Nina Gbor, the founder of Swap in the City also founded Eco Styles. She is a circular economy educator, international speaker, researcher, clothes swap maven, and eco stylist. Through Eco Styles, she works with media, councils, organisations, schools, and communities to create holistic systems change toward a more sustainable future.
Swap in the City is a community hub offering weekly drop-in swap days and events focused on sustainability, circular economy, and social wellbeing. Our mission is to reduce textile waste by making swap culture accessible to all through hands-on experiences and practical education. We also have events aimed at exploring creative solutions to the environmental, social, and economic challenges we face.
This photo journey captures the spirit of Swap in the City—showing how communities come together for environmental and social change through swapping, sustainability education, advocacy, and connection. It offers a glimpse into the passion behind the movement.
It’s been said there are enough clothes on the planet for the next six generations.
An estimated 150 billion garments are manufactured each year on a planet of more than 8 billion people.
Where Fashion Ignites Positive Change
"It feels like a beautifully woven matrix of lived experiences orchestrated to bring me into a purpose-filled life path where fashion intersects with sustainability, ecological transformation and international development. This intersection has organically coalesced into a career that I love!"
— Nina Gbor, Director, Circular Economy & Waste Program, The Australia Institute
Swapping and reusing clothes isn’t just about saving money. It’s about protecting the environment, changing the way we live—redefining value, embracing community, wearing and living our principles. Swap in the City is planting the seeds for a mainstream culture where swapping items is part of everyday mainstream culture in Australia.
The average Australian buys 53 new items of clothing each year, which makes Australia one of the largest consumers of clothing in the world per capita (similar to the US).
Over 200,000 tonnes of clothing end up in landfills around Australia every year – this is almost four times the weight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge
“BlockTexx advocates the reuse of high quality, wearable clothing as a means of keeping the garment in circulation for longer and using the embedded carbon as much as possible. Once the garment becomes unwearable, through love and wear, it should be recycled here, on shore in Australia as a means to support our own circular economy. If we buy it, ultimately we recycle it here.”
Adrian Jones, guest speaker and cofounder of Block Texx has helped pioneer a process that takes blended fabrics and reduces them to raw components.
Fast Fashion Fallout
Every year, over 300,000 tonnes of clothing is either sent to landfill or exported from Australia. To respond to the growing textiles waste problem, the Commonwealth has proposed policies intended to create a ‘circular economy.’ However, a genuinely circular economy depends on drastically reducing the rate at which textiles are produced and consumed, banning the export of textiles waste, and investing in Australia’s capacity to manufacture and recycle better alternatives domestically. ~Nina Gbor, Olivia Chollet (Textile Waste in Australia report, The Australia Institute)
These photos were provided by Clean Up Kenya. They demonstrate the problem of overconsumption and textile waste export to countries in the global South. These clothes often pollute land and waterways and eventually end up in landfill within waste receiving countries. This further emphasises the need to reduce our waste by swapping and other forms of reuse. Onshore textile recycling turns this waste into a valuable resource that could boost our local/national economy and keep materials in the circular economy.
The Swap in Action
What if our wardrobes came from circular, sustainable and more ethical sources?
Swapping means finding something new to you
Extend the lifecycle of clothes by giving them a second, third, fourth home...
One garbage truck’s worth of clothing is either incinerated or sent to landfill every second
Reimagining fashion in a stylish way
We can change our relationship with fashion by embracing personal style while caring for people and planet
Our notion of swapping is about ‘gifting’ preloved pieces for someone else to cherish and reuse, and not dumping unwearable stuff.
Meet the Swappers
I swapped a BCBG Maxazria little black corporate dress and left with a beautiful yellow pleated Jac + Jac dress. So happy — and once again, more colour sneaking into my wardrobe instead of the usual black!
~Abbey Pantano | Founder & Community Architect, The Impact Collab
I love anything that keeps clothes in circulation for as long as possible. I'm often giving clothes away or being given clothes by friends, colleagues and neighbours who think I might like them. This event was the first time I've made it to a formal clothes swap but I'm an avid op shopper, buying as much as I can second-hand.
~Kylie Flament | CEO The Social Enterprise Council of NSW & ACT (SECNA)
All I can say is a resounding yes to swapping clothes! I like that the experience of going to a clothes swap brings an entire community together to engage with fashion in a new way. I think it's so important to have experiences like clothes swaps that help us to connect with the stories behind what we wear.
~ Rachel Gallagher | Ms Australia Pacific 2024/25
I’ve swapped several items at Nina’s fabulously curated events. And this time I picked up two beautiful, premium designer dresses. I love swapping – it’s a stylish hit of dopamine that does everyone good – including the planet.
~Phyllis Foundis | writer, producer, multi-award-winning TV host and TEDx speaker.
Swap in the City is a community-powered hub where style meets sustainability. It’s not a market. It’s not a sale. It’s a joyful way to reimagine the way we consume fashion and our relationship with clothing. It’s about style, not fashion. Circularity, not waste. It’s fashion done differently.
The Garments
Australians wear only 50 per cent of their wardrobe regularly. What if fashion wasn’t about buying more...just choosing better?
In Australia, nearly 76 million tonnes of stuff (clothes and other materials) is sent to landfill each year. A lot of these items are reusable. The moment a reusable item is being disposed by one person, another person is purchasing that same item brand new online or in a store.
Swapping is a conscious community activity where pre-loved items can find a second home, reduce costs and stay out of landfill for as long as possible.
Slowing and breaking the cycle of take-make-waste can happen in many ways. Swapping is just one fun way to do it with friends or strangers over a glass of wine (or tea).
Behind the Seams
Get Involved
Swapping is for Everyone
Swapping is good for the soul and open to everyone, regardless of background or motivation—whether you’re passionate about the planet, love fashion, or just want that sense of community. We encourage you to run swaps in your neighbourhood, school, workplace, social and community group.
Get Started
Here’s a free downloadable resource on how to run swaps and an article that gives you lots of ideas.
Advocacy
Let’s embed swap culture and other circular solutions into mainstream Australia by advocating for supportive systems and policies at all levels of government. With the right backing, we can turn waste into resource and drive real change.
Around 84% of textiles are discarded each year.
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All images taken by Nilmini De Silva Photography unless otherwise noted.