Reclothing is a platform where WE teach YOU how to recycle clothes into more useful items. Did you know that an average American throws away 37kg (81 pounds) of clothes every year- the weight of an 11-year-old child? And 85% of our clothes end up burnt, or in landfills? In 2018 alone, there was 17 million tons of textile waste (clothing waste)! But you might ask, why does this impact the environment?
Here’s some facts about the fashion industry:80 billion pieces of clothing are produced every year & 400% more clothes are produced than 20 years ago. That might sound like a good thing, but because more and more clothes are being made, the quality of the clothes are going down. Clothes get easily torn, faded and worn out. Not only that but the “trends” change really quickly, so we keep have to buy more and more and more. This is called fast fashion: the mass production of cheap clothes and changing trends that egg customers to keep buying. And because the quality of the clothes is going down, people throw them away faster. Here are some more facts:7 times is the average amount of times a piece of clothing is worn before it’s thrown away. Just 20 - 30% of the clothes in most people’s wardrobes are being worn. Fashion is the 2nd largest polluter, behind oil. Yet that’s not all.
Most clothing industries don‘t bother cleaning the toxic waste and dump it straight into rivers. Toxic waste includes dye, along with dangerous substances like: Perfluorocarbons (PFCs, they have been linked to health risks like cancer), surfactants, phthalates, and a lot more chemicals that are both harmful to marine life and us. Yes, us! Don’t forget that we need water too, and so do all the plants we grow and eat. If the water is poisoned, then we will also be poisoned. One way to stop this is to buy from more organic clothing companies, like ones that use linen or sustainably farmed cotton, and opt for natural dyes instead of chemical ones.
Clothes don’t just pollute water either, they use it too.
The finishing stages of clothe-making (dyeing) requires large quantities of freshwater: 200 tons of freshwater for just 1 ton of dyed fabric! According to the World’s Resources Institute, it takes around 2,700 litres of water to make 1 cotton shirt. Cotton growth requires a lot of water. As in, a LOT. An entire sea of water. Don’t believe me? Then look no further than the Aral Sea: the world’s 4th largest lake (so large it was considered a sea), with an area of 68,000.2 tons of water and a volume of 27.3km and a maximum depth of 102 metres. Well, not anymore. The Sea of Islands, as it was called, is also known as one of the worst environmental disasters: because it’s gone. If you visit the Aral Sea now, all you will see (no pun intended) is a desert. That’s because the rivers supplying the sea with water were all rerouted to grow cotton in the area (I did say cotton needed a lot of water). Soon, after only 50 years (1960-2010), the sea was, well, gone.
So, how does this link back to Reclothing? Reclothing helps people recycle their older clothes so they don‘t have to throw it away and create more trash: always a plus. Reclothing also makes sure that the immense amount of water used for clothes doesn’t go to a waste, along with providing useful blogs on how to reduce textile pollution. Here’s a tip to start with: start buying better quality clothes! Ones that last a lot longer than the ones in fast fashion. This will prevent you from needing to re-buy clothes often. Or… just for fun! For example, do you know how to make a kite out of an old t-shirt? Well, with reclothing, you can!
See you there!
Russel the Ridged Drake, Mascot of Reclothing
Bibliography:
Brown, Rachel. "The Environmental Crisis Caused by Textile Waste." Roadrunner
Smarter Recycling,www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/&textile-waste-environmental-crisis.
"Toxic Fashion: What Chemicals Are Used in Clothing?"
Compare Ethics,&compareethics.com/chemicals-in-clothing/.
"What's Wrong with the Fashion Industry?" Sustain Your Style,&www.sustainyourstyle.org/en/whats-wrong-with-the-fashion-industry.