Suzanne Carillo

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

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