13/04/2026
We are plugging the leaks and trying to divert the flow out of harm's way, at least for a little while longer. But who is going to turn off the tap?
Reading the National Policy and Roadmap on Circular Textiles recently had us stepping back from the day-to-day and looking at the bigger picture. Where are we, as a species, right now, swimming in this sea of plastic?
The petrochemical industry receives approx. $80 billion* a year in government subsidies keeping virgin plastic artificially cheap. They spent decades telling us 'recycling is the answer' when they knew it wasn't. The flow of this tap of flowing plastic was handed to profit-driven structures that governments built and seem to have lost control of.
*Source: ciel.org/plastics-petrochemical-crisis
And yet here we are. Ordinary people, just trying to stay warm, not catch a cold in the rain, find a swimsuit, grab a jumper, clear out a wardrobe. We didn't design these systems. We didn't profit from them. But somehow, fixing them has landed on us.
It's not fair. But it's where we are.
The thing is, consumer behaviour, divestment, legal pressure from below, these still move markets, because they threaten margins. France's repair bonus is a good example: it works not because it's clever policy, but because it literally shifts what people do and what businesses can sell
So here's what we're committing to, and hope you will too:
- Support your local makers
- Buy second-hand or sustainable when you can
- Back repair, alteration, and social enterprise (We Make Good, yay!)
- Be intentional about where your money goes
- And be kind to yourself, we're all just mammals doing our best in a genuinely messy moment in history
Read the National Policy and Roadmap on Circular Textiles:
assets.gov.ie/static/documents/2c88b353/National_Policy_Statement_Roadmap_on_Circular_Textiles.pdf
France textile & shoe repair bonus: service-public.gouv.fr/particuliers/actualites/A16951
