Love your clothes, save money and resources and be fashionable
Fashion is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and shipping combined. If we continue to use fast,cheap, plastic fashion, the industry’s carbon footprint will increase by 50% in the next 20 years.
Fashion uses the water consumed by over 5 million people each year, mainly in fabric dyeing and treatment. And it generates over half a million tons of plastic microfibres each year which make their way into animals and plants in the food chain.
And shockingly, every year an estimated 336,000 tonnes of used clothing gets thrown in the bin in the UK. 87% of the total fibres in clothing is burned or disposed of in landfill. You can dramatically reduce the environmental impact of clothing by increasing the active life of the clothes you wear.
Currently, over 5% of the UK’s total annual carbon and water footprints result from clothing consumption. But if you keep your clothes in active use for nine months longer this will reduce their carbon, water and waste footprints by 20-30%.
The good news is that you can do a lot to reduce the impact of clothing.
If you have to buy clothes, then try to buy the best made clothes you can from local suppliers. Ask them about materials if you need to know. Look at the seams and ask if they will last.
Best of all, follow the current trend for vintage and slow fashion and make use of your charity, vintage or pre-loved shops. Parents can join many of the local marketplace groups to swap childrens’ clothes, which can be hardly used.
We work very closely with West Sussex based Bags of Support http://www.bagsofsupport.co.uk/*, They offer schools a textile recycling service to raise money for schools. They aim to sell on as ethically and locally as possible. Their end beneficiaries are an orphanage in Romania and a very poor community and school in a remote part of Uganda.
If you can’t refashion, swap, sell or share, then you might need to recycle your clothes and other textiles, such as curtains, bags and belts. Don’t put them in your household bin! Hand them down, or give them to a charity shop if you can’t find a use for them. Your local recycling centre will accept clothes, towels, bedlinen, blankets, shoes (in pairs), duvet covers (but not duvets), curtains, bags and belts. But it’s worth knowing where it goes. Last year West Sussex spent £1.7 million disposing of 11,000 tons of textiles, sometimes in incinerators, but mostly for shredding and use as soundproofing or cloths. Some clothes and shoes can still be used.
Many ‘fast fashion’ clothes will have had a long journey to get to you. They’ll have been made in appalling conditions with cheap labour. Then they’ll have used up many transport miles on polluting ships and airplanes. So ask where your clothes have been made, and buy from local makers where you can.
If you have to buy new clothes, then try to buy the best made clothes you can from local suppliers, ideally buy clothes made of recycled fibres which have been remade in Europe, not Asia. Look at the seams and ask yourself if they will last. It is great to choose companies who support Fairwear. This is the Fairtrade standard for clothes.
Take care of your clothes to make them last longer. When you wash, use gentle eco-friendly ingredients or washing balls. Wash them on a cool setting-not only is kinder to your clothes, but uses less energy, detergents are more effective, and it’s kinder to your pocket and planet. Learn to make quick and easy repairs and alterations to save money. And follow the washing, stain removal and ironing instructions.
Visit your local repair cafe http://repaircafe.org/, if you live in Horsham District visit the Horsham Repair Cafe https://www.horshamrepaircafe.org.uk/ which we run with lots of volunteers.
Of course, you can re-fashion, recombine and upcycle your wardrobe to give your favourite clothes a second chance. But when you’re tired of them, don’t bin them. You can sell them, donate to charity, mum and baby and vintage shops, organize a swap or ‘Swish’ event, and much more. And, of course, you can buy second-hand clothes and give them a new lease of life. It’s better than buying new!
Loveyourclothes.org.uk has a lot of handy tips for all stages of your clothing lifecycle
Choose organic or sustainable materials such as organic or recycled cotton. Cotton can be a problem if it is grown using pesticides, so make sure you know how it is grown. Organic Hemp uses little water and no pesticides. Organic Linen also uses little water or pesticides, grows in poor soil, and is biodegradable. Ideally choose clothes dyed with natural dyes rather than chemicals. What’s not to like?
Consider carefully what the clothes are made of, avoid synthetic ones that are made of petroleum and cause plastic pollution when washed and will take thousands of years to rot down into something we might be able to use again. Generally they have to be incinerated, burnt, resources lost and gone forever.
Some of the newer materials such as Tencel, Pinatex, Econyl and Qmonos are creating new fabrics with natural materials and even recycled plastic waste!
Remember- Never put your clothes or shoes, bags or belts in your household recycling!
If you’d like to know most about sustainable fashion, then here are some links:
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/
https://www.loveyourclothes.org.uk/
https://moralfibres.co.uk/ethical-clothing-brands-women/
https://rubymoon.org.uk/
https://thefairshop.co.uk/ Brighton