The surf and lifestyle brand, Rip Curl has counted itself among the six Foundation Members of a landmark National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme, created to make Australian fashion and clothing ‘truly circular’.
Called Seamless, the consortium is on a mission to reduce the 200,000 tonnes of clothing that currently finds its way to Australian landfill each year.
The scheme was announced last week when the Hon. Tanya Plibersek, Minister for the Environment and Water unveiled a plan to drive the Australian fashion and clothing industry towards circularity by 2030.
The Scheme aims to incentivise clothing design that is more durable, repairable, sustainable, and recyclable while fostering a new circular business model for Australian fashion based on reuse, repair, re-manufacturing, and rental.
It will also look to expand clothing collection and sorting schemes for effective reuse to ensure non-wearable clothes are recycled into new products and materials. Its overarching aim is to ultimately encourage citizen behaviour change towards clothing consumption, use, care, and disposal.
It’s reported that , on average, every Australian buys 56 items of clothing, most of which is made from non-sustainable, non-durable materials. The region currently lacks the systemic resources for the collection of unwearable clothing. As a result, clothing waste has become one of the largest contributors to Australia’s waste problem.
Among the Foundation members of the National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme’s Seamless platform are Big W, David Jones, Lorna Jane, Rip Curl, R.M Williams, and The Iconic. Each organisation has committed $100,000 to fund a 12-month transition phase while the Seamless scheme is established.
The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority is also contributing $100,000 to the transition phase as a supporting partner.
If industry signs up to the scheme, the activities driven by Seamless, stakeholders, and citizens are projected to divert 60% of end-of-life clothing from landfill by 2027. Seamless was created by a consortium led by the Australian Fashion Council with Charitable Recycling Australia, Queensland University of Technology, Sustainable Resource Use, and WRAP Asia Pacific.
Leila Naja Hibri, ceo of the Australian Fashion Council, said Seamless is the industry’s response to its clothing waste problem, that will change the way Australians make, consumer, and recycle their clothes.
“Today, some of our industry’s most pioneering and progressive brands and retailers are uniting to do what no single business, organisation, or even government can do alone,” she said.
“Seamless will guide the transition from the current unsustainable linear model of take, make, and dispose, to a circular economy of reduce, reuse, and recycle. We need to start transitioning to the wardrobe of the future, where clothes are acquired differently, loved for longer, and recirculated with care.
“This systemic and seismic transformation will require courage, creativity, and most importantly, collaboration. We need to act now. Our industry, and most importantly our planet, depends on it.”
