MANRAGS has continued its mammoth efforts to reduce textile waste and the consequent greenhouse gases it releases with their Clothing Recycling Collection campaign. In the last three weeks, our socks and jocks start-up has received over 21,000kg of textiles that, depending on condition, will be prepared for reuse or be recycled into new yarn and materials.
The Clothing Recycling Collection campaign dwarfs the previous effort of their ‘Start With Socks’ initiative, where the MANRAGS warehouse received 13,949kg of socks to recycle over a 6-month period. With that said, neither of these hauls are to be scoffed at and as a result MANRAGS have been able to keep over 86,000kgs of greenhouse gases out of our atmosphere by diverting textiles from landfill. By the end of FY2020, MANRAGS expects to have saved more than 80,000kgs of textiles from the tip. Our Founder and Director, Michael Elias, explains
“OUR GOAL IS TO COLLECT AS MANY TEXTILES AS POSSIBLE WHILST CREATING A MUCH GREATER AWARENESS OF THE IMPACTS THAT TEXTILE WASTE HAS ON OUR PLANET WHEN IT SITS DECOMPOSING IN LANDFILL”.
In an unprecedented time where our access to complete regular tasks is limited, such as visiting the post office or heading into work, people have been turning to MANRAGS to rid their homes of unwanted textiles and shoes. As a result, the MANRAGS team have received packages to their VIC warehouse from all around Australia, with one coming all the way from Stuart Park, NT (some 3,781kms from our Mordialloc facility).“WITH THE MAJORITY OF AUSTRALIANS SELF-ISOLATING AT HOME AND NACRO (NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHARITABLE RECYCLING ORGANISATIONS) URGING PEOPLE TO STOP DUMPING ITEMS AT CLOSED OP SHOPS AND DONATION BINS ACROSS THE NATION, WE’VE MADE IT EASIER THAN EVER TO GET RID OF UNWANTED OR DAMAGED TEXTILES AND SHOES WITHOUT EVEN HAVING TO LEAVE THE HOUSE!”
With our US expansion on hold until the effects of Covid-19 have eased, MANRAGS have now set our sights on creating meaningful partnerships with other brands and charities who are looking for a place to source quality goods.
We have started strong, but with many textiles still being dumped into landfill, we know there’s a lot of work to do. We are now looking to partner with other brands to encourage them to join us and make it easy for them to reverse their contributions to textile waste.
If you are someone who cares about how clothing impacts the planet or if you know of a business that could help MANRAGS reach its goal, then please get in touch. MANRAGS recognises that many hands will make light work in reducing the impact that textile waste has on our planet.