In its second year of partnership with leaders in textile upcycling in Australia and New Zealand, UPPAREL, and in conjunction with Woolworths, Vanish aims to divert one million clothing items from landfill – the equivalent of 200 tonnes of clothes or 25,000 washing machine loads of clothes.
The average Australian purchases 27kg of new clothing annually but then discards 23kg. According to the 2022 Stain on the Nation report, commissioned by Vanish Australia, almost 8.5 million Australians (33%) would throw away an item of clothing once it had been stained, with only 45% of Australians willing to mend an item of clothing that has been damaged.
Vanish continues its mission to help #MakeTextileWasteVanish by educating Australians on the role they can play in helping to reduce textile waste through behaviour changes, like taking better care of their clothes. By using Vanish, Australians can double the life of their clothes and re-wear garments for longer.
Customers can purchase any pack of Vanish Gold Multi Power between Wednesday 4 October and Wednesday 1 November 2023 at Woolworths to receive a free UPPAREL pick up valued at $35 and help divert one million clothing items from landfill.
To demonstrate the impact of textile waste, Vanish hosted an interactive activation at Westfield Bondi Junction where a supersized washing machine highlighted key statistics around the issue of textile waste in Australia.
Reckitt marketing director for Australia and New Zealand, Florence Paoli says Vanish has an important role to play in educating Australians on how they can extend the life of their clothes and ultimately, help reduce their textile waste.
“As we enter our second year of partnership, we are proud to continue our support of UPPAREL while educating Australians on the impact of textile waste,” she said.
“Textile waste remains a growing issue, and we encourage Australians to get involved by re-wearing their wardrobe, extending the life of their clothes and when they can no longer be worn, donating their unwanted clothes to UPPAREL.”
UPPAREL CEO and founder, Michael Elias says that while progress is being made, Australia still has a long way to go as a nation to reduce our textile waste.
“Australia is currently ranked second in the world for global textile consumption per person, so we still have a great deal of work to do to reduce our impact. We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with such an iconic brand to not only reduce the amount of textile waste ending up in landfill, but also greenhouse emissions and the energy used to create and dispose of unwanted clothing.”