Humanity’s addiction to fast and cheap fashion is fuelled by mass production, low cost and large volumes mainly by multinational retail chains.
European studies show that 30% of clothing we buy is used for less than one year before discarded. When we choose to throw out clothing, it can be re-used as second-hand clothing, recycled or landfilled. The market for second-hand is oversupplied and with a lack of facilities for recycling only 1% of textiles become clothing again. Sadly, more than half of all the clothing we discard, goes straight into landfill.
The majority of fabrics today are made from non-biodegradable, fossil fuel-based polymers. Simply put, that means a lot of plastic going into landfills. It is estimated 220,000 tonnes of textiles are going into landfill every year in New Zealand alone. There are projects starting up to repurpose the fibres from used clothing into building material and for roading, but the supply of discarded clothing is greater than what can be processed in this way.
There is a global need to create a circular pathway for unwanted textiles by repurposing the fibres and we are proud to be a part of the research being conducted to find ways to design waste of the clothing industry and to find environmentally meaningful applications for the textile waste already in circulation.
Watch this space for updates.
If you have any questions in the mean time, please get in touch.