Policy Statements
June 2009: NACRO policy for the use and operation of recycling and household items clothing recycling collection bins.
Members of NACRO believe that a prominently located recycling collection bin is currently the most effective method of collecting post consumer waste. Today there are thousands of clothing recycling collection bins located across Australia on council, school and church grounds. However, if not managed properly or abused by the public, many council are concerned about the shortcomings of this system.
To that end, NACRO has developed an endorsed criterion for the use and operation of recycling and household items clothing recycling collection bins. The purpose of this code of practice is to provide councils with guidelines for the placement and location of clothing recycling collection bins on land owned, controlled and/or vested in a given council and to provide them with the established criteria for the use and operation of these bins.
A copy of NACRO’s endorsed criteria for the use and operation of recycling and household items clothing recycling collection bins can
be found here.
Government Submissions
May 2009: National Waste Policy – Managing Waste to 2020
In November 2008 the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, the Hon Peter Garrett MP, announced that the Australian Government, with the support of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council, would lead the development of a new national waste policy for Australia.
The purpose of developing a new national waste policy is to identify best practice in waste management and resource recovery and to ensure that Australia has the right mix of incentives and regulation to achieve environmental, economic and community benefits.
A Waste Policy Taskforce was formed within the Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts to consult widely among the community, business and government and to develop a draft national waste policy for consideration by Australian governments.
NACRO, on behalf of its members has contributed to the shaping of this national policy via a detailed submission which provided feedback to a number of issues. A copy of this submission can be found here. (return to top)
Reports
January 2009: Sources of Textile Waste in Australia
The Technical Textiles & Nonwoven Association recently produced a discussion paper on “Sources of Textile Waste in Australia” which outlines the issues, questions and scope of the problems of textile waste, while providing insight into the potential economic and environmental benefits that re-use of textile waste as a resource may offer.
The report concludes that the business of regenerating pre-consumer and post-consumer waste in Australia is promising, with the potential to found a new industry and green jobs whilst simultaneously mitigating land fill and providing green inputs to external industries such as the automotive industry.
A copy of TTNA’s report on Sources of Textile Waste can be found here. (return to top)
Sustainability
The multi-billion dollar worldwide recycling industry performs a vital social and environmental function. The industry has no peer in terms of conserving the world's resources while the various stages of the recycling process provide significant employment around the world.
Charitable recycling of post-consumer waste (mainly used clothing and household goods) is one of the oldest recycling industries in Australia. By world standards, it is a unique system through which tonnes of post consumer waste is diverted from landfill and redistributed to men, women and children overwhelmed by life’s hardships, or sold to assist in the charitable works of the organsations who have invested in the recycling infrastructure. It is a valuable service to all Australians.
There is increasing recognition by informed councils of the contribution charity shops make in reducing the volume of items that go to landfill, and a number of local authorities are now counting the volume of second-hand goods sent for reuse and recycling that can be measured towards their recycling targets. Without charity shops and processing facilities providing for large-scale reuse and recycling, these unwanted items would inevitably find their way into the waste stream to be treated by local authorities as household waste.
It is estimated that between 80-100 million kilos of textile waste is collected by Australian charitable recyclers through clothing recycling collection bins and donations of material at no cost to councils or government. Much of this material can be reclaimed and recirculated through charity shops or reprocessed into functional textiles. Through the efforts of the charitable recycling organisations, approximately 75 percent of the collected post-consumer waste is diverted from our landfills and recycled domestically or forwarded to third world countries providing clothing to many of the poorest people in the World.
Recycling is a practice through which everyone can make a difference to the environment. The journey of a piece of clothing does not always end at the landfill. Garments or household goods can effectively be recycled by sale or gifted to another user. Of the post consumer waste recovered by charities;
• 60 percent consists of items of clothing that can be reworn or reused
• 15 percent can be torn into industrial wiper cloths, and
• 25 percent is unusable and sent to landfill. Recycling of second hand goods is by means of community donations deposited into charity clothing recycling collection bins, thousands of which are located across Australia, and/or drop-offs directly to charity shops. (return to top)
Level 15, 10 Queens Road MELBOURNE VICTORIA 3004 AUSTRALIA Telephone: +61 3 9866 5443 Email: information@nacro.com.au
