00:00 So really laying it on there.
00:04 Kitty Tafai never thought she'd be using old clothing as paint.
00:08 I was just really eager to get it onto a white canvas to see what the colours would look
00:13 like.
00:14 She's one of six indigenous artists who recently used a pigment powder made from recycled clothing
00:19 to create artwork for an exhibition.
00:22 If we can actually take these beautiful bright fabrics, break it down into a usable pigment
00:28 and then put these amazing pieces of art into the world, there was just something really
00:31 amazing about that.
00:33 It's part of a Deakin University research project looking at solutions to Australia's
00:38 textile waste problem.
00:40 Over 200,000 tonnes of clothing is going to landfill every year and that environmental
00:46 impact is huge.
00:47 The scientists are using existing machines from industries such as agriculture and mining
00:53 to grind down fabric into small particles.
00:57 The process just uses water, no heat, no other chemicals, just water.
01:00 So it's very environmentally friendly.
01:02 The next step is figuring out how to make the process commercially viable.
01:07 There's a lot of work that needs to be done to secure large volumes of clothing so that
01:13 the textile recyclers can build that infrastructure.
01:18 Pigment's got a tremendous amount of potential uses.
01:21 So we feel it can go back into topical paints, it can go into building products.
01:29 And eventually the pigment could go back into making new clothes.
01:33 Really what we want is your old t-shirt turning into your new t-shirt.
01:37 Deakin University is now looking at the carbon footprint of the machines to figure out the
01:42 most sustainable way to scale the method.
01:45 But with Australia's innovation in the area of textile recycling still in its infancy,
01:51 the path ahead may stretch out for a while yet.
01:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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