ABSTRACT
Thriving businesses and non-profit organizations have textile waste at the core of their operations. The ‘rag trade’ has a long history of textile waste recycling, and as Strasser (1999) notes, waste is created by sorting and classifying. Through re-sorting and reclassifying, this waste can create opportunities for organizations to benefit and profit from. The Smith Family is an Australian children’s charity that is partly supported by The Smith Family Commercial Enterprise, established in 1963. A part of this, The Smith Family Nonwoven Manufacturing Plant is located in Villawood, New South Wales and has been producing non-woven textiles since 1987. The Smith Family operates with both pre-consumer and post-consumer waste. Pre-consumer waste includes fabric clippings from the fashion and textile industries as well as donated unsold end-of-season clothing from fashion companies, while post-consumer waste consists primarily of donated second-hand clothes.
