Turning fashion waste into blankets

Citizen Wolf's t-shirt offcuts are too precious to put in the bin
Citizen Wolf's t-shirt offcuts are too precious to put in the bin

Fashion waste is a growing issue in Australia. Australians throw out 23kg of textiles per person per year, and globally 50 million tonnes of clothes are thrown away each year with 80% ending up in landfill. Not only that, but businesses in the rag trade have very few options for disposing of their textile waste, which comes in the form of tonnes of offcuts and unworn clothing.

Since Seljak Brand launched, numerous businesses have approached us with their textiles waste – inspired by our closed loop recycled merino wool blanket – wanting help finding a solution for their waste. In response, in May 2017 we crowdfunded $32,000 to develop a lighter weight recycled blanket for the warmer months using the textiles waste of the Australian fashion industry. We were stoked that local t-shirt label Citizen Wolf jumped at the chance to be part of the project – the first of its kind in Australia.

"Seljak Brand is a champion of the circular economy... we couldn’t think of a better partner to recycle our majority organic cotton scraps into something equally beautiful and designed for those long hot summers that Sydney is so famous for!" - Zoltan Csaki, co-founder of Citizen Wolf. 

We partnered with Citizen Wolf because they have an appetite for innovation, are manufacturing locally in Sydney and wanted a sustainable solution for their waste. Citizen Wolf are a pioneering fashion label, making high quality t-shirts to each customer's own dimensions, designing out the waste that comes with over-ordering fabric. The cotton, linen, bamboo and merino offcuts from Citizen Wolf’s t-shirt production were high quality and silky soft. A resource too good to waste!

The mill where the testing took placeThe mill where the testing took place

The innovation process at a nearly 150 year old mill was slow and steady. We spent the better part of two years working to turn the production waste of Citizen Wolf into blankets. After testing their shred-ability, the offcuts ragged beautifully, making a perfect fibre-stock ready for spinning. It was the spinning phase that proved tricky, with the majority cotton fibres being too short to bind into a tight, strong yarn. 

The mill went on to conduct waste trials of their own and have been successful in turning denim waste into blankets. With so many innovators working towards a common goal, we’re optimistic that together we can turn pre- and post-consumer textiles waste from around Australia into beautiful, useful things for everyday living.

In the meantime, watch how we turn textile waste into blankets here, or watch this video of the carding testing that was part of the innovation process: