Fast Fashion Fast Tracking To The Landfill
How much has our consumption of clothing changed since the 1980s?
Can you believe our clothing consumption has increased by 400% in the last 35 years?!
Did you know that 85% of clothing taken to charity shops winds up in landfills? In North America that is estimated to be 25 billion (yes billion) pounds a year.
The fallacy of creating new from old fashion is just that…a lie.
Currently only 1% of textiles are recycled in the literal sense of the word.
That means making something new out of something old.
Why?
Most of our clothing is made of blended fibres which are very difficult to break down as they contain multiple components. Technology isn’t advanced enough yet to recycle clothing anywhere near the speed at which we consume it. Fast fashion companies are not willing to change their production which introduces new clothing into stores weekly.
Fast fashion recycling campaigns are a form of green washing, an effort to make you feel okay with overconsumption.
It would take 12 years to recycle what a fast fashion retailers sell in 48 hours.
Let that sink into your brain for a minute.
Fast fashion retailers have a broken business model that is completely unsustainable and has already depleted the earth of valuable non renewable resources.
Do you justify your consumption on doing your bit to, “support the economy”?
Wake up!
The system will never change if you keep feeding money into it.
Do you think you’re helping your community by consuming and then donating your old clothing to a local charity?
The reality is that in the era of fast fashion there are far more unwanted clothes than there are of people in need.
In fact, the majority of donated clothing is sold to an intermediary company which ships the clothing overseas to developing countries. The clothing is then sold again for money. What isn’t sold is burned creating more toxins for the environment. We are poisoning ourselves with our uncontrollable need for new.
Dumping is always the cheaper solution rather than trying to recycle the materials.
Your textile waste is an environmental issue. Textile waste to landfills is one of the fastest growing areas of waste.
How do we solve this problem?
Bottom line, don’t buy so much.
Try to purchase secondhand or consignment. Let’s use what we already have or what is already on the planet rather than creating new.
New does not equal better.
Linking up with Patti for Visible Monday, Turning Heads Tuesday and Fancy Friday
Some of us just love fast fashion and many only shop online. I’m not a thrift shopper but love Swap parties, and my friends and I swap clothes all the time. This just works for me, we reuse and recycle at the same time and items left over we donate to Goodwill. Yes. . we as consumers waste too much and one day we are going to wish we did’nt.
http://www.madamtoomuch.com
I’m hoping that more and more people will realize the time to wake up is now.
Knowledge is power and the more we educate ourselves about the negative impact of fast fashion the less likely we are to find it so alluring.
Mindless over-consumption followed by maladaptive purging.
It’s such an ugly truth.
Thank you for being such an informative and inspiring catalyst for change Suzanne.
Your first sentence tells the whole story.
AMEN!
thank you for delivering some numbers! they are shocking!
and i will never even understand from a esthetic view point why people buy that much fast fashion – mostly its such a bad quality that even shows in photos – i often ask if the wearer has no mirror at all….
(and did not a proper look at the pics she´s posting!)
Fast fashion often looks decent for the first wear and then quickly falls apart. It often looks best when in the fitting room. Like you wrote, the lack of quality shows up sooner rather than later.
The figures are shocking, aren’t they?
I’m endlessly horrified by the rails and rails of fast fashion in our chazzas, many with the tags still attached. I’m not sure if donating all their cheap tat absolves the consumers’ conscience because they think they’re doing the right thing by giving it to charity but even the charity shops can’t cope with amount of stuff they’re getting – nobody wants to buy it secondhand as it’s so cheap to buy new. As I commented on a previous post of yours, a lot of the unsold charity shop donations are sent to Africa where they are sold on the secondhand markets there which has led to the collapse of their traditional textile industries. Who wants to invest in a traditional, beautiful and expensive piece when you can have a mountain of British fast fashion for less?
I always unfollow women with blogs/IG accounts who accept free fast fashion and promote it on social media – if it means I have less followers then so be it. Those people aren’t my tribe.
I don’t have kids but if I did I’d be seriously worried about their future. I can’t see us having a planet left soon. I’m not saying this to promote my vintage business, it’s because I’m genuinely afraid for our future.
xxx
As you mentioned this is a global issue and destroying the planet worldwide.
I am also genuinely afraid for the future of the planet. It is depressing.
What can I say? Guilty. You probably won’t love me anymore. I just cannot surpress my urges in this area. I am trying to shop second hand as well as you know. And I do only give my clothes away to other women, never to charity shops. And I shop the better clothes, no fast fashion, but still guilty as charged.
Greetje
I watched a horrifying documentary recently about one of your favourite brands, Max Mara and other lux brands. Yikes. Just terrible. I actually had to get up and leave the room for part of it, that is how disturbing it was. We like to believe the high end brands take responsibility and have integrity but they don’t.
The doc is in French, so you probably can’t watch it but it was beyond eye opening for me.
The problem is Suzanne, that I cannot watch this kind of stuff. It would destroy me. I cannot even read newspapers. I visualize everything and it will vividly stay in my brain for ever.
What am I to do? How am I to know which brand is completely good/sustainable? And if I buy something of that brand second-hand, will that be so much better? Or do I help to maintain the idea that such items are desirable, keep their value? Like second-hand fur (which I never buy). I don’t know, I am really confused.
Greetje
Anything you buy secondhand will be better for the earth. You don’t use new resources to create it. It was already there. Trying your very best to shop secondhand first is the best way to have a clear conscience that you are making a personal effort to curb the destruction of the only home we have.
Remaining oblivious to the reality isn’t a choice anymore. Knowledge is power. These things stay with me too. Taking responsibility for our choices and educating ourselves and others is the best course of action.
This is the Titanic now. You can look away from the iceberg, ignore it, keep eating your lovely meal, dancing away wearing your beautiful clothes but in the end we all know how that story ends.
This is really beyond shocking! OK, we’ve all known this for a while, but being confronted by those figures is quite mind-blowing. I’m trying to avoid fast fashion as the plague even though I admit to succumbing once in a while. But even if I’m buying almost exclusively second hand, I often wonder, is it enough? Even though more and more people seem to be aware and care enough to change their ways, that still leaves an overwhelming majority who only care about getting their regular fast fashion fixes. I’m seconding Vix that if I had children, I would be worried for their future, and it’s not just the landfill created by fast fashion I’d be worried about. xxx
I believe that each of us is responsible for our own intake. We can try to educate others and hope that they will be also learn to be responsible.
Often times I feel frustrated. I’ve been writing about this for over 6 years on my blog and it seems futile but I keep at it. I have to feel I’m doing something worthwhile.
Suzanne, yes, yes, yes. Except for one moment of weakness about a month ago at a thrift shop, I have stopped buying clothes. I know I will slip again, but my closet, instead of inspiring, now at times overwhelms. I think the KonMari trend of minimizing clutter has been a positive social reaction to this feeling. I hope it gathers momentum.
Instant gratification is something we need to get over – social media does not help.
Clearly, we need to translate our social convictions into global legislation, and we need world leaders to step up – hard to do when huge corporate interests are involved, not to mention their stockholders who’ll get pissed off. I can barely stand to think about it.
I hang on to the hope that miracle technology will figure out recycling, it might buy us a bit more time.
Bravo Melanie! You have reached critical mass and were final able to stop. I think that is HUGE!
I agree that social media is what fuels this bad habit.
Of course what you wrote is correct, it is all based on greed, like everything else in the world. Our entire economic system is based on consumption. Changing people’s perceptions about clothing is a good place to start but ultimately you are right, we need laws put into place and companies need to be held accountable. I think the idea from cradle to grave, the idea that companies need to be responsible for their products and their recycling of those same products is the only way to combat this issue. They are making the money when selling, they need to spend the money to recycle 100% of their used products.
What a timely and relevant post. Truly a must read. I have written similar posts, but your information is better laid out and more up to date, and the situation is more dire.
We are indeed both poisoning ourselves and our planet.
Greed + social media induced insecurity + the instant gratification of fast fashion… a bad trend indeed,
I wish I was hoping for a tech cure for this.. I am not.
Thanks for sharing this Suzanne ,
❤️❤️❤️
Elle
https://theellediaries.com/
Yes, I too had high hopes for technology but we are consuming faster than technology can keep up.
Thank you. Word needs to get out about how we’ve shifted in the production and sale of clothing. It’s bad for the environment, wasteful and uneconomic. Your post educates people and that’s a very good thing.
Thanks Ally : ) I figure the more people know, the less likely they will want to spend money buying fast fashion fixes.
I know I will slip again, but my closet, instead of inspiring, now at times overwhelms
Some days I’m also at that point. Finding a “just middle” and controlling our urges is my goal. It isn’t easy when everywhere you turn you are bombarded with marketing selling you clothing. Don’t give up though. Your awareness is a gift.
Really, the only way we are going to make a meaningful difference in this area if we stop buying clothing, aside from replacing items that wear out. It’s not just the fast fashion chains that are the bad guys because as you point out, when items are donated to thrift stores, if they don’t get sold within a specified period of time, they are shipped to third world countries or sent to landfill.
Is this a realistic goal for most of us? I have seen blogs by people who built a year’s worth of looks around one garment (with a few copies for rotation) and different accessories. My closet is jammed with clothes, in fact, my whole bedroom is, and yet I will still grab that cool $5 dress from my neighbourhood thrift shop to bring home. It requires a change of behaviour, but also a change in mindset and I know that I am not being very successful with this.
I think that it does make a difference even if we are taking baby steps. Just the fact that you buy your clothes secondhand, using what already exists rather than creating new is worthwhile.
I know how difficult it is to change our mindsets with regards to buying clothes, that quick, easy, feel-good fix. This has increased dramatically for me since I started my Etsy store. I’m constantly tempted. It isn’t easy! I am learning however to let go of more and keep less. It is a constant battle though and probably one of the reasons I watch so many documentaries about environmental issues trying to keep myself in check.
The important thing is not to give up.
I’ve been talking with some friends and some acquaintances about these things and it has been shocking that many of them don’t care. Some of them have even given me The Look when I’ve told them that I’m not buying new clothes anymore. But I think that I’ve put a little seed in their minds.
A recent conversation I had with Mr.A. was about how many clothes we had back in the 80’s. We realized that having two coats and two pairs of winter boots (or even a pair) was totally acceptable. And we only had quality coats, which lasted almost forever. Probably they costed a huge slice of our budgets too, but never so much than it is now, when people buy clothes weekly or daily. I think it’s not only bad for the environment, it is bad for people’s welfare, as they spend too much money in something unsatisfying which generates anxiety.
besos
It is beyond shocking that people don’t see that their insatiable need to consume is poisoning our only home.
Bravo to you for realizing that you are planting a seed. That is how I became a thrifter, another blogger, was adamant about buying only secondhand and she called me out on a Forever 21 purchase. It took me a little while to come round to the idea but now I see how I was blinded by blogging into believing fast fashion was good. Every little bit counts.
I couldn’t agree more that buying too much creates anxiety. I’m trying to concentrate on experiences over things now. In the end it is the memories we create with those we love that will matter, not what we wore.
The truth about fast fashion is sickening and shocking Suzanne. Like Greetje, I have to hold my hands up and admit to my weakness for the joy of shopping. No excuses will stand up against your argument, as the truth of the matter is indisputable.
Yes, I prefer to recycle and am very happy to quench my shopping needs through vintage and charity shopping and your piece has prompted me to bring myself back in line, so thanks for that. Do I care? Yes, thank goodness I do. Does everyone care? Well, that’s exactly why you’re so right to bring this urgent matter back into sharp focus.
I’ll fall off the bandwagon that’s for sure, but honestly I gotta try harder.
Thank you!
Anna x
That was my goal, to get people to think and try harder. All we normally see is that shiny new piece of clothing instead of the destruction behind it.
Educating ourselves is the best deterrent for overconsumption.