#textilewaste — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #textilewaste, aggregated by home.social.
-
My latest blog post for the Scarab Trust!
What was the last blog post you read?
#scarabtrust #wastetrade #textilewaste #africa #environment
https://www.scarabtrust.org.uk/post/africa-the-global-north-s-dumping-ground-for-unwanted-clothes
-
🇬🇧 French fast fashion law: does it actually address the problem?
What are the real reasons behind the law: environmental protection or protectionism?
On June 29, France passed a landmark bill targeting ultra-fast fashion giants like Shein, Temu, and AliExpress. Fees up to €20 per item. Advertising bans. Funding for recycling.
Sounds like a win — but let's look closer.
European brands like Zara, H&M, and Kiabi are largely exempt. Same business model. Different rules. The advertising ban — the law's strongest measure — is already being questioned by the EU. If it falls, we're left with pocket-change fees.
Meanwhile, Europe's approach is fragmented: EU charges per parcel, Italy charges per parcel, France charges per item. No coherent strategy.
Genuine reform would mean equal rules for ALL players. Instead, we get political theatre.
If fast fashion is destructive, why are we protecting our own version of it?
🔗 https://tinyurl.com/4h9v9buj
——
🇮🇹 Legge francese sul fast fashion: tutela ambientale o protezionismo?
Il 29 giugno la Francia ha approvato una legge che colpisce Shein, Temu e AliExpress. Multe fino a 20€ a capo. Stop alla pubblicità. Fondi per il riciclo.
Sembra una vittoria — ma guardiamo più da vicino.
Zara, H&M e Kiabi sono esentate. Stesso modello di business. Regole diverse. Il divieto pubblicitario — la misura più forte — è già sotto esame dalla Commissione Europea. Se cade, restano solo spiccioli.
L'Europa è frammentata: EU tassa per pacco, Italia per pacco, Francia per capo. Nessuna strategia coerente.
Riforma vera significherebbe regole uguali per TUTTI. Invece abbiamo teatro politico.
Se il fast fashion è dannoso, perché proteggiamo la nostra versione?
🔗 https://tinyurl.com/muxzew4c
—
#FastFashion #Sustainability #EUPolicy #Greenwashing #FashionIndustry #TextileWaste
#FashionWaste -
#NewZealand #SecondHandClothing Stores Building Sustainable Fashion Communities
Editor
April 10th, 2026"The second hand clothing industry in New Zealand has transformed from humble charity shops into vibrant retail destinations that champion #sustainability while creating thriving community hubs. These businesses are proving that #PreLovedFashion can be both profitable and purposeful, building loyal customer bases while addressing environmental concerns about #FastFashion waste.
"From #Auckland’s trendy Ponsonby strips to #Wellington’s bohemian Cuba Street, second hand retailers are redefining what it means to shop consciously. These stores have become gathering places where fashion enthusiasts discover unique pieces, environmental advocates support circular economy principles, and budget-conscious shoppers find quality garments at accessible prices.
The Economic Success of #CircularFashion Retail
Second hand clothing stores across New Zealand are experiencing remarkable growth, with many reporting year-on-year increases in both foot traffic and sales. This success stems from their ability to offer genuine value while meeting growing consumer demand for sustainable shopping options.
Independent retailers like #TheWarehouseProject in #ChristchurchNZ and #RecycleBoutique in #AucklandNZ have built successful business models by curating high-quality #PreOwnedClothing. They source inventory through #consignment programmes, direct purchases from customers, and partnerships with fashion-conscious donors who want their unwanted items to find new homes rather than landfills.
These businesses generate revenue through multiple streams: direct sales of curated clothing, consignment commissions, and increasingly popular styling services. Many have expanded beyond basic retail to offer wardrobe consultations, personal shopping experiences, and even clothing swap events that build community engagement while driving sales.
Environmental Impact and Community Responsibility
The environmental benefits of second hand clothing retail extend far beyond individual transactions. According to Environment New Zealand, #TextileWaste represents a significant portion of household waste, making clothing reuse programmes essential for reducing landfill burden.
Local second hand stores divert thousands of garments from waste streams annually. Shops like #KindStore in #HamiltonNZ and #HuntersAndCollectors in #DunedinNZ process hundreds of clothing items weekly, extending product lifecycles and reducing demand for new textile production. This approach significantly decreases water usage, chemical processing, and carbon emissions associated with manufacturing new garments.
Beyond environmental benefits, these stores contribute meaningfully to their local communities. Many employ local staff, support charitable causes through donation programmes, and provide affordable clothing options for families facing financial constraints. Some stores dedicate specific days or sections to supporting local families in need, creating social safety nets within commercial frameworks."
Read more:
https://nzbio.org.nz/new-zealand-second-hand-clothing-stores-building-sustainable-fashion-communities/#SolarPunkSunday #SecondHandStores #UsedClothing #NewZealand #Aotearoa
-
An excellent article that touches upon stitches, #embroidery, #Sashiko, and patches!
What is #VisibleMending? +5 Simple Techniques
April 18, 2024 | Kathryn Kellogg"One of the most sustainable things you can do is just use what you have. That pertains to clothing items too: Simply shopping your closet first can make a big impact.
"Why? Well, did you know there are enough clothes on the planet right now to dress the next six generations of humanity?"
Learn more:
https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/visible-mending/#SolarPunkSunday #NormalizeMending #ResistFastFashion #SlowFashion #TextileWaste #VisibleMending #VisibleRepair #StitchIt #stitchitdontditchit #FiberArts #DIY
-
#StitchIt, Don’t ditch it: Resisting #FastFashion through #VisibleMending
Kaja Šeruga
Fri, June 13, 2025"Once a month between April and October, a group of stitchers takes to the streets of #EdinburghScotland, making themselves comfortable on camping chairs decorated with hand-embroidered banners inviting people to #stitchitdontditchit. Equipped with sewing baskets and mending skills, they repair their garments in public and teach interested passers-by how to do the same.
"The #EdinburghStreetStitchers, as they call themselves, are part of a growing movement that is reclaiming the ancient art of mending. Historically, mending was done in private and in ways that concealed, rather than announced, the repair. Choosing instead to mend visibly—whether through the color of the stitching or by doing it in a public location—is a statement and a conversation starter, Reasons to be Cheerful says.
" 'You are clearly stating that you have kept this from a #landfill,' says Kate Sekules, a mender who teaches fashion history at the Pratt Institute in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn, and is pursuing a PhD in the history and theory of mending. 'It’s also got the advantage of making everything you own unique and special. And when you’ve invested time and energy and thought and craft into your clothing, you value it so much more.'
"Inspired by the global #StreetStitching movement, the former pharmacist Mary Morton started the #Edinburgh group in 2022, three years after a discussion with her son sent her down a rabbit hole of research and learning about the #ClimateCrisis. 'At the end of all of that, I was absolutely horrified. I thought, ‘What can I do about it?' she recalls.
"Volunteering at the #SHRUBCooperative, which is working to reduce waste in Edinburgh, she learned about the high carbon impact of textiles—producing a kilogram of fabric releases 23 kilograms of greenhouse gases on average. 'I’ve always done a bit of sewing, so I thought teaching people how to sew and repair their garments was something I could do to help,' says Morton. She started teaching sewing at the cooperative’s #ZeroWaste Hub, but quickly realized she was preaching to the choir. 'I wanted to do something to reach out to the broader community and make them aware of the situation,' she says.
"The term 'fast fashion' was coined by the New York Times in 1989 to describe Zara’s business model, which turned a designer’s idea into a garment available to consumers in only 15 days. Today’s ultra-fast fashion retailers have further accelerated the pace of production: #Shein, for example, has created 52 micro-seasons per year and adds up to 10,000 items to its website each day. With plummeting prices and a rising throwaway culture, by 2014, people were buying 60 percent more clothes than at the turn of the millennium, and keeping them for only half as long.
"Today the fashion industry is responsible for 92 million metric tons of #TextileWaste annually, and the dyeing and finishing of textiles causes 20 percent of industrial #WaterPollution. Due to energy-intensive production and long supply chains, the apparel industry is responsible for eight percent to 10 percent of global #CarbonEmissions—more than aviation and shipping combined.
"The quiet, simple act of mending can go a long way toward reducing these impacts: According to research by the climate action NGO WRAP, 82 percent of repaired garments prevent the purchase of a new one, and extending the life of an item of clothing by only nine months reduces its carbon, water and waste footprint by a total of 20 percent to 30 percent.
" 'One of the other big benefits is to #NormalizeMending again,' says Morton. For most of human history, textiles were time-consuming to produce and expensive to buy, so mending them was second nature, says Sekules. Repairs were often visible out of necessity, since matching thread to existing fabric was a costly and often impossible proposition. One of the oldest extant examples of visible mending is a 2,000-year-old Egyptian tunic in the Whitworth Geller’s collection in Manchester, England, though the practice is far older than that. Over millennia people across the world developed their own distinct techniques of darning, embroidery and appliqué, using colorful patches or designs to hide holes and stains. 'It was made to seem deliberate, because it was a shameful sign of poverty to look as if you’ve been mended,' says Sekules.
"As mending fell out of favor in Europe and the U.S. in the late 20th century, the skills associated with it were also lost over time. 'As far as we can tell it used to be passed down the maternal line since time immemorial,' says Sekules. 'Then we forgot about it—culturally, it was just no longer a skillset we needed.'
"In recent years a growing opposition to fast fashion has coalesced under the umbrella of #SlowFashion, a movement championing quality over quantity and responsible use of resources. 'People are becoming more aware that the way we produce is harmful to people and the environment,' says Sam Bennett, maker, researcher and one-half of the duo behind Repair Shop, which takes mending commissions and offers online and in-person mending workshops. 'It’s a smaller, quieter form of #activism that I think is really exciting.'
"The resurgence of mending coincided with early Instagram, with visible mending especially well-suited to such a visual medium, and menders like Celia Pym and Tom van Deijnen started to document their mends on the platform in 2014. 'Those posts and popularity then allowed for people to create public workshops, publish books and so on,' says Bennett, who is working on a timeline documenting how mending skills have been passed on over the past 300 years. Much of the skill-sharing has also moved to virtual spaces, which makes it accessible to anyone with an internet connection. But while they serve their purpose, online workshops don’t have quite the same magic, says Bennett: 'It really started with community and sitting side by side with someone. And I think that in the end, that is still the most successful way to learn.'
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/stitch-don-rsquo-t-ditch-153005359.html
#SolarPunkSunday #VisibleRepair #VisibleMending #Mending #FiberArts #Crafting #DIY #MakeAndMend #RepairDontBuy #ResistFastFashion #BuildingCommunity
-
On my zero waste clothing design shit again... I just can't resist this this way of thinking. It's like Tetris!! These are just doodles, some I started to work out layouts but it's just scribbles.
-
I have wanted to use giant ric rac in some garments for ages but I have this thing where I refuse to buy it new. I have a brainworm in my head that says I should try to source it from remnants or second hand, like the materials I use in my t-shirts and bags. Even if this is just a project for me! Why would I even think my little personal stand against over-consumption of textiles is effective in any way?!!!
-
I used to be the most oversharing oversharer, ever since livejournal times. 24 years!!!!!!! These days I'm just so tired - but I can't be tired, I need to grind! I'm a struggling artisan who just wants to faff around all day.
Here's some stuff I made lately, all from salvaged and recycled materials.
-
This is good news on many fronts. Grateful to Senator Newman for sponsoring, and Gov Newsom for signing #SB707.
A major step forward in addressing #TextileWaste
-
SB-707 Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024 is a start to getting a formal process for recycling textiles.
PLEASE - Call the governors office and ask him to sign it: (916) 445-2841 (or an online written request at https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/)
Legislation details (the Bill analysis tab is helpful): https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB707&showamends=false
#recycling #ReduceRepairReuseRecycle #textiles & #textilewaste #GovernorNewsom, please sign this 💵
-
Someone donated some amaaaazing wax prints to the Lair and I could not go past this 5m length so I spent my last $30 on it (cheap tho!!!) because I thought it'd be perfect for my Frocktails dress.
I spent a week hemming (pun lol) and hawing over what pattern to use but ultimately decided on Birgitta Helmersson's zero waste tier dress because it goes with the whole textile waste hill I am gonna die on. Though technically I'll have fabric left, I think the dress will only have used up 3m and what's left is a whole intact piece.
Yes, I have cut into the large flower motif butttt I think it'll look more interesting. I'm doing view D which is a maxi length with a second tier.
-
I updated my shop the other day and forgot to tell you, I guess that's why I'm bad at making sales 🤣
All of my products are made from trash. I mean, they were headed for landfill but have instead been diverted and turned into useful and beautiful things!
-
https://recycle.com/white-paper-textile-recovery-in-the-us/
Solving for #textilewaste in the United States can have a measurable global impact on the upstream investment of human and natural capital like oil, cotton, energy, water, and chemicals used to make textile products. Building systems to recover textiles requires strategic partnerships from across the recovery value chain. This paper outlines the essential elements of an ideal recovery system and describes a way forward to a circular textile economy.
-
We opened our new Sewing Lair store in Moorooka for a preview yesterday and it was a success!!! I'm so excited to connect with local creative people, I LOVE to talk about sewing and craft so much and even though peopling is exhausting, discussing shared special interests is soul restoring!
I did little activities during our event, magic leather bracelets and hand sewn crafty medals. It was fun but my verbal communication is garbled at best, no wonder I didn't become a teacher.
The official opening is Wednesday and I was so worried we'd need to scramble to do a big restock - the problem isn't that we don't have enough stock, it's that we don't have enough volunteers to sort and measure everything. (So if you're local to Beenleigh and love sewing or crafting we'd love to see you!) Fortunately, the shop still looks well stocked despite selling SO MUCH yesterday. It's truly a testament to how full our deceptively petite store is.
I haven't yet set up my sewing space as we needed it to put up a measuring table. Soon we will have a fold down table and I can start moving in. I am concerned about where to store my fabric as I have several big tubs and not a whole lot of room to put them. Same with my ironing board. I am thinking about making an ironing pad I can place on top of a gate leg table I'm hoping to get for cutting out. But I'll wait and see how the space works before I purchase that (second hand of course).
I almost can't believe where my life is right now. Four years ago I was hospitalised with chronic mental illness stuff and undergoing TMS treatment. I didn't think I had much of a future at all. Now I am opening a store and managing it with an awesome team of women, sewing plus size clothes, and spreading the word about textile waste and creativity!
-
My uncle used to have heaps of sports stuff in his room which stood frozen in time when he left home and went interstate. He had a bunch of pennants on the wall for volleyball and I always thought he must have been a super athlete or something. He passed away about 15 years ago from pancreatic cancer sadly, and pennants always remind me of him.
I'm not a sporty person at all, I love walking and bushwalking. That's about it! So these flags are for another favourite past time - faffing and dilly dallying. They're super important to my creative process!
Because I use fabric scraps that have been salvaged and diverted from landfill it's vital I have faffing time to mix and match materials. I can't simply grab a whole piece or plan out a meticulously coordinating design. Everything is done on the fly and I often have to pivot, say if a bit of fabric I want to use is actually damaged and can't be mended. Setting ideas in stone is not productive! The most productive thing is sitting and playing.
-
I've been meaning to make these cushions for months and today I did it! The cross stitch pieces are from The Sewing Lair, someone must have completed these decades ago and never got around to displaying them. I hope they like what I've done! The velvet backing (and border on the left one) is also from the Lair, and the zips too. The fringe was from Tradway, the only new thing in this cushion cover! There's a bunch of upholstery fringe at the Lair right now but I already had this on hand.
I'm going to sell these in my shop and I'll be keeping an eye out for other completed needlework pieces too because these cushions turned out so nicely.
Saving textiles from landfill and fulfilling the uglycute retro textiles hole in my heart. Good job me.
-
Are we doing #FashionRevolutionWeek on masto? It would be remiss of me not to spread it here! Today I'm supposed to be photographing reclaimed fabrics and trims for the Sewing Lair's online shop but my support worker came early so I'm crocheting buttons I cut out of acrylic before I stopped making plastic jewellery. The buttons were cut out of all the dead spaces in the sheet so in a way it's not as bad? Ah who am I kidding.
I just realized I never showed the recycled plastic and reclaimed wooden beads bracelets I've made! I've also been making some skinny scrunchie bracelets out of silk. (They don't stretch.)
-
Today I was one of many who helped save two trucks of "we don't know how many" coming from a warehouse full of textiles that was going to be dumped. It was mostly lingerie fabric and trims, all perfectly good and usable. This is why I volunteer at the Lair! So much good shit is sent to landfill and we see .000000001% of it! If that!
I'm not mad at the people clearing the warehouse - it's a sad backstory and it must happen all the time. This is why community is vital, we need to link up and distribute resources that would otherwise be sent to the tip. With these resources we can share low cost and free items that help people make stuff they don't have to buy. We can take down capitalism... Well... A little bit of it.
-
Today I attended a viewing of Fashion Reimagined in Beaudesert and helped out at The Sewing Lair's stall (and showed a few of my products). Being around so many people passionate about reducing waste in fashion and craft made me feel far less lonely!
When I saw The True Cost a few years ago it totally radicalised me into thinking more seriously about my fashion consumption. I ended up stopping making acrylic jewellery completely last year because I couldn't live with myself. I hope today's viewing of Fashion Reimagined has similarly affected people. It doesn't emphasise the human rights and wage theft in the industry like The True Cost but many people were shocked at the opacity of the fashion industry. How you cant wholly produce a fashion collection at scale within one country with ethical and traceable manufacturing.
Anyway, fuck fast fashion, fuck shein, fuck capitalism, fuck keeping up with the Jones'eseses. I'm so chuffed a community of trailblazers in a small region outside Brisbane gives so many shits about fashion fuckery. Now everyone else needs to give a shit.
-
I'm supposed to be designing a stamp for my care label but instead I plagiarised/ re-appropriated the Keep Australia Beautiful "Do The Right Thing" logo.
-
Oh yeh, all the new trash tees are live on my site. I tell my email list first because I need to look after my flock. Mastoflock gets second notification!!!
If you're after plastic jewellery, I am clearing out my stock. It needs to go to new homes to be worn and loved! Get 20% off with ENDOFANERA (minimum spend $10.)
#fashion #dopaminedressing #textilewaste #sustainability #sustainablefashion