Tackling the ugly truth behind the fashion industry
The clothing and textile industry produces more than 100 billion units annually or roughly 13 items of clothing per person, per year. However a more devastating statistic shows that only about 1% (1 billion) of those items are produced to be recycled, representing more than USD$100 billion worth of materials going straight to landfill.
EHF Fellows Bernadette Casey and Peter Thompson are working with the textile industry collaboratively around the world on ensuring not only are textiles reused, but are sustainably created in the first place.
Fashion: One of the world’s biggest polluters
Globally, every second the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned. A recent study done in New Zealand, showed that textiles sent to the Wellington Southern Landfill doubled since 2009-2019 and it’s estimated that 25% of those were perfectly fine clothes that could have been recycled or reused.
According to the United Nations, the fashion industry is creating about 10% of the global CO2 emissions - more than aviation and shipping combined and only second to the oil industry. Since the fashion industry globally is largely unregulated, there doesn’t seem to be a solution coming anytime soon
“To stay within the ecological boundaries of the planet, there must be a radical reduction in the draw on virgin resources, a reduction in carbon generated by the clothing industry, an elimination of waste, and the extraction of considerably higher value from clothing,” Bernadette says.
“Every year we waste billions of dollars landfilling these valuable resources. Our biggest challenge is turning this global linear system into a circular one, capturing greater value from these high impact resources.”
Collaborating with the industry to create change
Bernadette Casey is a Co-Founder of The Formary, a sustainability consultancy helping clothing organisations both large and small transition to the low carbon economy. Bernadette is a public speaker and the recipient of awards from HRH Prince Charles and UK sustainable design guru Kevin McCloud for her ground-breaking work in textile development. She is the topic of a Forward Film documentary, highlighting exceptional people and world-changing ideas that are impacting the course of human development.
Together with her colleagues at The Formary, Bernadette has recently started Usedfully, a ‘tech-tile’ business with a mission. Working together with industry partners on a shared vision and commitment to a circular economy for clothing, they are driving large scale, cross value chain collaborative projects creating a low carbon circular system that fully utilises clothing resources.
Usedfully is a systems change in how garments are brought to market and managed at end of use, building onshore solutions with leading New Zealand companies, from working on projects like converting textile fibres from overalls, sheets, towels and other used cotton or poly-cotton garments into roading pellets used for roading construction. This example will replace existing imported cellulose providing a product more suited to NZ’s roads and divert unwanted clothing from landfill.
Their Usedfully digital platform places environment data at the heart of business, tracking material flows and generating metrics on environmental and financial impacts for optimal resource management. In a recent project undertaken with the Wellington Zoo, Bernadette and her colleagues were able to conserve more than 8,500kg of carbon and more than 850,000L of water saving decommissioned uniforms from landfill
Usedfully - Textile Product Stewardship launched in July is a nationwide scheme co-designed with the whole clothing and textile industry in New Zealand. Funded by The Ministry for the Environment’s Te Pūtea Whakamauru Para - Waste Minimisation Fund and the Textile Reuse Programme foundation partners Barkers Men's Clothing Alsco New Zealand Deane Apparel New Zealand Wellington City Council
Tackling the problem together.
There is a natural limit to what companies can achieve on their own - collaboration and inclusion is the most effective and efficient way to solve these challenges. Including the whole industry across the value chain in the co-design and pilot of a textile product stewardship scheme will ensure that it reflects and is effective in the NZ market.
Any organisation that produces, supplies or uses clothing or textiles and wants to make tangible positive impact can register their interest in the Product Stewardship Project on the Textile Reuse Programme website, together creating the future of clothing and textiles in New Zealand.
Journey with us
Impact is a journey and it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes a group of inspired, committed, and informed individuals to get a world-changing idea off the ground. You can help amplify EHF Fellow impact as they work to develop solutions to some of humanity’s biggest problems. Here is how you can join us in this work as we journey together on a path to a better world:
Stay informed - Read, learn, watch, and stay up to date on the latest in impact innovation by signing up for our newsletter.
Amplify our impact - Share our impact stories with your networks and connect with our Fellows. Learn more about their projects here.