Circular Fashion | Australia | COCKTAIL REVOLUTION

New Initiative to Scale back Landfill &
Improve Round Style

It’s time for the Australian style business to take a stand towards clothes waste. And they’re doing simply that with the newly launched Nationwide Clothes Product Stewardship Scheme initiative, that’s supposed to assist Australian style to go round.

Seamless is a clothes stewardship scheme that may see Australian companies pay a 4c levy on every merchandise of clothes they produce. This consortium is led by The Australian Style Council (AFC). The levy will go to fund higher assortment, sorting and recycling of textiles in hope to handle the estimated 200,000 tonnes of Australian textiles that get landfilled annually.

This ground-breaking business transfer was launched by the Minister for Surroundings and Water, Tanya Plibersek and is hoping to drive Australia’s Style business in direction of circularity by 2030. The scheme goals to rework outdated enterprise fashions, drive innovation within the clothes recycling business and alter citizen behaviour utilizing the funds pushed from the 4c levy charge. Companies who signal the voluntary pledge may also decide to donating $100,000 to assist fund the 12 month transition part.

Surprisingly, solely 6 of the 30 clothes manufacturers nominated, signed as much as the initiative. BIG W, David Jones, Lorna Jane, Rip Curl, R.M. Williams and THE ICONIC have all stepped as much as assist launch Seamless. However many extra are wanted to enroll to create a funding pool of $36 million to assist rework the business. Tanya Plibersek has even warned that regulation could also be imposed sooner or later for individuals who don’t enroll within the subsequent 12 months.

Australia imports round 373,000 tonnes of latest garments annually. With almost half of this ending up in landfill yearly. Simply 2 p.c of outdated clothes will get recycled and became stuffing for insulation or related makes use of. Many of those outdated textiles are additionally despatched offshore to locations like Ghana. It’s right here that they construct up right into a frightfully massive textile landfill if not offered within the native market.

The hope for the Seamless scheme is that it’ll additionally encourage behaviour modifications amongst customers. As an alternative of throwing our clothes into landfill, there will probably be assortment providers for textiles. Customers will probably be inspired to purchase much less and concentrate on higher high quality through academic campaigns. There will probably be providers that make it straightforward to take care of clothes and lengthen their use. The Seamless scheme will allow a number of companies and residents to work collectively to collectively rework the business from a unsustainable linear mannequin to a extra sustainable round clothes mannequin that may profit the financial system with new jobs and go away a lighter footprint on the atmosphere.

Jenna Flood, often called the Ironic Minimalist
is a sluggish style stylist and specialist in
sustainable dressing and residing.

See extra: How to Reuse Reduce & Recycle Your Fashion Footprint