[Photo by Karina Tess on Unsplash]
I live in Australia, which is one of the highest consumers of textiles per person globally: Australian citizens buy nearly 15kg of clothing per year and contribute to 227,000 tonnes of fashion waste in landfill annually. This makes my home country one of the leading contributors to fashion waste in the world.
Recently, I came across a great article by The West Australian which featured some interesting data and insights into the Western Australian fashion industry. It suggested WA, one of the states in Australia, could pave the way to fixing the nation’s fast fashion issues. As The West Australian has a paywall to read articles, I wanted to share some key findings from this piece and my thoughts on the topic.
The article, titled “Western Australian Circular Fashion Consortium calling for immediate action to slash textile waste in WA” is based on a report led by Curtin University, with research done by the Western Australian Circular Fashion Consortium. The report showed WA’s fashion industry is different to other Australian states, as the majority of the market is made up of micro and small fashion businesses – 69.7% and 28.8% respectively.
It is important to note WA is considered geographically isolated and one of the lower populated states in Australia. The article suggests WA’s isolation and high portion of micro-small businesses in the fashion sector gives it an opportunity to become a national case study, by trialling new circular fashion systems on small businesses and seeing if this creates solutions that can be scaled for large fashion companies in other states.
Interestingly, the report also showed how charitable organisations are an important part of the textile waste process and circular fashion in WA, contributing to 87% of re-loved clothing distribution in the state.
The article then mentions an industry scheme that was launched by the Australian Fashion Council in February 2023, the National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme. The scheme aims to achieve fashion circularity in Australia by 2030 and reduce the nation’s clothing landfill by 60% in the next four years.
Finally, the article concludes with the recommendations being made by the Western Australian Circular Fashion Consortium to achieve fashion circularity in in WA including “establishment of an industry body to provide advocacy and support for action, consumer education, investing in manufacturing and legislative reform” and more.
I personally thought this article was an interesting insight into both Australia and the state of Western Australia’s fashion industries, and how this is relevant to the world. It shows that we can trial new ideas for fixing the fashion industry on a small scale and use the findings from these trials to create real solutions for fashion waste globally. It shares some valid recommendations for the industry and government – there needs to be greater investment into supporting circular fashion through legislation, guidelines on how we manufacture textiles, what textiles can be used, and education for consumers on fashion industry issues and what they can do to help.
After reading this article, I was reminded that change is needed at every level of the fashion industry. It extends beyond fashion designers and manufacturers; governments and consumers are responsible too and their support is critical if we want to improve the fashion industry.
Another key takeaway I had from this article was the significant role of charitable organisations in the re-loved industry. Charity op shops are responsible for most of the processing of second-hand clothing and textiles in Australia, which is one of the best solutions currently available to keep clothes out of landfill. The Reluv Fashion Resale in Australia Report for 2022 said fashion resale has a direct impact on the environmental issues caused by the fashion industry and the second-hand market is expected to rapidly grow three times faster than the global clothing market by 2026. This highlights that the second-hand market will play an important role in addressing fashion waste issues globally.
Comments