Bangladesh has begun producing environmentally friendly yarn from cotton waste to save foreign currency on imports, a local company said on Wednesday. "We have set up the factory to produce cotton yarn by using waste from ready-made garment products to export to foreign markets," said Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez, managing director of Evitex Polycot Limited (EPL). EPL is 49 percent stake owned by Swiss firm Texta A B. Its plant, 60 km (38 miles) north of Dhaka city, will produce up to 5,000 tonnes of yarn a year, he told Reuters.