Winner: Marie Claire Sustainability Awards 2023

Guide to Reuse Materials and Textile Waste

In 2022, Yodomo created a comprehensive guide to reuse materials and textile waste with textile sustainability specialist Stephanie Steele.

Colourful textile scraps in a pile

One of the biggest challenges we hear about with textile waste is identification. Sometimes waste textiles are labelled but often they are not.

The introductory guide is designed for independent makers and creative businesses to answer questions about reuse materials and the lifecycle of textile waste.  

The guide is made to help anyone better understand textile waste and surplus materials, offering practical ways to identify materials and learn the steps to take to ensure safe, clean, and long-lasting items. The guide details the best ways to care for reuse materials to keep them at their highest value for the longest possible amount of time. It also identifies the benefits of opting for fabrics and textiles that would otherwise end up discarded.

As a part of this guide, we produced a glossary of key terms for the textile industry.

As a circular economy venture seeking solutions to the environmental crisis caused by textile waste, we first needed to define the problem in order to create solutions. A big part of this was to understand the myriad aspects of the textile industry, including several terms that may be unfamiliar to lay people. We believed that organising these terms together for our readers would prove useful, so that anyone can learn more about textiles at a glance.

The glossary gives detailed descriptions of key terms related to textile waste and is an ongoing project that we are updating as new words and new solutions arise.

So far, we have accumulated 50+ words that give detailed information around the words and it is in an interactive guide enabling users to easily move from one word to another.

Access the Reuse Materials and Textile Waste guide here