A new study from researchers at the University of Waterloo and Seneca College hopes to divert tonnes of wasted clothing from landfills back onto people’s bodies.
The University of Waterloo said that Canadians toss away close to 500 million kilograms of fabric items on a yearly basis including such things as clothing, shoes and toys, but researchers hope a grading system will put an end to that.
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“Fashion consumption is at an unparalleled high,” stated professor Olaf Weber, who co-authored the study Textile waste in Ontario, Canada: Opportunities for reuse and recycling.
“Consumers buy, use and dispose of new garments, which end up in the landfill, and less than one per cent of the materials are recycled. This new method is an important step to curbing our waste.”
The researchers looked at a new method that would grade the clothing from A to F to decide if the garments could be resold, recycled or tossed.
They say that by looking at the clothing this way, more than half of the textiles could be reused while another quarter could be recycled.
The school noted that a pair of ripped and stained jeans might be given a D grade which could see them repaired before they are donated and resold.
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The researchers did admit that getting the garments repaired in Canada might raise prices above market value in Canada but that is not always the case.
