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Recycling your unwanted clothing

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Working out how to recycle clothing you no longer want can be confusing.

However, clothing, textiles, or shoes must not go into your recycling bin because clothing gets tangled in the conveyor belts and causes all kinds of issues for our recycling facility.

Here's some alternatives to keep it out of the landfill

  • Consider giving clothing in good condition to a friend, your extended family, your local opportunity shop, or a social enterprise retailer. There are also many services that will collect from your front doorstep or letterbox.
  • If you have clothing that is not in good repair and not really wearable, you can order a box from Upparel for a nominal fee and post it back to the company to ensure that you will prevent your clothing from ending up in landfill.

The World Resources Institute notes that one garbage truckload of clothes is burned or sent to landfill every second around the world. Australians are the second highest consumers of textiles in the world after the United States on a per capita basis. Each year, Australians purchase an average of 27 kilograms of new clothing. 

By recycling your used clothes and shopping at charity shops and social enterprise retailers, you can help make a positive environmental impact.

Another way that you can make your clothing go further and for longer is by mending or upcycling your clothes.

We are running a free, 2-part workshop at Coonara Neighbourhood House (daytime sessions) and Orana Neighbourhood House (night-time sessions) on Thursday 17 and 24 November.

The workshops will cover second-hand shopping, capsule wardrobes, clothing recycling options, hand-mending techniques across the two sessions.

Places are limited so book now.

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