Clothing is a necessity of life, and from underwear to upholstery, humans are in contact with textiles the vast majority of the time. These products eventually become waste, too, which is a big problem that is impossible to solve alone.
Last year Lääne-Harju, Saku and Humana started a collaboration to tackle the problem. They made the commitment to include textiles in Estonia’s green turn through TEXroad’s Paving the Way to 2025 program, and their first step was to start measuring.
“Solutions to difficult problems start with data collection,” said Kerli Lambing from Lääne-Harju. “We need data driven decisions to build the right systems.”
The group has been sharing their textile management lessons with one another and started giving citizens tips, too.
Humana has been a valuable partner, providing collection data and key insights to for citizen communications and textile collection metrics.
Some of the key lessons learned so far are:
Know your partners, and build good relationships with them.
Be patient. It takes time to develop a flow of reliable, consistent information.
The minimum required data is the monthly quantity of textiles collected by each partner. Quantity per collection point is best.
The second critical thing to know is what happens to textiles after collection. End points can include reused within Estonia, exported for reuse, recycled, landfilled or incinerated.
People are at the center of it all. Good city infrastructures makes life better for citizens and helps them get more value out of clothing and other textiles.
“We want to take steps towards a circular economy in the right order,” says Kerli Laur from Saku Municipality. “To increase the circular economy and build new systems, we need to know how many textiles are handed over for reuse, recycling or as waste, and what happens to them.”
2022 By the Numbers
Lääne-Harju
4 new collection points established in 2022; 5 total locations are available for residents
1750 kg of textile collected through clothing drives with Uuskasutuskeskus
5 days of circular textile resources and local stories during European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR)
Saku
4 collection points active in 2022; planning additional locations in 2023
86.000 kg of textile collected through bins and waste stations
5 days of circular textile resources and local stories during EWWR
Humana
Over 2000 tons of clothes collected - most of it will go to reuse, some of it will be recycled.
5 days of circular textile resources and local stories during European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR)
In 2023, the group will continue to measure, analyse the data and develop circular solutions for textile management. Citizens can also look forward to more useful information about how to get the most out of clothing and other textiles. Municipalities across Estonia can join the program so every citizen can become part of this green turn.
Links
Estonians can follow Humana on Facebook for updates and insights, as well check the clothes collection container locations here
Follow TEXroad on LinkedIn to stay up to date on the latest developments.