SMG employees sorting out the fabrics and other items collected in ‘Closets to Cause’ campaign. — SIA HONG KIAU/The Star
OFTEN, our old clothes, comforters, curtains, handbags and shoes are tossed out with the trash and end up in the landfill.
To discourage this habit and instead lend a hand to circular sustainable fashion, Star Media Group’s (SMG) group corporate communication and social impact department carried out a two-week campaign to encourage its employees to contribute their old clothes.
Called “Closets to Cause”, the campaign with its motto “Declutter and Donate Today” saw overwhelming support.
SMG corporate communication and social impact senior manager Christine Wong said employees embraced the sustainable circular economy idea when they realised the clothes they discarded were ending up as textile waste at landfills.
In support of the circular sustainable fashion, she said the department had organised an insightful talk by Kloth Circularity marketing and communications assistant manager Adelyn Ghwee during the campaign, focused on the question: Is sustainable fashion really sustainable?
“We found that the talk evoked a commitment to upcycling old clothing where employees brought in old clothes, t-shirts and lots of shoes that others would love, thus furthering our environmental initiative,” added Wong.
Better known as Kloth, the social enterprise is dedicated to diverting textile waste from landfills.
Kloth’s creation of new items out of old clothing is in line with the 5Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose and refuse.
Wong said the campaign’s aim was to discourage people from throwing out together with domestic garbage the items that could be upcycled.
“Our target is minimal, or even zero, waste.
“With a dedicated free collection of unwanted items, we see less dumping of fabric items. And it makes other people happy to own a good pair of shoes or dress.
“It also extends the lifespan of landfills and promote a greener environment,” she said.
SMG corporate communication and social impact senior executive Aida Zuriani Ahmad Idris said fashion trends were being rolled out rapidly, causing twice the amount of waste.
As such, she said upcycling clothing was more important than ever.
“I am glad that our campaign has been able to divert fabric waste from landfills and give the clothing a renewed life,” she added.
SMG employee Yong Chiao Yee, who contributed a few bags of clothes, shoes, pants and old pillows, said fabric collection campaigns were good as the items that could be reused should not go to the landfill.
Another employee, Muhammad Hadi Johan said the effort helped to reduce carbon footprint.
All fabric collected was handed to Kloth.
Meanwhile, SMG’s “Beat Plastic Pollution: Act Now” collection – which ran for slightly more than two weeks – successfully diverted 79kg of plastic waste from landfills.
The campaign focused on collecting high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics.
HDPE includes cleaning agent bottles and detergent bottles. PP plastics are commonly used to make straws, cutlery sets, yogurt containers, deli food containers, medicine bottles, and spice bottles. On the other hand, condiment bottles, sports drink bottles and mouthwash bottles are made from PET plastics.
The collection drive was open to employees at Menara Star in Petaling Jaya and Star Business Hub in Shah Alam.
