Ballina Council tackles fashion waste with new project

BALLINA Shire Council has launched a new program to tackle textile waste, with a local audit revealing most discarded clothing is still in good condition.

The Creating a Circular Clothing Community in Ballina Shire project is backed by a $32,400 NSW Environment Protection Authority grant and will run until June 2026.

Resource recovery education officer and project lead Justine Rowe said the program was about giving people the tools to change habits.

“Our aim is to work with the community to help shift behaviours around fashion and textiles by promoting repair and reuse to keep clothing out of landfill,” Rowe said.

Council partnered with North East Waste to carry out the project’s first phase, auditing textiles dropped at the Ballina Resource Recovery Centre.

Over four weeks, almost 5,000 litres of textiles and more than 2,000 items were sorted. Women’s clothing made up the largest share, followed by children’s wear.

The audit found 83.5 per cent of items were either in near-perfect condition or required only a minor repair.

Australians are among the worst offenders when it comes to fashion waste.

The Australia Institute, in a 2024 report on textile waste, found Australians buy an average of 56 new clothing items each year, more than anywhere else in the world, and discard about 23 kilograms annually.

That adds up to more than 200,000 tonnes of clothing heading to landfill every year, the equivalent of nearly four Sydney Harbour Bridges.

The problem is mirrored globally.

According to Boston Consulting Group, 120 million tonnes of textiles were discarded worldwide in 2024, a figure expected to climb to 150 million tonnes by 2030.

Its Spinning Textile Waste into Value report estimated the lost raw material value at $150 billion annually, yet less than 1 per cent of textiles are recycled back into new fibres.

Ballina’s project will now turn to education and skills training in an effort to counter those trends at a community level.

A survey is open until September 1, and a series of free workshops will teach residents how to repair, upcycle and extend the life of their clothes.

Sessions include an “Intro to Upcycling” workshop at Lennox Head CWA Hall on September 3 and a “Visible Creative Hand-Mending” workshop at Wollongbar Hall on September 14.

Registration at ballina.nsw.gov.au/textiles.