A Textile Recycling Solution For New Zealanders
What do you do with your old clothes? I bet you’re that brilliant person who repairs things, donates clean clothes to the second hand shop, and re-wears garments over and over again. But most clothing does not last forever. There comes a point where clothing is no longer wearable.
What happens then?
Currently what happens in most situations, is the classic linear model: virgin fibre — garment production —- utilisation (you wear it and love it!) —- disposal.
It’s estimated that Aotearoa New Zealand sends between 100,000 to 200,000 tons of textile waste to landfill. While the global apparel industry is expected to rise by 63% in 2030, this statistic will snowball and become even more out of control than it currently is.
To add to this, textiles are responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions. That’s right; textiles are one of the most carbon-emitting industries in the world.
Personally, I have avoided throwing any clothing into landfill (apart from some old shoes) for all of my adult life by using old clothes to stuff my dog’s bed, tie up vegetables in my garden, and make rags. But not everyone can do this and there are only so many rags a person needs!
On a nationwide scale, we desperately need scalable solutions to ensure our clothing does not end up in landfill, producing greenhouse gases as it decomposes.
Little Yellow Bird are one of the first in Aotearoa New Zealand to launch a solution to our textile waste issue.
Excited is an understatement. Not only does this textile recycling scheme reduce the amount of clothing sent to landfill, it also fosters community over competition (Little Yellow Bird have invited many other companies to be part of it), and is just the beginning of solutions that should and will start happening.
Return your 100% cotton clothes to Little Yellow Bird to be recycled!
Here’s how it works:
The cotton textiles are sent back to Little Yellow Bird by the consumer. Any brands can be sent to them, but they must be 100% cotton.
Once the textiles arrive at the recycling plant, the cotton is dissolved and turned into new, raw materials that look like paper sheets. The ‘paper sheets’ can then be made into virgin quality viscose or lyocell textile fibres to make fabric and then new garments.
Why is it sent overseas?
There are currently no viable options for textile recycling in Aotearoa New Zealand. Little Yellow Bird are working hard to establish local community solutions too, so hopefully one day (soon!) there will be. But in the meantime we need to rely on international technology and offset the impact of shipping the textiles overseas.
120% of the carbon involved in shipping these garments overseas is offset by Little Yellow Bird through Ekos. The offsets support a local indigenous rainforest, the Rarakau Rainforest Conservation Project.
Sometimes when brilliant, unique schemes like this pop up, the company spearheading it will keep to themselves and hold onto their brilliant idea with all their strength. Not in this case! Little Yellow Bird’s aims for this project:
Divert textile waste from landfill
Raise awareness and encourage everyone to think about what is happening at the end of a garments life
Create communities and networks, so everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand are included in creating positive change around textiles.
Little Yellow Bird are calling this project The Circular Cotton Collective, with members including Alsco, Maggie Marilyn, ReCreate Clothing, Naturebaby, The Paper Rain Project, Commonsense, and The Sustainability Trust. Their focus is on pooling resources and sharing costs, while continuing to discover local solutions as a collective.
Catching up with founder of Little Yellow Bird, Sam, at their Wellington headquarters.
So, next time you have completely worn out your cotton clothing, lent it, mended it, lost it, found it, passed it on, worn it again, let your sister borrow it, worn it as PJs… instead of sending it to landfill, Little Yellow Bird will take it from you so that the fibres can be shredded, stripped to their natural colour and remanufactured into fresh fibres.
NOTE: Please make sure returned goods are in clean condition. Send an email to returns@littleyellowbird.co.nz to gather instructions. If your garments were purchased online at Little Yellow Bird, they’ll even send you a label to courier them for free!
Below: wearing Little Yellow Bird Brunch Pants (size S) and the Bellbird tee (size M).
As a rule, I only work with brands I love, use, and can whole heartedly back. I send the brand a large list of questions to answer first, and trial the product properly before saying yes to anything. This is a sponsored blog (I can't pay my electricity bill with free products), but 100% my own words, photos, and opinion.