Threads for Life

Four easy steps: wear it, drop it, recycle it, let it live on! Most of us get lost somewhere between steps one and two unfortunately and end up contributing our fair share to landfill – about 70% of which annually is made up of old clothes. Hot on the heels of recent debate surrounding Buy Nothing New Month (happening again this October), responsible retailer Patagonia has just launched its Common Threads Initiative in Australia. Common Threads aims to reduce textile waste by encouraging us to repair, reuse and recycle what we already have before we reach for the credit card on our next shopping trip. While the true impact on retailers remains to be seen, when you consider that we all throw out an average of 30kg of clothing every year, surely we can all agree that any measure to encourage the responsible consumption and disposal of garments is something we ought to get behind!