Textiles
Textiles is an umbrella term for materials made from fibres, thin threads or filaments or animal hide.
These raw materials (except for leather) are spun into yarn and turned (via weaving, knitting, felting etc) into fabric. The fabric turned into a product such as clothing, homewares, furniture, mattresses, carpets, or display banners.
In NSW over 300,000 tonnes of textiles are discarded annually from household, business and industry. Not only does reducing textile waste reduce our demand on landfill it also decreases emissions. Buying one t-shirt second hand rather than new can save 8.1kg of CO2-equivalent emissions.
The Carbon Recycling Abatement Fund plans to undertake the following initiatives to enhance the management of waste textiles in NSW.
Initiatives overview
| Initiative | Description |
|---|---|
| Policy Lever Analysis | Conduct a top-down analysis of policy levers available to the NSW Government. |
| Sustainable Textiles in Government | Work with other EPA and NSW Government programs to deliver activities that support the sustainable procurement and use of textiles. |
| Supporting Stewardship | Continue to support Seamless and explore opportunities to work with other textile stewardship schemes. |
| Textile Flows and Fates | Improve the EPA’s understanding of textile flows and fates though collecting data. |