Recycling clothing after you’ve gotten your use out of it is very important to a sustainable lifestyle. Believe it or not, 84% of unwanted clothing in 2012 ended up in a landfill or incinerator according to the EPA. That is 14 million tons of clothing, which either releases methane gas as it decomposes (if it is a natural fiber) thus contributing to the greenhouse effect and climate change, or fails to decompose and instead sheds toxic plastic fibers for hundreds or thousands of years (if it is a synthetic fiber). The EPA estimates that diverting this waste into recycling programs would be the equivalent of taking 7.3 million cars, along with their carbon dioxide emissions, off the roads.

However, not all clothing “recycling” programs are created equal. While many people believe that donating all of their clothing waste to local thrift stores is a highly sustainable option, only about 20% of donated items end up on the shelves of stores like Goodwill and the Salvation Army. The rest is either sold to a for-profit textile recycling company–which expends a lot of energy to revert these clothing items back to usable fibers for new clothing items–or, worse, sent to a third world country. It may seem kind and generous to send old, but still usable clothing to developing countries; however, once these clothing items make it to a given country, they are sold in marketplaces, and due to the high demand for Western fashion, these items replace locally and artisanally produced textiles and clothing. This ultimately cripples the local clothing production industry, which is important to the health of these developing economies.

While it may seem easiest to toss all of your unwanted clothing in a garbage bag and haul it over to the local thrift store, not being careful about what you donate could have a detrimental effect on the local economy in a developing country that you may not have ever even heard of. This may seem disheartening, but there are so many alternatives to simply donating all of your unwanted stuff to the thrift store.

One such alternative is an organization called Blue Jeans Go Green, which processes your old jeans and denim items into new, effective insulation pads for housing. Much of this insulation is donated to Habitat for Humanity within the United States. It is fairly simple to donate your denim items to this cause, either by mailing them to the processing facility, or bringing them to your local Madewell store and receiving a 20% off coupon for your next denim purchase.

Another great textile reuse organization called Coats for Cubs accepts old fur coats that may have otherwise ended up in a landfill, and uses them in wildlife rehabilitation to mimic a mother’s warm fur for orphaned wildlife.

Additionally, consumers can carefully sort through their unwanted items, and bring the best of their goods to second-hand stores like Buffalo Exchange, Plato’s Closet, and Crossroads Trading Co. These stores accept only the items that they believe will sell, and give you back the remaining items to reuse or recycle as you choose, rather than simply sending them to a third-world country without your knowledge or consent. Additionally, these stores pay you in cash or store credit, creating somewhat of a closed loop system in which consumers buy used goods at these stores with the money they got from their used goods, then use these goods, and ultimately re-sell them so that someone else can use them. If your unique vintage items are unable to sell at any of these stores, consider donating them to your local high school’s theatre department to be used as costumes.

For seamstresses and crafters, there are many ways to donate unwanted fabric scraps to be used in a new and beneficial way. Donating fabric to different quilting organizations that make blankets for a number of disadvantaged populations. One such group is Project Linus, which makes quilts for critically ill children.

It is only slightly more difficult to utilize these different means of clothing recycling and reuse, and if more people made use of these practices, the impact on the health of our planet would be profound.

Recycling and reuse are important means of reducing our landfill waste, but there is a third, often-neglected “R” in the three R’s system: reducing. Many consumers are caught up in the quickly evolving trend cycle of fast fashion, and end up buying much more than they actually need and/or wearing items just once or twice before discarding them. Many niche or out of season “trend” items will fail to sell at second-hand stores like Buffalo Exchange, or even thrift stores. The simplest way to combat this problem is to buy less. Each time you buy an article of clothing, ask yourself, will I wear this at least 30 times (or some other number to your liking), and you will not only be left with less junk, but you will be working towards a brighter future for our planet.

References:

http://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/09/old-clothes-fashion-waste-crisis-494824.html

https://fashionista.com/2016/01/clothing-donation

http://bluejeansgogreen.org/

ABOUT COATS FOR CUBS

Discussions on sustainability generally focus on obvious targets—the fossil fuel industry, plastic waste, the pollution of our oceans, climate change—but so much of what we do throughout our daily lives contributes to the destruction of our planet without us even realizing. We all know that the fossil fuel industry is the second most environmentally destructive industry, but do you know what the second most destructive industry is? Take a moment to come up with your best guess.

Did you guess the plastics industry, or perhaps the travel industry?

More likely than not, your first guess was not the fashion industry, but indeed the clothing and fast fashion manufacturing industry is the second most environmentally destructive industry—second only to the manufacturing and use of fossil fuels.

Through the use of toxic chemicals and dyes, synthetic resin based fabrics, and a trend-based model with a quick turnover rate that leaves millions of tons of clothing waste in landfills around the world, the fashion industry is one of the leading causes of environmental destruction, and many individuals in developed countries who do not see clothing manufacturing first hand do not even realize that it is a problem.

Furthermore, the fashion industry is not only unsustainable in its treatment of the planet, but also in its treatment of the factory workers who make the clothes sold in storefronts around the world. The globalization of the fashion industry has far too often been touted as a sign of progress. As you well know, while this process has provided job opportunities for people around the world—particularly in developing countries—many have been exploited by Western companies who fail to pay them living wages, provide adequate and safe working conditions, or protect their surrounding natural environment.

Women are disproportionately impacted by these practices, as they make up over 60% of the world’s work force, receive the least education, are paid the lowest wages, and own the least amount of property. Consequently, they are more heavily impacted by local economic and production crises such as layoffs and salary cuts, as well as a lack of legal and contractual protections. When a particular type of trendy sweater falls out of fashion after a few months, and its replaced by some new hot-button item, the factory in rural China or India or Honduras that was devoted to producing that specific item suffers a debilitating economic blow. It is not the immensely profitable fast fashion corporation that is hurt by this shift in public interest from one sweater to the next, but rather the people—namely women—whose lives depended on the meager wages they were paid to make those sweaters. A commitment to sustainable fashion is more than an important aspect of an eco-friendly lifestyle—it is a bold feminist statement.

While all of the environmental and social destruction brought about by the fashion industry is rather disheartening, there are many non-profits, as well as for-profit corporations, working to change the landscape of the fashion industry. Non-profits such as Eco-Age and Fashion Revolution are non-profit groups dedicated to raising awareness of the destructive aspects of the fashion industry, largely through social media. Eco-Age developed the Green Carpet Challenge, in which certain celebrities like Emma Watson and Emma Roberts dedicated their presence on highly visible red carpet events in Hollywood and around the world to raising awareness of the issue by wearing vintage, recycled, or sustainably produced evening-wear. Emma Watson is a leader in raising awareness of the horrors of the fashion industry through her platform as a celebrity. Additionally, for-profit corporations including Patagonia and Eileen Fisher work to dedicate themselves to slow, sustainable fashion. Patagonia is now incorporating certified fair trade sewing into their manufacturing process. Even the fast-fashion giant H&M, known for its trendy, affordable clothes, has developed a “conscious” line featuring pieces made with more ethical labor standards and more sustainable fabrics and dyes.

More people need to stop and think about where their clothes came from, and, more importantly, who made them. It is essential, and highly possible, for our society to shop consciously. Consumers have the power to do so much good by spending their money on clothing made by workers who are guaranteed living wages and contractual protections. We choose where our money goes, and we choose whether we want to support a corporation dedicated to making as much money and selling as many clothes as possible, or a corporation dedicated to sustainable practices and fair wages for their workers. It is entirely up to us.

 

References:

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/clothing-industry-second-most-polluting/

https://truecostmovie.com/learn-more/environmental-impact/

http://eco-age.com/

http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures