facility in Pasuruan, East Java

Realizing that neither Atma nor her husband, Andri, is experienced in textile management, they knew they would need external help. They could have sourced a professional yarn manufacturer, but Atma decided to tap into the community’s potential for Pable’s business model, centering on a circular approach that relies on their expertise and, at the same time, gives back to the community.

“When we were looking for third-party yarn weavers, we wanted to retrace our steps and really looked into what makes Indonesia unique, rich, and plenty to offer. We wanted to go back to our roots and see firsthand what the industry was like, predating this rapid technological advancement and machinery. We were also moved after learning the fact that just one year before, these communities were struggling to keep their jobs because their hand-looming skills were not in demand anymore,” added Atma.

Pable decided to invest in these traditional techniques, mapping out the community’s needs to support their productivity, such as rejuvenating the hand-looming machines and introducing a more effective workflow.

Sodikin, one of the community leaders, said that a lot has changed since they partnered with Pable. “Many households in this village raise their income by working [for Pable],” he added.

Carving Pable’s path in textile circularity

At Pable’s facilities, collected uniforms and textile waste undergo a meticulous sorting process based on fiber composition and color. Cotton, polyester, acrylic, and wool are sorted by color, which would help create unique fabric patterns after the weaving process.

Pable is looking into expanding its business, not just because there is increasing market demand for recycled products in Indonesia, but also because of a larger goal to help raise public awareness of pre- and post-consumer textile waste and why there is an urgent need to intervene to address this issue.

Local communities in Pasuruan, Indonesia, who work with Pable as traditional weavers.

One of Pable’s signature services is the Uniform Disposal Program, whose origins came from Atma’s realization upon starting Pable, and how there is this innate culture and appetite in many government agencies to procure uniforms – merchandise like t-shirts, shirts, safari shirts, vests, or jackets, that are generally used for one-off events like staff outing, annual work plan meetings, and so on.

The program is now the backbone of Pable. For the last three years, the company has diverted approximately 22 tons of corporate uniform waste from landfills, or about 110,000 uniforms. Atma liaises with corporations and government bodies to raise awareness of recycled textiles when producing branded merchandise. “We think that using circular economy approaches has a greater impact on not just helping change consumption behaviors but also on reducing environmental harms as we repeatedly use the same materials over and over again,” added Atma.

Aligning with National Circular Economy Goals

Pable’s business model is among many other burgeoning sustainability-forward initiatives in Indonesia, which goes in line with the Government of Indonesia’s priority to adopt circular economy approaches in various industries. Last year, the Ministry of National Development Planning, known as Bappenas, launched the 2025-2045 Circular Economy Roadmap and National Action Plan, a guideline for implementing policies that uphold circular practices. The government has identified five priority sectors with the potential to adopt the circular economy: food and beverage, construction, electronics, textiles, and retail (with a focus on plastic packaging).

In the Roadmap, Bappenas declares that textile waste in Indonesia is predicted to reach 3.5 million tons annually by 2030. However, adopting circular economy principles could potentially result in an astronomical economic impact of IDR 19.3 trillion, or about 5.5% of the country’s gross domestic product by 2030.

This is no easy feat for the government. Collaboration between multiple stakeholders, such as academia, non-government organizations, development partners, and the private sector – named the ‘Pentahelix’ approach – is imperative to shift from a linear economy to a circular, more sustainable practice. The government aims to partner with sustainability-forward champions like Pable in the long run on various scales.

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) supports the Government of Indonesia in transitioning to a circular economy model in the textile sector through the Green Transition Investment Program (GTIP), a three-year initiative funded by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and implemented in three ASEAN countries: Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

The Program aims to mobilize investment to accelerate the countries’ transition to a green economy and generate significant green employment through targeted Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) components. In Indonesia, GTIP supports Bappenas’ priority in selecting the textile sector for the program. The partnership was initiated not only to manage fabric waste but also as a collaborative effort to develop a circular textile ecosystem, which includes the creation of financial schemes and capacity building of circular textile industry players in Indonesia.

Left: Aryenda Atma speaking about textile circularity at the 2024 Green Economy Expo, hosted by Bappenas.
Right: Pable’s exhibition booth at the 2024 Green Economy Expo.

Atma hopes that being a part of GTIP will help expand Pable’s sustainable business practices, reach new audiences, and open more doors of opportunity for those wishing to dive deep into Indonesia’s textile recycling sector.

The Ministry of Industry, through the Bandung Polytechnic of Textile Technology, and the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will jointly develop specialized education and training modules (TVET) to assist Pable’s expansion. In the long run, these modules will enhance both existing and future garment workers’ skills, ultimately creating more employment opportunities in the sector.

“Indonesia’s textile industry, which still adopts the linear economy approach, faces many challenges, such as fierce competition at the global level, which ultimately affects the industry’s performance, and a lack of job opportunities. In addition, with the increasingly challenging standards to acknowledge textile sustainability in pre- and post-production, we hope this partnership will tap into the huge potential of future textile players, such as the students, to dive deep into textile recycling,” said R. Arief Dewanto, Director of the Polytechnic Bandung of Textile Technology.

The partnership under GTIP will also allow Pable to access technology and technical expertise facilitated by Finland, further bolstering Pable’s contribution to transforming textile waste into recycled products for the global or Indonesian market.

Aryenda Atma (center, in grey vest) sharing knowledge about textile recycling at Pable’s facility in Surabaya, Indonesia.

This year is a pivotal year for both GTIP and Pable. The program targets the roll-out of high-impact and inclusive green vocational training modules on textile-to-textile recycling, which will hopefully be adopted as an industry-wide policy. Atma believes that the local skill sets should be able to further bolster and incentivize incoming investments in the textile recycling industry. The government’s role is crucial in supporting such knowledge transfer and business matchmaking, as Indonesia’s textile recycling initiatives occupy a distinctive niche in the global market.

“Indonesia’s craftsmanship is extraordinary, and I believe that we are up there in the world. Many local fashion brands need incentives and space, which I believe the government can provide. I also see very positive trends for the future of Indonesia’s recycling industry, including incoming investments that will absorb labor and create more green jobs,” said Atma.

For Atma, circular economic principles extend beyond simply transforming used materials. Through Pable, she demonstrates that local communities like those in Pasuruan form the heart of truly sustainable circular economies—communities that deserve greater recognition.

“The distribution of all economic benefits should not be enjoyed by only one line of industry. As long as we can get many parties involved in striving for economic growth, the circular approach should help all players in the economic cycle feel the benefits,” added Atma at the end of our interview.