Textile Recycling

To celebrate World Environment Day, Noosa Council teamed up with Blocktexx and St Vincent de Paul for Queensland's first textile recovery collection event, 'Give a Sheet for the Planet'.

Well attended with more than 200 drop offs, the effort collected over 1.5 tons of linen that will be diverted from landfill and recovered into new materials. 

This event demonstrated one of the first commercial-scale solutions to create a circular economy for the textile industry.

textiles 1 small   
Blocktexx
 

Why are textiles and clothing a problem?

  • Every year in Australia, one million tonnes of textile waste ends up in landfill. This does not breakdown.
  • Global textile waste is predicted to hit 140 million tonnes by 2030.
  • Australians acquire an average of 27 kgs of new clothing per person each year. We discard around 23 kilograms of clothing to landfill each year (The University of Queensland).
  • Australia is the second highest consumer of textiles per person in the world, after the United States of America.
  • The clothing industry contribute up to 5% of global carbon emissions more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined (WEF 2021).
  • One kilogram of unwanted textile waste processed by BlockTexx is equivalent to 30kgs of CO2 emissions.

Who is BlockTexx and what do they do?

  • BlockTexx is a world-leading clean technology company that will soon open Australia’s first textile resource recovery facility in Logan.
  • BlockTexx’s S.O.F.T. (separation of fibre technology) process takes polyester and cotton blended fabric and turns it into high quality recycled PET pellets and natural cellulose powder that can be used to manufacture new items.
  • One kilogram of unwanted textile waste processed by BlockTexx is equivalent to 30kgs of CO2 emissions. That means one truck load of linen collected, will have diverted 10 tonnes of textile waste from landfill and will have removed carbon emissions equivalent to taking 65 cars off the road for a year*
  • EPA NSW figures state the average family car emits 4.6 tonnes per year of CO2e. BlockTexx offsets 30 tonnes of CO2e for every tonne of textile waste processed – the equivalent to 6.5 average family cars.
  • For more information about BlockTexx: go to www.blocktexx.com

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Many clothes and textiles are dumped at charity shops and charity bins that are not suitable to be reused or sold on as they are often stained or low quality items and should have gone to landfill.

    In 2019 charities in Australia had over 60,000 tonnes of unusable donations which ended up in landfill.

    “The best advice is that if you wouldn’t give it to a friend, don’t give it to a charity,” National Association of Charitable Recycling Organisations chief Omer Soke.

    Charities can only use quality donations that are not stained, broken or torn.

  • Australia is one of the world's most wasteful countries in the developed world. They estimate about 6 tonnes of clothes are thrown out every ten minutes in Australia.

  • You can shop pre-loved, it’s good for the environment, it saves resources and saves you money.

    As consumers we have to start buying less.

    If you do buy something new, buy good quality timeless pieces that you can wear for many years.