A recent survey of more than 1000 people found a third of ACT respondents purchased a new clothing item each week, with 33 per cent also throwing out clothes on a weekly basis.
The online survey, designed to gauge Australians' attitude towards fast-fashion, found Canberrans had some of the worst behaviour when it came to sustainability, with 39 per cent buying a new garment for an occasion once a month and not re-wearing it.
Alice Sutton runs Canberra label Edition, designing outfits meant to last, using patterns and material which minimises waste.
She sells unique pieces from her studio and Craft ACT, a not-for-profit collective of artists and designers based in the city.
Ms Sutton said fast fashion had never fit with what she loved about clothes.
"I like fashion as an art form or an art practice," she said. "So when I started hearing about sustainable fashion, that really connected with me."
Ms Sutton has built her business on responsible sourcing of fabric and designs clothes which minimise fabric waste, looking at how pattern pieces fit together.
"That way, you're not just saving money by not wasting fabric, you're also creating really exciting shapes and silhouettes," she said.
According to the Stain on the Nation report, Australia ranks second behind the United States for global textile consumption per person.
Australia's high consumption sees the average consumer purchase 27 kilograms of new clothing and then discard 23 kilograms of them, the report found.
Fashion Revolution is an activist group which sprung up in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, whereby 1134 people were killed when a clothing manufacturing building collapsed.
With a network spanning the globe, the activists are a part of a growing backlash against the fast-fashion industry and awareness of the damage brands like H&M and Shein can have.
At home in Australia, Upparel are working to prevent textiles ending up in landfill, by offering to pickup goods that can no longer be worn, and delivering clothes, shoes and material to charities, repurposing them or shredding them for textile filling.
Julie Boulton, from Monash University Sustainable Development Institute, said a more responsible Australian textile industry depended on transitioning to a more sustainable production and consumption model.
"We do a lot of work around a circular economy model of production and consumption," Ms Boulton said.
"Instead of the usual linear model, where we make something, we take it and then we dispose of it, in a circular model whatever you're making needs to go back into the system and used up to its absolute fullest potential."
Ms Boulton said the first question consumers should ask when clothes were a little worn was: 'is it actually waste?'
She said doing repairs, clothes swaps with friends and donating to charities were all better alternatives to throwing things out.
Ms Boulton said there wasn't many places that currently had the technology to recycle an item of clothing into another item of clothing.
"What we need to do is think about how we design it in the first place," Ms Boulton said.
"The best way to design an item of clothing is with 100 per cent mono material, which means 100 per cent cotton or 100 per cent polyester."
She said those items were much easier to break down into its fibers and for those fibres to be reused.
According to Ms Boulton, the Australian Fashion Council received a federal grant late in 2021 to develop a product stewardship scheme for clothing.
She said one of the first things they'd look at was assessing how much good quality clothing was just being thrown out.
"The more consumers ask questions, or do a bit of research and even email brands for answers, the more we'll see brands sit up and take notice," Ms Boulton said.
