A report on the sustainability of Western Australia’s fashion industry has called for immediate action on improving the way clothing and textiles are circulated, to extend the life of materials and cut waste.
The Western Australia Circular Fashion Consortium, which comprises fashion research partners from Perth’s South Metropolitan TAFE, conducted a year-long study project that resulted in the report by Curtin University titled The State of Circularity in Fashion and Textiles in WA.
In order to move fashion beyond a product that is recycled through nonprofit organisations like Good Sammys, consortium convenor Anne Farren, a Senior Lecturer at Curtin’s School of Design and the Built Environment, called for a round table of community and industry leaders to drive change.
The 33-page paper lays out a strategy for WA’s fashion design industry to handle the growing crisis, according to Farren, who claimed that clothing waste was the second-most important front in the fight to reduce waste going to landfill in Australia after food waste.
“The report identifies the need for immediate and systemic action required to support the adoption of circular practice within the local fashion industry,” Farren said.
