Slow Fashion September: Waikato councils team up to reduce textile waste
Three Waikato councils have teamed up to tackle more than 1300 tonnes of textile waste sent to landfill across the region each year.
Slow Fashion September is a month-long campaign encouraging communities to rethink how they use clothing by reusing, repairing and repurposing items rather than sending them to landfill.
It is the first year Waipā District Council, Waikato District Council and Hamilton City Council have collaborated on the campaign, although each has run its own textile waste initiatives in their communities for many years.
Waipā District Council’s waste minimisation advisor Shelley Wilson said the council had run Slow Fashion September for the last five years.
Over that time, neighbouring councils initiated similar sustainable events, prompting the councils to join forces for this year’s campaign.
Wilson told the Waikato Herald that Waipā sends 223.6 tonnes of reusable textiles to landfill each year.
Waikato District Council sends about 404 tonnes, while Hamilton City Council sends about 715,000kg to landfill each year.
All three figures are based on kerbside rubbish collected only.
‘Small changes’
Since 2023, Hamilton City Council has run Thrifty Threads, a pop-up op shop selling pre-loved clothes and accessories, with proceeds supporting palliative care at Hospice Waikato.
Last year, the event saved 24,000kg of clothing from landfill and raised $28,000 for Hospice Waikato.
The council’s director of resource recovery, Sarah Wilson, said reducing what Hamilton sent to landfill was a “key outcome” in the council’s waste management and minimisation strategy from 2024 to 2030.
Wilson said the campaign aimed to empower residents to make “small changes”.
“By working together across the Waikato, we can reach more people and have a greater impact on reducing textile waste,” she said.
“We expect Slow Fashion September to save even more clothing from landfill than last year.”
‘Challenging’
Kim Stretton, the waste programme lead at Waikato District Council, said issues around textile waste and fast fashion were “increasingly” being spoken about.
Stretton was seeing different aspects of this among residents: some adopted sustainable fashion habits specifically to reduce textile waste, some to reduce environmental impacts, while others were saving money.
She said it was “challenging” to say how much textile waste the campaign would reduce, but the council “primarily” identified local trends through its three-yearly solid waste audits.
‘Over-consumption’
Waste minimisation adviser Shelley Wilson said it was “challenging” to gather data on “specific waste streams”, with Waipā also using three-yearly solid waste audits as the “main way” to identify textile waste.
Wilson said the latest research had shown that textile use was only expected to grow, with about 138,000 tonnes consumed nationally in 2025.
About 78% of that ended up in landfill.
Wilson said Slow Fashion September aimed to “increase people’s practical repair skills ... [to] encourage residents to shop second-hand where possible, help them care for their clothes so they last longer, encourage mindful purchasing and support a shift away from fast fashion and over-consumption”.
All Slow Fashion September events are funded through the Government’s waste disposal levy, which supports initiatives to reduce waste and encourage resource recovery.
Events are being held across the region throughout September, including thrift shop bus tours, sewing workshops and a sustainable fashion show.
Visit this link to check out what events are happening in your area: https://linktr.ee/slowfashionseptember.
Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.