Local industry calls for action to curb fashion's textile waste
Mindful Fashion Chief Executive Jacinta FitzGerald say's fashion's textile waste impact in Aotearoa New Zealand must be addressed.
Speaking with Emma Ricketts at RNZ, Jacinta said local organisations are campaigning against fast fashion practices and want more done in New Zealand. It is a global problem and New Zealand is no exception, with at least half of the 380,000 tonnes of imported textiles each year estimated to end up in landfill.
Mindful Fashion has been tracking progress internationally where governments are starting to take notice of the scale of the problem, and Jacinta said we would like to see policy from the government to limit waste her in New Zealand too.
In Australia, for example, the Seamless Clothing Stewardship Scheme recommends a 4 cents per garment levy to incentivise better design, foster circular business models, and expand clothing recycling.
Jacinta highlighted that New Zealand's clothing and textile supply chain is "a very complex system and very few stages of the supply chain happen here."
Imposing levies on imported goods was one thing, but dealing with the waste was a whole other issue.
"We don't have a lot of infrastructure left where we can manufacture textiles. So to actually recycle old clothes to make new textiles is something that we may not be able to do here."