Reuse the clothes in your wardrobe instead of buying new clothes

Did you know that Australia is the world’s biggest consumer of textiles per person?

Even good quality and second-hand clothing can contribute to overconsumption when we buy more than we need.

The clothes we donate to charity shops and programs also may not get the second life we imagine. Here’s a summary of findings from the National Waste Report 2022 by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. In 2020-21:

• Nearly 60% of donations were exported overseas

• Only 15-22.5% of our donations were resold in Australia

• 17.5% ended up in Australian landfills

• Less than 2% was processed by Australian textile recyclers.

The large volume of donated clothing exported overseas means that other countries, often developing countries, are left to deal with our unwanted textiles. Much of this clothing is of poor quality and unable to be reused. This leads to overflowing landfills and pollution as synthetic fabrics break down, releasing microplastics and greenhouse gases.

It may be a familiar message, but making the most of the clothes already in our wardrobes is often the most sustainable choice we can make!

If you have clothes in your wardrobe that you hardly wear, here are some ways of making more use of them:

• Combining clothes e.g. the old skirt with a bright shirt/jumper

• Adding a scarf

• Sewing on a patch to brighten up the old clothes

• Dyeing a t-shirt to make it brighter and more appealing

During August:

• Conduct an audit of what clothes you have in your wardrobe.

• Are there items that you hardly wear?

• What could you do to get you to wear those items?