The Challenge of E-Waste: Why Right to Repair Matters

Not all founders are cut from the same cloth. Federico Sainz de Robles was working in a textile laboratory when he wondered why clothing brands hadn’t evolved with the times. He decided that if nobody else was making attractive, practical, and sustainable clothing, then he would. So he founded Sepiia, a Spanish clothing startup that operates at the intersection of fashion, technology, and ecology. Instead of creating cheap resource-heavy fast-fashion items, Sepiia focuses on high-quality, durable items.

Every year it’s estimated we toss away more than a billion plastic bottles here in New Zealand.  This plastic ends up clogging our landfills, getting shipped offshore and incinerated in places like Malaysia, where it harms human health, or it winds up on our coast, causing harm to wildlife like the toroa (albatross) and breaking down into tiny toxic pieces which end up in our food.  We all know the time has come for visionary action on plastic – let’s ban throwaway plastic bottles* and mandate for reusable alternatives.  We’re calling on New Zealand’s government to ban single-use plastic bottles. Will you join us?