Friday 17 May 2013
Recycling Clothing
I love fashion. I love clothes. I would be more adventurous in what I wore if I was slimmer, but I love to embrace my curves all the same. Buying clothes is a buzz, it gives me a rush.
Many people have heard about recyclable metals, plastics and waste, but what about our clothes?
Much of our clothing is indeed recyclable. A cotton shirt can be cut up into pieces and the fibres reused and synthetic fibres can be entirely recycled. The outdoor wear supplier called Patagonia actually takes used soft drink bottles and turns them into clothing! How cool is that!
Economic specialists call this 'upcycling', which means turning a low-value waste into a high quality product.
More can be done. Clothing can be physically remade to create a new item. The innovative UK company TRAID operates a large number of collection points for used clothing. These are then redesigned, reconstructed, torn or stained into new one off pieces and sold. Marks and Spencer, another leading fashion company, offers to take back one piece of clothing for every one purchased. The returned ones are then resold by the charity Oxfam or their fibres are reused.
The recycling of metals is well established and financially advantageous. But is this true for clothing? Not yet. The processes involved in reusing clothes are rather complex and can be quite labour intensive. Synthetic fibres are generally far easier to recycle than cotton or wool. Clothes made from oil or, even better from plastic engineered from biological materials (bioplastics) should be seen as a large part of the answer to the sustainability questions posed by clothing.
To turn fashion from being one of the drivers in world ecological problems towards a less destructive role requires a move away from cotton and a reduction in the amount of textiles produced. Perhaps another solution is to buy less but better quality items, plan our purchases instead of shopping on a whim and maintain what we have.
http://www.patagonia.com.au/environment/what-we-do/
http://www.traid.org.uk
http://plana.marksandspencer.com/about/partnerships/oxfam
Tuesday 7 May 2013
"A new era for Fremantle"
Today in the Fremantle Gazette there is a special edition on "A new era for Fremantle".
It is a great piece and clearly identifies the amazing changes that Fremantle is undergoing to rejuvenate and transform the city that will meet the needs of it's community.
Fremantle, Western Australia is a special place for many reasons and is certainly a city in it's own right. It is a great place to work, to live, to visit, to eat, to walk, to play, to listen to music and to fall in love........ Fremantle, truly is a city like no other. Its friendly and welcoming people, its passionate embrace with arts and culture, incredible diversity and amazing natural environment.
No city is perfect, but important changes are being made through great leadership to ensure that this very historic city keeps it's identity but also embraces the changes that are necessary in a modern world to meet modern needs.
To me, Fremantle is showing the unique opportunities that exist for cities to lead by example through increasing resource productivity and through innovation and good leadership.
Onward and Upward.
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