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After saving 30,000 kilograms of textile waste from being dumped into Australian landfills, Ragtrader spoke to Manrags founder Michael Elias to discuss what's next for the brand, sustainability in a COVID-19 world and how other brands can begin their sustainable journey. 

What new initiatives will Manrags introduce to help combat textile waste in Australia?

The success of both our sock and clothing recycling offering has led to a large number of partnerships requests from like-minded brands, to schools, to corporate uniforms.

It’s evident that a lot of people care and want to make a difference.

We are in the final stages of launching our partnership program which will see companies have the ability to seamlessly make an impact on textile landfill and importantly report their impact!

Have the existing initiatives been impacted by COVID-19?  

We planned to launch our sock recycling program in the US on the 23rd of March.

That unfortunately didn’t go ahead, but the silver lining is that this has given us an opportunity to do more locally here in Australia.

Whilst sales of our products have been impacted, we have had a great opportunity to provide a solution for the public while they’ve been in lockdown and cleaning/clearing out their wardrobes.

We decided pretty early that we would focus our attention on trying to solve the problem of textile landfill and step away from traditional product and brand marketing and I’m confident we made the right decision.

Have you had to update any of the programs to meet demand/influx of textiles?

We had to slow down our sock recycling program as a result of our reduced work force and because customers were limited with travel to post offices and mailboxes.

We didn’t look at this as a problem, but treated it as an obstacle we needed to get over.

We had intended to launch our textile recycling offering in July but fortunately being a relatively small team means you can move on initiatives faster and we turned the program on in eight days.

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What are the challenges when setting up a circular fashion program?

The challenge with circular fashion is you can always do more.

We believe that we need to continuously evolve, and we need to learn along the way.

We also need to ensure we balance people, planet and profit (triple bottom line).

The biggest challenge is in transforming into a circular brand whilst balancing all aspects of consumers expectations.

The road to circular is a long one and we openly share that we don’t have all the answers, but we’re an interested team who like to pioneer - so we’re always looking at how to continue to evolve.

To be true to circular also requires a lot of testing, product development and quality checking.

It has been difficult in the current climate, but we’re finding that things are slowly beginning to head in the right direction for us to get more active on our circular goals.

How can other businesses take steps towards sustainability? What would be your tips for fashion businesses who want to be more sustainable but don’t know where to start?

Our goal is to demonstrate that sustainability equals success, and whilst we’re not ready to be the poster-child for this, we’re focussed on getting there.

My view is that if companies, brands and labels can see the benefits, they would be irresponsible to not be applying sustainability measures.

Sustainability should be top of mind, and there will be a time when the next generation (it’s already happening) have an expectation that you genuinely care and are doing the right thing.

My three top tips are:

1. Start somewhere. You don’t need to be the 'most sustainable', but begin the journey. Every little bit counts. Think about your packaging, or the labels used on your items.

2. Identify one key area of focus and then, expect backlash!

There will be many naysayers and a lot of people will judge you on what you’re not doing, but from what we have experienced, we have seen our community come in to bat for us and advocate for us.

Our message is clear: we don’t know what we don’t know, this is a journey and we should be supporting every step in the right direction.

3. Collaborate and partner. The world of sustainability is transparent and everyone is working to a better outcome.

Most brands like ourselves try and share as much information as possible so that others can have the tools readily accessible to them.

I haven’t met anyone or come across any brand focused on sustainability that hasn’t wanted to work together.

 

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