Zero Waste

A part of what The Clothing Project tries to do is to reduce the waste we send to landfill and over the next few years, we want to explore more ways in which we can reduce this waste.

We would like to aim for Zero Waste but can this be achieved when you are charity receiving donations? According to the Zero Waste International Alliance:

“Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary, to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use.”

Before we really understood the concept of zero waste, we were already trying to save as much as possible. For example, we cut all buttons off clothing that was no longer able to be passed along and we were also cutting out patches to mend clothing.

The amount of textile waste we send to landfill is astonishing. It is estimated that 100 million kilos of textile waste is dumped each year in New Zealand. With the research we have undertaken so far on the best way to recycle clothing apart from cutting the items into rags, there sadly aren’t many textile recycling options available. So we may need to think outside the box to breathe new life into clothing and give it a second chance in life?

This year we hope to recruit an expert on Zero Waste to come up with ideas and plans to reduce what we send to landfill. Once you start to think about what goes into your rubbish bin and where it ends up, you do start to think about what changes you can make in your life too. Will be interesting to follow up this blog at the end of the year to see what difference we made.