Designers and retailers need to get wasted in order to beat a $140 million habit.
That's the view of a leading Australian waste management company that says that up to 5 per cent of all rubbish sent to landfill is clothing and textiles that may take years to break down.
While some manufacturers are experimenting with biodegradable clothing, the effort is tiny compared to the hundreds of thousands of tons of textile waste such as nylon and rayon disposed of every year, BusinessWaste.com.au has claimed.
"Figures show that around $140m worth of clothes – that's 1.2 million tons - goes to landfill every year in Australia," spokesperson Mark Hall said. "That's an enormous amount of resource that just gets buried in the ground."
In fact, according to the charity Clothes Aid, nearly half of the clothes thrown into the waste bin by householders are reusable, something which is tantamount to an environmental crime, Hall said.
"If we can't get out of the habit of binning old clothes, then why not make them easily recyclable?".
Figures show that the average life of an item of clothing is only three months before it is either never worn again or discarded.
BusinessWaste.com.au claims making clothes out of easily degradable materials means unwanted items can at least be shredded and composted.
The company noted Puma has - as part of its ethical and sustainable policy - introduced a biodegradable range of clothing and shoes.
According to the company, anything in the line of products can be returned for re-processing at the end of its life.
Hall said there's no real tradition in Australia of returning old goods to shops or manufacturers for recycling as there is in other countries, such as Germany.
"We still rely on charity shops or the Salvation Army bin to get rid of old clothes," he said.
"It's virtually unheard of in Australia to take any item back to the shop where you bought it for recycling."
However, Country Road is among retailers pioneering change.
Recyclable clothing, with clearly labelled recycling points could easily become part of the Australian waste management landscape with the right promotion, Hall said.
The concept of biodegradable clothing will almost certainly come with a built-in image problem.
"Biodegradable clothing doesn't mean it's going to be made out of paper and will fall apart as soon as you put it through the wash," Hall said. "These textiles are just as hard-wearing as the clothes you're wearing now, but they're less damaging to the environment and will slash landfill waste in the medium to long term."
Hall said this is an idea for which the time has come, and urges designers and retailers to consider making the change.
"I remember laughing at jokes about recycled toilet paper when I was a boy, and now that's a product you can buy in virtually every supermarket," Hall said.
"Biodegradable clothes sound like a daft idea at first glance, but it's a reality that could – and should – be widespread."