Clothing-waste & awareness campaign in Tasmania & The impact of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Key topics: Clothing-waste Awareness campaign Social Enterprise Circular Economy Stakeholders

1. Clothing-waste & awareness
campaign in Tasmania
The impact of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
N o v e m b e r 2 0 2 0 , T a s m a n i a , A u s t r a l i a
B Y M I L C A P E R E Z
S U S T A I N A B L E L I V I N G D I P L O M A A T U T A S
P h o t o ; W a r o n W a s t e A u s t r a l i a , 2 0 1 7

2. Clothing-waste
in Australia
To be aware of whether disposing a T-shirt in a bin or donating it
to a charity the “choice” is having an environmental impact.
In fact, in 2017 in Australia 6000 kg of clothing is dumped in
landfill every 10 minutes (1). Furthermore, a research dated the
same year shows that four in ten (41%) australians have thrown
unwanted clothes in the bin (2).
Moreover, accordingly with the last Sustainable Development
Report report, Australia ranked its worst results on SDG 12
Responsible Consumption and Production and SDG 13 Climate
Action (3).
P h o t o ; O p e n S o u r c e

3. Research Problem
The waste and recycling industry in Australia believes
that the re-use of products is preferred. This avoids the
costs of energy and other resources required for
recycling. It includes initiatives such as items being
re-sold or donated to charities (4).
Nevertheless, 60,000 tonnes of unusable donations
dumped in charities and 22% is clothing and accessories
(5) diverted to landfill adding an external cost to the
charities of $13million a year (6).
D O E S A U S T R A L I A H A V E A
C L O T H I N G - W A S T E P R O B L E M ?
Some Tasmanians may have fun in the Dark Mofo winter
solstice nude swim. However, the majority do wear clothes
at least the rest of the year.
In fact, a summary report indicate that in the Cradle Coast
of Tasmania (seven northwest Tasmanian Councils)
“clothing in kerbside recycling has been on an increasing
trend over the past 4 years, rising by 22% in the latest
assessment period” (7).
I S T A S M A N I A P A R T O F T H E
C L O T H I N G - W A S T E P R O B L E M ?

4. THE
IMPACT OF
AWARENESS
CAMPAIGN
05
/
19
According to the ADAPT, the experts organisation in
climate change in Europe suggest that "awareness
campaigns can address groups of people in a region
affected by a particular climate threat, groups of
stakeholders, the general public, etc. The ultimate aim of
such campaigns is to achieve long-term lasting
behavioural changes." (8)
A collaboration between local authorities, the private
sector, and citizens has been seen as effective in the
successful adaptation of environmental problems ,
mentioned on the case study of waste governance in
New York City and Seoul metropolitan city (9).

5. Awareness campaigns in
Europe
To illustrate the experts' approach, notice that Greenpeace
launched in 2011 the Detox My Fashion campaign, asking
fashion companies to stop polluting waterways with
hazardous chemicals from clothing production. Seven years
later, the Destination Zero Report is available and free to
download to demonstrate its effectiveness with data. (10)
The #LoveNotLandfill is a campaign which wants to
encourage young Londoners to donate their unwanted
clothes to charity, put them in clothes banks, swap them,
borrow them and buy second-hand. The campaign is run by
London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) – a partnership
of the Mayor of London and the London boroughs to improve
waste and resource management.
In 2019 the United Nations launched the campaign #actnow
for zero-waste-fashion, encouraging avoid disposing clothes
in the landfill. According to the SDGs 12 “the challenge is part
of the ActNow Climate Campaign, which aims to educate and
encourage individual behavioral change, mainly by adjusting
consumption patterns'' (11)

6. Awareness campaigns in
Australia
In the year 2020 the planet Earth has been challenged by a
pandemic, simultaneously, environmental problems are still in
need of solutions.
The awareness campaign The Moving The Needle was
launched by the Charitable Recycling Australia (CRA) in
October 2019. The initiative brings together diverse
stakeholders including some local governments to engage
citizens in changing behaviour and reducing the negative
impacts of clothing on our environment aiming to reduce
clothing waste by 20% by 2022 creating a circular economy.
The Moving the Needle campaign has also been challenged by
the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions, waiting to
reactivate and demonstrate effectiveness by 2022 sharing
measurement for data & results using the collective impact
model out of Stanford University (12).
However, the solution is progressing targeting consumers and
providing awareness for a vast audience on social media with
the video titled Material Gain, streamed on ABC Religion and
Ethics Facebook channel watched by over one hundred
thousand times (13) over the 500 views on the Salvos Store
Youtube Channel.
P h o t o s ; h t t p s : / / m o v i n g t h e n e e d l e . c o m . a u

7. Moving The Needle and it
link with the SDGs
SDG 8; The Victorian Government in partnership with NACRO
committed to developing a circular economy (CE) policy and
implementation across the country.
As part of the action plan, NACRO is now known as Charitable
Recycling Australia (CRA).
“The change is more than just a new name, as we move to
deliver on a bold agenda to champion the circular economy
for a sustainable environment and an equitable society” CEO
Omer Soker mentioned to the Waste Management magazine
(14).
SDG 10. “Moving the Needle is about re-purposing the not
sold clothes that you no longer wear and donating them to a
local charity. For every new outfit donate an older one that
might hiding in the back of the closet to help raise funds for
those in need”, mention Hon Sussan Ley MP as Minister for
the Environment (15).
“It is the realisation that charities have a bigger part to play in
what sustainability means” affirmed Camille Reed, Director &
Founder, ACTA on the Material Gain video.
SDG 12; "Champion the circular economy". Equally important
is considering the SDG 8 and its link with the circular
economy (CE) and social entrepreneurialism. According to an
expert research published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology,
the experts identify the extent to which CE practices are
relevant for the implementation of the SDGs (16)
SDG 13; CRA Chief Executive mentioned “giving your clothes a
second life for even nine months could reduce carbon, water
and waste emissions by up to 30%”. Following his words, a
study mentioned that “recycling methods are in many cases
more sustainable and environmentally interesting than the
production of new virgin fibres” (13).

8. Education in Rural
Southern Tasmania
They are rural areas in disadvantage to get access to the
awareness campaign and drop-off options. For instance, the
lack of charities and municipal waste stations to dispose off
unwanted clothes and textile.
A case of study, of the Dover community with a population of
854 (Census 2016) located 77.1 Km from the central city of
South of Hobart.
An online search on the campaign website
(https://movingtheneedle.com.au) on "Where can I donate"
indicates that the closest drop off point is 40 km away.
The drop off option is subjected to factors such us, the
pandemic restrictions, access to mobilization and intrinsic
values such as self-motivation from consumers to donate to
charities and dispose clothes responsible base in customer
behaviour and awareness in the environmental
consequences.
Moving The Needle
campaign in Tasmania
The national awareness campaign, also encouraging
customers to donate their pre-loved clothing at convenient
pop-up drop-off points named the Empty Shop, located on
mayor shopping centres across the six states except for
Tasmania.
The Empty Shop also functions as an education and
awareness piece for the public to think before they shop and
dispose of used clothing responsibly (15).

9. According to a study conducted by the Institute for Local
Self-Reliance, when combined with convenient access to
comprehensive recycling programs, Pay-As-You-Throw
systems play a major role in achieving high recycling rates (6).
Thus, according to Gutberlet (2018) good waste governance
entails not only well-functioning institutions and public
policies, but also the participation of multi-stakeholders who
constitute a wide range of waste actors positioned in public
and private sectors, and civil society (Davies, 2009).
The Australasian Circular Textile Association (ACTA) 2030
strategy towards a CE for textile waste, mentions on the A
Common Thread paper that “the strategy is supporting and
expanding existing channels of recovery, particularly the
charity sector” (16)
Toward a sustainable recovery from a pandemic,
opportunities to promote prosperity while protecting the
planet following the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
described by the United Nations as “the blueprint to achieve
a better and more sustainable future for all” by 2030.
Education in Rural
Southern Tasmania

10. NOT JUST
AWARENESS
CAMPAIGN
A L S O O P P O R T U N I T I E S F O R
N E W P A T H W A Y S
According to the SDGs framework, there are seventeen
goals and 169 targets to achieve by 2030. Worth
considering the SDG 12 and its link with clothing waste
especially the target number eight that points; “by 2030,
ensure that people everywhere have the relevant
information and awareness for sustainable
development and lifestyles in harmony with nature” (17).
A broad range of opportunities and pathways can be
observed from overseas experts reports. Such us, the
150 pages report titled A New Textiles Economy by Ellen
MacArthur Foundation. In the report, the experts suggest
that to introduce recycling collections for after-use
clothing where these currently do not exist, efforts to
better understand local cultures and material flows
would be needed, also that the circular model builds
economic, natural, and social capital. It is based on three
principles:
• Design out waste and pollution
• Keep products and materials in use
• Regenerate natural systems (18).

11. A different pathways to consider the FabricAID social
enterprise. The model re-designing the clothing cycle,
helps the community, our environment, the NGOs, and
local businesses. The twenty-four-year-old Omar Itani
from Lebanon wins the prestigious Young Champions of
the Earth Prize for West Asia with FabricAID.
FabricAID social enterprise collects, sorts, and
redistributes clothes to disadvantaged communities at
micro-prices (19).
PhD social entrepreneur Kerry Krige argues in her lecture
on TED Talk (2016) “the act of giving is very anchored in
benevolence”. Professor and author Krige, considers that
social enterprise operates across a spectrum: between
not-for-profit (social value) and for-profit (economic
value) and the possibilities of partnership between
stakeholders (20).
Social
Enterprise

12. Inside the Thread Together clothing hub on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian
Social
Enterprise
An Australian different pathways is the Thread Together.
Founded in 2012 by Andie Halas, a former fashion
industry insider with a marketing background.
Thread Together is the only organisation in Australia
whose main mission and focus is to source new and
excess clothing from fashion retailers and redistribute
items to those in our communities that need it most at
no cost to them (free).
In five years we have distributed over $8 million worth of
new clothing to people in our community who are
vulnerable and in need. With stores clothing hubs, in
Canberra and Adelaide as well as Sydney, reaching
clients in rural areas through a mobile wardrobe vans.
An increasing number of Australians do not have access
to essential clothing. According to the Social Policy
Research Centre report of 2016, 2.99 million people
(13.3% of the population), were living below the poverty
line.

13. From blame, shame
and guilt to
political
responsibility
In the work of the late American political philosopher Iris
Marion Young. Reflecting on anti-sweatshop activism in the
1990s, she wrote that: "(Any) harm the workers suffer
comes most immediately at the hands of factory owners
and managers who set hunger level wages and inhumane
hours and intimidate anyone who tries to change these
conditions".
At the centre of Young’s argument is a distinction between
blame (or liability) and what she calls ‘political
responsibility’.
Taking political responsibility, Young argues, “allows us to
urge one another to take responsibility together for the
fact that our actions collectively contribute to the complex
structural processes that produce the working conditions
we deplore” (ibid. 42). For her, consumers, NGOs,
governments, corporations, labour unions and workers
should “join… in a public discourse where we try to
persuade one another about courses of collective action
that will contribute to social change” (ibid.).

14. Key points for
action
01
OVERSEAS ACTION: For instance the UK government is
investing £22.5 million in the creation of five new centres
that will help Britain move towards a circular economy.
The aim is to use fewer resources and reuse and recover
products and materials instead of disposing of them after
use, helping reduce waste, lowering the environmental
impact of production and consumption and creating
opportunities for new UK industries. (21)
AUSTRALIA ACTION: In 2018, the NSW Government revealed
its draft of its Circular Economy Policy as part of the state
government’s plan to improve its resource recovery
methods.
In a first for Australia, a Circular Economy (CE) Lab
launched in Brisbane last year, which will see industry,
research and government partnerships to identify and
deliver three initial pilot projects. Queensland Environment
Minister Leeanne Enoch said the Palaszczuk Government
had pledged $150,000 to start the initiative (22).
02

15. What is a circular
economy?
A c i r c u l a r e c o n o m y
c o n t i n u a l l y s e e k s t o r e d u c e
t h e e n v i r o n m e n t a l i m p a c t s o f
p r o d u c t i o n a n d c o n s u m p t i o n ,
w h i l e e n a b l i n g e c o n o m i c
g r o w t h t h r o u g h m o r e
p r o d u c t i v e u s e o f n a t u r a l
r e s o u r c e s .
V i c t o r i a n G o v e r n m e n t , D e p a r t m e n t o f
E n v i r o n m e n t , L a n d , W a t e r a n d P l a n n i n g

16. Barack Obama mentioned in 2015, it in his speech to the
2030 General Assembly for the Sustainable Development
Goals Agenda. A core theme across these perspectives is
the principle of ‘leave no one behind’ (23).
Base on that principal, the challenge is how to include
Tasmanian citizen in the implementation of futures
awareness campaign and rise of conscious consumption
and implementing a circular economy model in clothing.
To mention a few possibly stakeholders;
Regional Government in the implementation of Tasmania's
Draft Waste Action Plan
Huon Valley Council and Environmental Department
Rethink Waste Tasmania
The Clothing Exchange Tasmania
Thriving Tasmania, free online event for all Tasmanians
By last
03
Photo; Open Source

17. Thank You!B Y M I L C A P E R E Z
S U S T A I N A B L E L I V I N G D I P L O M A A T U T A S
M P P E R E Z @ U T A S . E D U . A U
0 4 9 8 9 9 9 8 3 9

18. Reference list:
1. ABC N. War on Waste: What happened behind the scenes and why it worked [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2020 Sep 6]. Available from:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/about/backstory/television/2017-07-03/backstory-war-on-waste/8664874
2. YouGov S. Fast fashion: Three in ten Aussies have thrown away clothing after wearing it just once [Internet]. YouGov: What the world thinks. 2017 [cited 2020
Aug 28]. Available from: //au.yougov.com/news/2017/12/06/fast-fashion/
3. https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/rankings
4. Parliament A. Report [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2020 Oct 16]. Available from:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/WasteandRecycling/Report
5. CRA. Victorian Government Commits to Developing a Circular Economy Policy – Charitable Recycling Australia [Internet]. 2019 [cited 2020 Sep 23]. Available
from: https://www.charitablerecycling.org.au/victorian-government-commits-to-developing-a-circular-economy-policy/
6. Jones A. The true cost of textile waste in Aussie retail [Internet]. retailbiz. 2019 [cited 2020 Oct 1]. Available from: https://www.retailbiz.com.au/contributor/the-
true-cost-of-textile-waste-in-the-australian-retail-sector/
7. Recycling Audit. Cradle Coast Kerbside Recycling Bin Assessment Program - summary. 2019. Source: Rethink Waste Tasmania.
8. The European Climate Adaptation Platform Climate-ADAPT. Awareness campaigns for behavioural change (2015). Available from: https://climate-
adapt.eea.europa.eu/metadata/adaptation-options/awareness-campaigns-for-behavioural-change
9. Lee-Geiller S, Kütting G. From management to stewardship_ A comparative case study of waste governance in New York City and Seoul metropolitan city |
Elsevier Enhanced Reader [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Oct 4]. Available from: https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/
10. Greenpace. Destination Zero - Seven Years of Detoxing the Clothing Industry [Internet]. Greenpeace International. 2018 [cited 2020 Oct 2]. Available from:
https://www.greenpeace.org/international/publication/17612/destination-zero
11. 0. Chassagne T. ActNow for Zero-Waste Fashion [Internet]. United Nations Sustainable Development. 2019 [cited 2020 Aug 28]. Available from:
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/08/actnow-for-zero-waste-fashion/
12. Keys H. NACRO unveils new brand and ambitious agenda [Internet]. Waste Management Review. 2019 [cited 2020 Sep 23]. Available from:
https://wastemanagementreview.com.au/nacro-unveils-new-brand-and-ambitious-agenda

19. Reference list:
13. https://www.abc.net.au/religion/watch/compass/material-gain/12188554
14. https://wastemanagementreview.com.au/moving-the-needle-targets-textile-waste/
15. Gov A. Moving the Needle on textiles in landfill | Ministers [Internet]. 2019 [cited 2020 Oct 1]. Available from: https://minister.awe.gov.au/ley/media-
releases/moving-needle-textiles-landfill
16. Schroeder, P., Anggraeni, K. and Weber, U. (2019) ‘The Relevance of Circular Economy Practices to the Sustainable Development Goals’, Journal of Industrial
Ecology, 23(1), pp. 77–95. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12732.
17. Environment, U. N. (2018) Sustainable lifestyles and education, UNEP - UN Environment Programme. Available at: http://www.unenvironment.org/regions/asia-
and-pacific/regional-initiatives/supporting-resource-efficiency/sustainable-lifestyles (Accessed: 17 November 2020).
18. MacArthur, E. (2017) Circular Fashion - A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning fashion’s future. Available at:
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/a-new-textiles-economy-redesigning-fashions-future (Accessed: 14 October 2020).
19. ‘FabricAID - Second Hand Clothes Collector & Distributor’ (no date). Available at: https://www.fabricaid.me/ (Accessed: 10 October 2020).
20. The future is social entrepreneurship | Kerryn Krige | TEDxJohannesburgSalon (2016). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx9MEuxoWn0
(Accessed: 16 October 2020).
21. ‘Five new circular economy centres backed with £22.5m government funding’ (2020) Energy Live News, 12 November. Available at:
https://www.energylivenews.com/2020/11/12/five-new-circular-economy-centres-backed-with-22-5m-government-funding/ (Accessed: 17 November 2020).
22. ‘Australian-first Circular Economy Lab opens - Waste Management Review Australian-first Circular Economy Lab opens’ (2019) Waste Management Review,
26 February. Available at: https://wastemanagementreview.com.au/australian-first-circular-economy-lab-opens/ (Accessed: 17 November 2020).
23. U.S. Department of State (2015) President Obama at 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=9tJNxGvgOaE (Accessed: 17 November 2020).