Clothing in a material world

Never at any time in our history have there been so many clothes in the world, and another 69.7m tonnes added every year. Some clothing is now so cheap it is considered disposable. The fact we don’t make time to value or care for clothes like we did in past generations is leading to textile waste on a massive scale, with millions of tonnes of clothing going prematurely to landfill.

The fastest-growing household waste in Australia is clothing, according to a Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia which said Australians sent $500 million of fashion clothing to the tip in 2013. It suggested this waste could be reduced if we removed spills quickly using baby wipes or sloshing with water to stop stains setting. And it said if we are like other Western countries, we only recycle 18 per cent of clothing compared to 55 per cent of paper and 63 per cent of metal.  Continue Reading →

Biloela joins REfashion revolution

The concept of refashioning existing clothing has appeal to people concerned about increasing levels of textile waste and prepared to be creatively resourceful in the way they dress.

Eight productive and enthusiastic women took up the opportunity to be part of an upcycling workshop in Biloela and used personal effort, imagination and skills to refashion unworn clothing to suit their shape and preference.

The workshop was run by upcycler Jane Milburn of Textile Beat and enabled by the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF), which is a partnership between Queensland Government’s Arts Queensland and Banana Shire Council to support local arts and culture.

REfashion workshop results Continue Reading →