The LEAPS Textile Waste Conference was a virtual event on Thursday, April 25, 2024. Watch the recordings now!

The amount of textile waste generated annually in the United States has increased tenfold since the 1960s and now exceeds more than 34 billion pounds annually. Similar trends have occurred in Canada, Australia, and other countries in the Global North.

Textile waste now fills landfills in the Global North and makes its way to the Global South through the global used textile trade where it has significant environmental and social impacts. While awareness of the environmental health impacts of textile pollution is growing, this issue is often framed in terms of what individuals can do to reduce their impact and consumption. While individual actions are important, the LEAPS Conference was created to ask a different question: what are the most promising policy and structural solutions to reduce textile pollution and its global impacts?

Textile pollution is just one environmental health issue, and solutions from other issues may be relevant to this one. We created the LEAPS Conference to be a space for discussing technology-related pollution in the most broadly defined sense. Technology is not just computers. It can be defined to include sewing and clothes, as tools for working together, as processes for engaging on tough issues. If you see any connection between your interests and this call, we encourage you to join us.

The LEAPS Conference seeks to gather together policymakers, fashion industry stakeholders, textile recyclers, researchers, educators, students, people living in communities directly affected by textile pollution, and concerned community members to learn about the latest research and innovation around textile waste, technology-related pollution, and related environmental challenges and join together to generate and discuss potential policy and structural solutions.

The objectives of the conference are for participants to:

1. Learn about current research and innovation around environmental health challenges and policy efforts that are taking place globally to reduce pollution.

2. Connect with stakeholders across disciplines to better understand each stakeholder’s needs, values, and priorities

3. Develop an interdisciplinary action plan for advancing policies and other structural actions to reduce textile waste and technology-related pollution

The LEAPS Conference seeks to reflect a diversity of voices, viewpoints, and perspectives around pollution and other environmental health issues (i.e. a diversity of identities, geographic locations, disciplines, industry affiliations, stakeholders etc.). We specifically encourage submissions that are: (1) led by individuals from the Global South, (2) include perspectives and viewpoints from stakeholders in the Global South, and/or (3) involve partnerships with communities in the Global South.

The LEAPS 2024 Textile Waste Conference is hosted by the Aftermath Learning Lab in partnership with the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College and community partners Make Fashion Clean (MFC Tie-Dye) in the U.S. and The MFI Foundation in Ghana.

Conference participants have the opportunity to engage with research presentations, join in workshops, give formative feedback to innovators, and participate in a hackathon to develop new ideas to reduce pollution at the local, state, national and/or international levels. Opportunities for networking with other participants are available during the conference and at an optional virtual mixer after the event.

The conference program is now available at this link!

Notices of acceptance for presentation have been sent out or will be sent out by March 20, 2024. If you submitted and have not received a notice, please contact leaps@aftermathlearninglab.com for an update. Presenters will receive further details about the conference logistics in early April.

• We host the LEAPS Conference virtually to allow participation from stakeholders from anywhere around the world.

• We record the LEAPS Conference and make the recording available publicly after the event to further increase access and exposure to the conference and knowledge discussed.

• We allow a limited number of presenters to pre-record their presentations in the event that they would not otherwise be able to present.

• Captions will be turned on, and recordings will include edited captions.

• There is a space on the registration form to share any other access requests for the event. If you have any questions, contact the organizers.

Flyers and Social Media Post:

• Download event flyer (PDF)

• Download event social media graphic (JPG)

Below is a brief description of the event for use in promotion:

The LEAPS Conference 2024 hosted by the Aftermath Learning Lab seeks to gather together policymakers, fashion industry stakeholders, textile recyclers, researchers, educators, students, people living in communities directly affected by textile pollution, and concerned community members. Our purpose is to come together to learn about the latest research and innovation around global textile waste and technology-related pollution and to generate and discuss potential policy and structural solutions to textile pollution and related environmental health challenges.

The conference is a virtual event occurring on Thursday, April 25, 2024 from 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST. Registration is free and now open, with an optional donation to a non-profit upcycling project. We are also accepting submissions for those interested in presenting research, pitching an innovative project or intervention, or offering a workshop to participants at the conference.

Register to attend, apply to present, and find more information at the conference website: leaps.aftermathlearninglab.com.

The LEAPS conference welcomes partnerships with organizations that will bring increased exposure, diversity of thought and experience, and increased impact to the conference. Contact the organizers to discuss collaboration.

Questions about the conference can be addressed to the conference organizers at info@aftermathlearninglab.com.

Follow updates about the LEAPS 2024 Textile Waste Conference from the Aftermath Learning Lab on Instagram (@aftermathlearninglab).