The Australian clothing industry imports and manufactures over 1.4 billion new items annually and more than half eventually ends its life in landfill, totalling 200,000 tonnes of waste per year. The Australian Government acknowledged textile waste as a serious issue in 2021, making a $1 million grant to an Australian Fashion Council-led Consortium, to develop a product stewardship scheme to address it. The Consortium’s co-design process, incorporating research and industry consultation, attracted many active participants.
The result is Seamless – a national clothing stewardship scheme, designed to create circularity by 2030, by transforming how clothing is made, used, reused and recycled in Australia. Seamless launched in June 2023 with six Foundation Members, who will play a key role in establishing scheme governance and priorities. As one of these Foundation Members, the ANZ business holds a position on Seamless’ Board of Directors. The scheme is expected to be operational from July 2024 and will be funded by a garment levy paid by members.
Seamless will take a lifecycle approach to stewardship, investing to build capability and infrastructure in four priority areas:
- Circular Design
- Circular Business Models
- Closing the Materials Loop
- Citizen Behaviour Change
Activities driven by Seamless, stakeholders and citizens are projected to divert 60% of Australia’s end-of-life clothing from landfill by 2027, totalling 120,000 tonnes.
We recognise that systematic and transformational change is needed in order to create a circular fashion ecosystem for Australia. Our decision to join Seamless as a Foundation Member was driven by our belief that the scale of change required can only be achieved through widespread industry collaboration. We welcome the opportunity to help design the future of our industry and at the same time, continue to work on initiatives within our business aligned with our 2030 circularity targets.
Learn more about: Seamless Clothing Stewardship Scheme
