Donated Clothes - Help or Hinder!

How can we do better at recycling clothes? How can we avoid having the clothes we donate causing pollution of water ways in other countries.

Speaker: Peter Allan

Peter is an Australian recycling expert will be talking about clothing, fashion and recycling clothes.

Sunday May 19

3 pm

Anglican Diocesan Centre,

49 Lydiard St South,

Ballarat

All welcome.  There will be time for discussion and questions.

Tea and coffee served afterwards.

For more information please email:

Geoff Ryan  ixxxsail@gmail.com

In November 2023 Peter Allan, Director of Sustainable Resource Use, travelled to Kenya and Ghana. These represent the two biggest importing countries for second hand clothing in Africa. Each imports around 800 million items or 200,000 tonnes of clothing from countries such as Australia.

The visit was to assess the trade and to identify the positive and negative aspects in order to decide if the transfer of clothing should continue. The key findings are that the import of clothing provides affordable clothing to the majority of people in each country and also provides many tens of thousands of jobs. It also provides finances to each country through import duties and economic activity.

On the other hand, there are serious challenges with the trade including the very poor outcomes for disposal of unsaleable clothing. Much of this ends up in waterways such as the rivers and beaches.

Peter has played a central role in the waste management and recycling field for the past 25 years, significantly contributing to the strategic direction of waste diversion activity in Australia. His key areas of experience include: strategy and policy development; kerbside recycling systems; recycling markets; waste management plans; waste and recycling data; commercial and industrial waste reduction strategies; and communication and education programs.

Peter has a slide deck that outlines the issues, and this has provided a range of stakeholders with a valued insight into the trade and how we can maximise the benefits and minimise any negatives.