The environment faces pollution every day from the fashion industry, which is the fifth highest polluter in the world, according to Alden Wicker, a journalist for EcoCult, a blog about sustainable fashion. This is the result of fast fashion and harmful consumerism.
Fast fashion has become increasingly common in today’s society. It is when companies like Forever 21, H&M, and Charlotte Russe recreate popular fashion trends seen on the runway and then manufacture the clothing quickly and cheaply. While this practice speeds up the entire process it also leads to textile waste and has a negative impact on the environment.
The cycle begins when consumers buy more clothes than ever in order to keep up with the newest trends, which is possible because clothing and accessories have become cheaper and more plentiful. Consumers are addicted to cheaper prices and higher quantity of goods over quality. Then, when the consumer has decided that they no longer have use for the clothing they’ve bought — or that the clothing is no longer in style — they simply discard it, oftentimes not bothering to consider donating or recycling.
When people do donate their clothing, however, it often has a very small impact because less than 20% of clothes that are donated are actually used, according to The Atlantic. The rest is thrown into landfills, which is incredibly harmful to our environment.
People leave behind a “fashion footprint,” which is the impact their fashion-purchasing habits have on the environment. With increased purchasing comes an increased use of resources. This results in more clothing, supplies, and scraps discarded in landfills.
Among the many things that can be done to stop this from happening are recycling, upcycling, and thrifting. Recycling fabric and clothes at the end of their life cycle is better for the environment and can help reduce one’s fashion footprint. Upcycling clothing and accessories can help people get another use out of their old materials by making new things.
Haley Nakonechny, a junior at The College of New Jersey, makes it a habit to go thrifting often, and to make a few trips to Goodwill as well. “I like how at thrift stores you can find a lot of unique pieces of clothing for relatively cheap prices,” says Nakonechny. “A lot of the time I buy stuff that I normally wouldn’t because the price would deter me from doing so, but with thrifting there’s more freedom.”
Nakonechny also has concerns about the effects that fashion production has on the environment. “I also like how sustainable [thrifting] is for the environment,” says Nakonechny. “I’m not a fan of fast fashion.”
“It can be hit or miss,” admits Nakonechny, of her thrifting endeavors. “I’ve definitely had really successful and really unsuccessful trips to thrift stores. One of my best trips was actually to Goodwill when I got over 10 pieces of clothing for only $20 and I still wear most of it to this day.”
Sass Brown, a researcher, writer, and educator focused on sustainable fashion, emphasized the importance of knowing how you can do your part to limit fashion waste. “Up to 70% of all textiles end up in landfill or incinerated, yet they are almost completely recyclable or downcyclable in some way shape or form,” says Brown.
Just how much textile waste do we generate in this country?
The United States alone generates 25 billion pounds of textile waste each year, which is 82 pounds per resident, according to Planet Aid, a website dedicated to educating others about the effects of textiles on the environment. Only 15% of this waste gets donated or recycled, leaving 85% to go to landfills. This amounts to 21 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste per year.
Brown was a judge for the annual Sustainia 100 solutions for several years. Sustainia 100 is a company that is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark and focuses on sustainable solutions and assists developments in sustainability across several industries. “[My job] involved reviewing potential candidates [for sustainable solutions] for a variety of different criteria as well as suggesting additional candidates not previously considered,” says Brown.
Brown also wrote books about the ethics of the fashion industry. Her second book, ReFashioned, was an “outgrowth” of her first book, Eco Fashion. In ReFashioned, Brown features international designers who upcycle discarded garments in order to make new, cutting edge fashion pieces.
“I just found so many amazing emerging designers utilizing both pre and post-consumer waste as the raw materials for their collection,” says Brown. “As materials are generally not standardized it required some creative thinking on the part of the designers with some ingenious responses, while simultaneously challenging the mainstream fashion system and retailers/buyers used to purchasing and ordering multiples of the same thing, something not possible for those working with waste.”
What are brands doing to slow the production of textile waste?
Other solutions come from brands and organizations such as Tonlé, Patagonia, FABSCRAP, and Planet Aid who are dedicated to reducing our fashion footprint and contribute to the decrease of negative environmental impacts. These companies are zero waste, which means they do not discard any fabric in the production process. Instead they repair the clothing they have made to extend the life of the piece and repurpose materials discarded by designers or design houses.
Perhaps the most important thing that these organizations do is inform people of the problem in addition to offering solutions. Educating consumers who are otherwise ignorant to these issues is essential to working towards a resolution.
Patagonia allows customers to send their damaged Patagonia clothing to them where they will repair it. This results in less textile waste per person because instead of throwing away old or damaged clothing consumers are able to get these articles fixed and can thus wear them longer.
Another company that is dedicated to preserving the environment’s resources and producing less waste is Tonlé. Tonlé intercepts fabric that is discarded from factories before it can be placed in landfills and makes the fabric into original designs, even using the tiniest scraps wherever possible. The excess fabric is sewn back into yarn, which brings Tonlé’s waste output down to 2-3%. Tonlé also created its own formula for recycled paper using fabric scraps and paper left from their office in order to truly create zero waste.
FABSCRAP is a non-profit which collects discarded fabrics from fashion and interior designers and brands in reusable bags that can be recycled. What cannot be recycled will be donated. Proprietary material and small scraps are shredded to create insulation, carpet padding, furniture lining, moving blankets, etc. This company has proven that there are many uses for old fabric and articles of clothing. Their website educates people and urges them to not throw away old fabric as there is always another use for it.
Companies such as Patagonia, Tonlé, and FABSCRAP are dedicated to benefitting the environment by using organic cotton, recycling materials, and, in the cases of FABSCRAP and Tonlé, donating clothing.
Educating the consumer on the impact of their harmful and wasteful fashion habits is important to Brown. She does, however, maintain that there is no solution that is better than others and that the best solutions depend on your own personal ethics. “I can’t tell you it’s more important to sustain tradition and artisanship in a developing country than it is to reduce carbon footprint and support local economy, or if it’s better to use natural organic materials or recycled synthetics,” says Brown. “There is no right or wrong with these decisions, it depends upon where your values lie.”
It is important that these companies identify the problems and educate those visiting their websites about the issues of textile waste, but it is perhaps more important that they suggest solutions to these problems as well.