Livelihoods

The Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART) Association works towards strengthening economic opportunities by promoting the interdependence of the for-profit textile recycling industry segments and provides a common forum for networking, education and advocacy. SMART President Brian London dwells at length on the second-hand clothing waste and global trade.

Wool, long regarded as a symbol of New Zealand’s pastoral heritage and a sustainable alternative in an increasingly eco-conscious world, is set to take centre stage again, as it gets knitted into a government directive mandating the use of Kiwi-grown and manufactured wool carpets in public sector buildings.

Ghana’s second-hand Kantamanto Market is protesting the “ongoing misrepresentation, including false claims” that it is a “waste dumping ground,” condemning the “hypocrisy and misinformation campaign” of a US-based NGO.

The just-released CottonConnect Impact Report 2024 analyses the outcomes of sustainable agricultural practices and urges the textiles industry to collectively work toward increasing responsible production of raw materials and supporting smallholder farmers to attain a resilient future.

Amidst ongoing fears that the European Union could severely curb or ban SHC exports, a report from Mozambique warns that if this ecosystem is jeopardised, the repercussions on the millions already living in poverty will be quite damaging.

Working at the intersections of farming, leather and fashion, Alice Robinson and Sara Grady founded British Pasture Leather (BPL) to reshape entrenched perceptions of leather and forge the disconnection of this natural material from its source: farms, land and animals. The co-founder duo share how they embarked on their remarkable journey from field to fork and fashion.

Some 5,250 acres—an equivalent of approximately 3,000 football fields—will see training of 1,500 farmers, 900 of which will be women, as also sequestering of approximately 31,000 tonnes of CO2 under the aegis of a grant to an Indian nonprofit by the Hugo Boss Foundation.

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has been spearheading some key collaborative projects in the cotton sector aimed at enhancing productivity, improve farmers’ livelihoods, and promote sustainable farming practices. A texfash report.

Oxford Economics, leaders in global economic forecasting and quantitative analysis, has just published an exhaustive report on the state of the second-hand clothing trade between the EU27+ and three African nations. Johanna Neuhoff, Director of Economic Consulting, Continental Europe, delves deep into the nuances of the sector and the bearing it has on people on both sides in this free-wheeling conversation.

A report that analyses the socioeconomic impact of the second-hand clothing industry in the EU, the UK (EU27+), as also the three African countries of Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique, says that the sector generated a cumulative €3 billion of revenues in Europe alone in 2023.