After a pretty bloody successful run in 2019, Moving The Needle is once again bringing the Empty Shop reverse pop-up stores around Australia, to encourage Aussies to donate old clothes instead of just chucking them in the bin.
Considering Aussies throw out around 311,040 tonnes of clothing and textiles every year – about 6000 kilos every 10 minutes (!!!) – Moving The Needle has teamed up with op-shop organisations and big stores like Myer and Glam Corner to try and cut that number down with the reverse pop-up stores that start completely empty and eventually fill up with all our old clothes.
This year the Empty Shops are popping up in shopping centres across Australia and will be up and running for a whole week, so there’s plenty of time for you to gather all your unwanted clothes and make the pilgrimage to donate them. Last year, the reverse pop-up initiative took in a total of 600 items which ended up with the Empty Shop popping up in New York for ReFashion Week this year.
Moving The Needle want to reduce the piles of textile waste that Aussies produce every year by 20% by 2022, which would drop the average Aussie’s dumped clothes from 23kg a year down to 18.8kg. It might not seem like much but it’s about 4kg of clothes chucked out that can absolutely be donated to op shops, helping to further the new circular economy that’s emerging.
I’m sure as hell you’ve got a bunch of old clothes buried in the back of your cupboard that you don’t wear anymore or a bag of stuff that you’ve been meaning to donate for at least three months. Instead of just popping the old garb into one of those big oppy bins at the supermarket carpark, you can take them down to your local Empty Shop reverse pop-up and change your own clothes-buying habits.
For me, I turn all my clothes hangers the opposite direction until I wear something, and then I pop it back in the right way. Then at the end of six to eight months, whatever’s in there that hasn’t had its coathanger changed I take out and see if I need to donate it.
The Empty Shop reverse pop-up stores open their doors (so to speak) from March 16 until the 22nd, and you can find your local at the following locations:
ACT
Riverside Plaza, Queanbeyan
NSW
Chatswood Chase, Chatswood
VIC
Chadstone Shopping Centre, Chadstone
QLD
Myer Centre, Brisbane
SA
Elizabeth City Centre, Elizabeth
WA
Galleria Shopping Centre, Perth
