18th March is Global Recycling Day!
For every 1kg of textiles that avoids landfill, approximately 3-4kg of greenhouse gases are prevented from polluting the atmosphere. So we thought we'd take a look at some different textile recycling initiatives happening right here in New Zealand...
Clothes to roads
UsedFULLY have been working with Scion to utilise textile waste in place of new cellulose in asphalt for roads. In association with Waka Kotahi and Wellington City Council they're trialling their product 'Strengthtex' on The Terrace in Wellington. Check out the road in action on instagram here and you can read more about the project here
Where does all the work wear go?
Workwear is all about providing safety to workers in harsh environments like construction, roading, forestry and more. At some point these items become worn out and less safe to use (think faded hi-vis!). Timaru based company Workwear Recycled have made it their mission to divert these worn out items away from landfill and on to a new life. Hear more about this in their interview with RNZ
Textile Products
As the largest textile waste processing company in New Zealand, Textile Products turns waste textiles into a huge number of useful products like insulation, wadding, removal blankets, underlays and geotextiles (think weed-matting and erosion stabilisation).
A little bird told us
Ethical Basics and workwear brand Little Yellow Bird is working hard to divert textile waste from landfill starting with natural fibres. They're working on a number of solutions to this waste problem like repairing, up-cycling, down-cycling (into things like pet beds, home insulation and carpet underlay), and also recycling textiles into yarns for new clothing. You can purchase a pre-paid Textile Take Back courier bag from them to send your old natural fibre clothing for them to work with
AS Colour x ImpacTex
Drop in to the AS Colour store in Ponsonby with your clean unwanted or unwearable textiles into their drop box. They'll process these pieces and turn them into useful products like home insulation, couch cushioning, pet beds, wall partitions, acoustic panelling, and so much more, turning unusable waste into their RETEX product (100% NZ textile waste and 100% recyclable in NZ) panels. Find out more and watch a video of the process here
