New York City
Awareness campaign
Textile
Encourage learning and experimentation
Every year New York City landfills 200 million pounds of clothing (equivalent to over 440 Statues of Liberty). Globally, 73% of the materials used to produce clothing are landfilled or burned at the end of their life, while less than 1% of old clothing goes on to be used to make new clothing.
In spring 2019, some of the biggest names in fashion are collaborating for the first time in a campaign to save clothes from landfill in New York. Brands work alongside New York City Department of Sanitation, New York City Economic Development Corporation, collectors, recyclers, resale companies, and Make Fashion Circular, as part of #WearNext – a city-wide effort to tackle waste and pollution in the fashion industry.
From 4th March to 9th June 2019, the Make Fashion Circular #WearNext campaign aimed to make sure the city’s old clothes find a new life. Participating stores and other locations across the city acted as drop off points. Every available drop off point – more than 1,100 in total – were marked on a new online map created by the New York City Department of Sanitation, to make it as easy as possible to save clothes from being landfilled.
The campaign has been initiated by: