The Global Shapers Gold Coast hub will be championing a community led campaign which will see us focus on making an impact in the fashion circular economy by setting the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of socks for recycling. In planning for the event, we are also aligning with Odd Socks Day on the 4th of October, a day which aims to raise awareness about the stigma associated with mental health. We want to educate and inform the community about ways they can recycle, repurpose or dispose of clothing correctly (because clothing and textiles are not recycled through kerbside collection bins), to see this as a new opportunity for the Gold Coast economy and circular economy. The event will create a unique opportunity allowing us to bring the three of our key impact areas together (health, climate change and shaping the future of our city).

Our solution will address a number of challenges:

• Challenge 1: More than half a billion kilograms of unwanted clothing ends up in Australian landfills every single year. And while 95% of clothing can be reused or recycled, items such as socks are more likely than not to be thrown straight into the bin once they've reached that 'I-can-feel-my-toe-strangling' point. Our lack of textile recycling is partly due to convenience and also the result of poor infrastructure.


• Challenge 2: 1 in 2 Australians will experience a mental health issues in their life-time but just over a quarter will actively engage a support service.

Our solution:

Through our strong network of partners and a team skilled across a broad range of speciality areas, we are empowering our community to contribute to the following key areas of impact:

1. Reducing textile landfill by upcycling unwanted stocks


2. Raise awareness and stamp out the stigma around mental health

We will achieve this by:

• Building a strong marketing campaign to promote the community to recycle their socks. Socks will then be given to a company that is able to upcycle the socks to create new textile and clothing items.


• Educating our community about fast fashion, ways to re-use, recycle or dispose of socks and other textiles.


• Combining this initiative with Odd Socks Day which shares the message to help people with mental health issues land on their feet.

The event will be held on 4th October where we will do the official count to set the world record for the largest collection of socks for recycling - the aim is to go viral with visuals of this GWR attempt to attract local and global media attention and raise awareness about our three key impact areas. Leveraging key partners in the circular economy sector, local businesses and the broader Gold Coast community and schools to donate socks.

Objective: Collect 22,000 socks for recycling.

Climate Change and Shaping the Future of our City: By reducing textile landfill and upcycling unused socks and presenting opportunities around the circular economy (we will also ask the community to bring in containers and cans to coincide with our Good Karma project, which aims to prevent plastic pollution from entering our oceans, and reinvests container refunds into circular economy projects)

Global Health: Raising awareness locally and globally and stamping out the stigma on mental health through a viral campaign and media.