The result of fast fashion is a lot of clothes that are thrown away every year and have a huge impact on the environment; But can these clothes be turned into a useful product?
Open your closet and be honest. How long has it been since you last wore the clothes in your closet? Don’t you think it’s time to clean up? With a little searching in your closet or drawers, you will find clothes that are no longer wearable. Clothes that are out of fashion or even clothes that you will never wear again.
According to the research of Sophie Woodward, a sociologist at the University of Manchester, on average 12% of the clothes in women’s closets remain unused. If you are a little ruthless, you throw away unused clothes; But what will be their fate?
Approximately 85 percent of all clothing thrown away in the United States (nearly 13 million tons in 2017) is landfilled or incinerated. On average, every American throws away 37 kilograms of clothes every year.
Worldwide, 92 million tons of clothing waste are produced annually. According to predictions, by 2030, the production of clothing waste will reach 134 million tons per year. According to Chetna Prajapati, a researcher on sustainable textile production methods from Loughborough University in the UK: The current fashion system uses a large amount of non-renewable resources, including chemical resources, to produce clothes that people only wear for a short time, and then a large volume of these clothes. They enter municipal dumps or scrap warehouses. This system puts a lot of pressure on valuable resources like water, pollutes the environment and destroys ecosystems. In addition, on a global scale, it produces many social effects.
There are good reasons to recycle clothes. The global fashion industry is responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. Textile manufacturing industries alone release 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere every year. A lot of water is needed to produce clothes, and the fashion industry produces 20% of the world’s wastewater.
At the same time, people are buying more clothes day by day. Today, an average customer’s purchase of clothes has increased by 60% compared to fifteen years ago. In the UK, more than two tons of clothes are bought every minute, and this country is at the top of the European countries with the highest number of clothing purchases.
Annually, 56 million tons of clothes are purchased worldwide, and this figure is expected to reach 93 million tons by 2030 and 160 million tons by 2050. Although most clothes usually last for several years, the rapid change in fashion and customer taste shortens the life of clothes. According to statistics, the lifespan of modern clothes is between 2 and 10 years. Meanwhile, the lifespan of clothes such as t-shirts and underwear is between one and two years, and other clothes such as coats and coats are between four and six years.
Can recycling clothes reduce the impact of fashion addiction on the environment? Currently, 13.6% of the clothes and shoes that are thrown away in the United States are destined for recycling. This is despite the fact that every American throws away 37 kg of clothes every year.
