Textile waste is a growing problem — and Canada still isn't doing enough to solve it, experts say.

At Paul Long's clothing store Anián, each garment gives new life to used wool.

The fabric is recycled from discarded clothing from landfills and rag houses — warehouses full of second-hand clothing — in southeast Asia and Africa that eventually lands in Vancouver, where Long's team uses it to create new garments.

Long estimates his business kept 136 tonnes of textile waste out of landfills abroad in 2020 — around the weight of a blue whale — and he's hoping to make even larger strides in recycling in the future.

Textile waste, which comes from the manufacture of clothes and their eventual disposal into landfills, is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world.

While there are signs that governments are taking the problem seriously by providing more sustainable disposal options, some people in the recycling and textiles industries say Canada still lacks a lot of the infrastructure to properly re-purpose clothes — and that there is still too much reliance on other countries to break down our garments for us.