By Aspen Richter, LWPTSA Council Sustainability Co-Chair
Have you recently found yourself with old clothes and didn’t know what to do with them? It’s likely, as the average person in the United States discards 80 pounds (36 kilograms) of clothing every year. Unfortunately, 85 percent of clothing ends up in the landfill, even though most of it could be reused, recycled by reclaiming the fabric, or downcycled (often shredded) into products such as packing blankets.
This waste is increasing. Each year, clothing is being produced and discarded at higher rates around the globe, partly because of “fast fashion,” a growing business model in which clothing companies rapidly produce and sell inexpensive clothing in popular styles. Zara, Shein and H&M are three companies that are often associated with fast fashion.
Unfortunately, fast-fashion clothing is intended to be discarded soon after it is purchased. In fact, the average piece of fast-fashion clothing is worn only 10 times. More than 50 percent of fast-fashion items are disposed of in under a year. When fast fashion and other textile industries are combined, 92 million tons of textiles go to landfill or incineration each year, a tremendous amount of lost resources.
Also of critical importance, the global fashion industry is responsible for 20 percent of global wastewater production and 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Put these pieces of information together, and it’s easy to see why being responsible in how we purchase and dispose of clothing is important! These are personal choices, but they have a big impact on the entire globe. Each of us can make a difference by making sensible, money-saving, planet-friendly choices when we buy, while we’re owning, and when we are ready to get rid of each piece of our clothing. Below are some simple ideas on how to make a change.
Purchasing
- Shop for higher quality clothing that will last longer. Often you will save money in the long run. (See below.)
- Sanity-check yourself before making a purchase. Is an item a want or a need? Reducing unnecessary purchases will save you money.
- Consider purchasing second-hand, whether by thrifting locally or shopping online.
- Avoid fast-fashion brands and trends.
- Keep these ideas in mind when purchasing spirit wear for your school!
Owning
- Learn how to make basic clothing repairs.
- Ladder stitch is incredibly simple and can repair failed stitches along a seam. It can also repair many holes in stuffed animals. Be a hero parent: Learn ladder stitch!
- ShoeGoo is a flexible superglue-style product that can reattach soles and extend the life of shoes for several months.
- Many books are available on “visible mending” techniques to extend the life of your clothing in visually appealing ways. (Check your local library!)
- Host a “learn to sew” PTSA event!
Disposing
- Donate, don’t dispose!
- Clothing should not be put in blue recycling dumpsters and curbside bins. Clothing placed in these bins will end up at the landfill.
- Web search for a local donation center, bag clean clothes for donation, and drop them off. Goodwill has many local locations. They accept clothing for resale. Less well known is that they also accept ripped clothing for fabric recycling.
- PTSAs can hold clothing swaps or donation events!
Textile waste statistics are from the Washington State Recycling Association workshop Textile Recycling … Where It’s At and the Exciting Future, presented on Sept. 17, 2024.
“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.”— Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play