Lace from underwear and lingerie is also a highly prized material you might be able to sell to a recycler or reuse on other clothing. Or sew it on a cushion cover for your mum's birthday. Say there's a pattern on an old shirt that you really like, but can't donate because it's ripped or stained.Ĭut the pattern out and frame it or stretch it on a canvas. Get craftyįlex those creative muscles and turn your old clothes into artwork. Like with any kind of clothing donation, you can't be 100 per cent sure what happens to the materials.
And they send a portion to charity partners in Europe and third world countries to make a profit from it, and they'd burn a certain about to turn from waste into energy, and then they'd send a portion to landfill." "They do use it as painters cloths and rags in labor industries. "It can be felted - where it splits up into a fine fluff and can be compressed again to be used in the automotive industry, going into car bodies. "Some are going to insulation, where it's shredded and used as insulators," she said. These are the Australian fashion brands that aren't up to scratch.Ĭamille says for the most part, H&M are recycling the clothes donated in their bins into new materials for other industries. The recently-launched Australian Circular Textile Association hopes to provide a national take-back scheme to recycle old textiles like clothing.įounder and director Camile Reed told Hack the scheme would need providers to come from commercial industries to be able to "support and facilitate textile recycling here in Australia".Ĭamille says there's a huge change from within the commercial fashion world towards a more sustainable industry. Planet Ark's Recycling Near You initiative lists a bunch of organisations you can talk to about recycling textiles.Īlthough many organisations might only be interested in commercial quantities of textiles, some offer an at-home collection. Instead of throwing away that T-shirt because it's stained, or the four mismatched socks you've been keeping in your drawer, find out if there's a local textile recycler who might be interested in taking them off you.
We're the second largest consumer of textiles in the world, per capita.
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Get in touch with a textile recyclerĪBC's War on Waste series found Australians are dumping 6,000 kilograms of clothing in landfill every 10 minutes. So what do you do with items of clothing you can't donate or give away?īefore you chuck it in the bin, where it will be collected for landfill, here's a few options you might want to think of first. Old socks and undies are probably in the "no" category.
If the answer is no, it's probably not going to be worn by someone else just because you threw it in the donation bin. If the answer is yes, then you could go right ahead and donate. There's a pretty general rule of thumb when you're thinking of donating old clothes to charity: would you give it to a mate?