How Can Textile Recycling Contribute to a $9.4 Billion Market by 2027?
- Michelle Laughton
- May 9, 2024
- 4 min read
SPRING AWAKENING
It is in Spring when the rain has finished falling that the Woodlands weep,
sweet soft tears infused with essence from the foliage above.
The sodden earth, a sponge swelling with the rich infusion,
The moss glistening, iridescent against the dark earth and rotting woodlands.
The Cuckoo sounds, the Woodpecker tapping, and the life of spring morning makes its presence known.
A regal song, the sounds of a pure earth awakening.
As the river flows with foaming abundance the lakes are cleansed, filled in preparation for the months ahead.
I walk my path, there is no other, I am part of this morning song and it is a part of me.
We are the rain, the earth, the life, every step is healing, the soft soil making way for the next, moving together.
If only footsteps were all that we left behind on our journey through life on earth.
M.L 2024©
People are taking the issue of textile waste seriously, and some fabulous companies are already working on this. Start-ups all over the world are creating new and amazing products that will soon be seen everywhere.
Textile waste needs radical intervention now!
With a desperate global need for solutions, companies are developing financially viable ideas worldwide that benefit the planet and our conscience. Every major city in every country needs to engage with and support facilities and companies such as these to rid the earth of excessive textile and plastic waste.
UPPAREL is one of Australia’s leaders in textile recovery and recycling. they are leading the change and demonstrating sustainability equals success.
Upparel Collect unwanted textiles through their online clothing collection and clothing donation bins, keeping these valuable textiles out of land-fill. Many of the textiles received are still fit for wear. These are offered to charities, social enterprises and non-for-profits. They take what they need and go make an impact with it.
Once the textiles arrive every item is meticulously sorted and graded to identify a suitable recovery channel such as reuse, repurpose, or recycle. Where textiles are not fit for wear, they begin the recycling process. The most common outcome is to turn textiles into their revolutionary material, UPtex. Which can be used for packaging, signage, homewares, plastic labels and more.
There is a similar Australian Start-up, WORN UP, which is working with laboratories to turn waste into great things. By partnering with pioneer customers and the NSW EPA, Worn Up has achieved the amazing goal of diverting 100t of textiles from landfills.
They collect uniforms from schools all over Australia, companies, associations and anyone who could throw them their way. These uniforms are banned from sale in Charity Shops as they have logos and are not to be made available to those not working in the industries or attending schools.
WORN UP has experimented for 2 years on reformation and re-use and end product development, resulting in the creation of a great new waste-based composite material, FABTEC™.
By upcycling non-wearable uniform waste, they will reduce landfill and make new Australian-made products.
I look forward to seeing this small start-up further develop this exciting initiative and join the big players in the building and design industries throughout Australia.
TreadLightly is a national recycling initiative aimed at giving a new lease of life to unwanted sport and active lifestyle footwear. It brings together the Australian sporting and active lifestyle community, including various stakeholders like codes, brands, retailers, manufacturers, athletes, and consumers, to collectively reduce our environmental impact. TreadLightly collects, sorts, and delivers footwear to their partner, Save Our Soles, located in Queensland or Victoria.
SOS process and cut the shoes into pieces, reusable components are extracted including rubber, leather and fibres and then turned into SOS recycled crumb. SOS also recycle tyres so they are making a huge impact on the environment by reducing land-fill on a very large scale.
Products manufactured by SOS include anti-fatigue mats, shock pads, playgrounds, underlay for sporting surfaces, retail flooring and other products.
Another incredible and funky company initiating change in the textile industry is Kuwaii; although they are not using recycled fabrics, they are enforcing change in their own way. Kuwaii is accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia for all of its made-in-Melbourne clothing. Their concept is to provide a beautiful and thoughtful alternative to mass-produced fashion. Kuwaii’s ethically accredited slow fashion approach contrasts with fast fashion’s environmental and ethical havoc. The entire product range is built on a basis of ‘Classics’: timeless, well-made, eternally flattering and wearable pieces. Kuwaii focuses on waste minimalisation during production and excess stock at the end of each season by producing small runs in limited editions. As well as manufacturing, Kuwaii offer fantastic add-ons such as their Lifelong Repairs Program promoting Wear, Care, and Repair as part of their Textile Recycling Program.
Another amazing company manufacturing Recycled fabric Bricks for Modern Decor is FabBRICK.
Founded in 2018 by Clarisse Merlet. FabBRICK was her architectural degree project.
FabBRICK transforms textile waste into bricks of different forms & different colours. From PPE to a stool, from a scrap of clothing to a coffee table or even from defective clothing to a lamp...Their recycled textile bricks
can be used either as wall coverings or as finished products to create furniture, interior decoration and other furnishings.
With the waste textiles collected, they design spaces and create amazing furniture.
The technology can be adapted to all types of textiles. The process is quite simple: You provide your fabrics to be transformed into bricks or unique pieces in many shapes.
They collect textile waste from offices, such as production scrap, prototypes, defective, work, or image clothes. This waste is then transformed into furniture or wall-covering materials to decorate shops, showrooms, or offices. Employees are directly involved in this new approach to eco-responsibility.
Looking into textile recycling solutions, where our waste is going, what products we buy and what we can do to ensure we are not contributing to the poisoning of our world are strong steps towards treading
lightly on the earth.
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