Is Waste Really Waste?
Clothing waste in the fashion industry is a source of abundance. The average consumer throws away 70 pounds of clothing per year, and globally we produce 13 million tons of textile waste each year—95% of which could be reused or recycled. In an ideal world, could a simple mindset shift change our perspective of waste and limit pollution from textile scraps?
The “Throwaway” Culture
In today’s world, consumers have become increasingly accustomed to cheap, poorly made fashion that is incredibly disposable and replaceable. These unhealthy norms foster overproduction, overconsumption, and evidently, increased waste. Especially with the rise of ‘fast fashion,’ based on large quantities of trendy, low-priced collections, there is a need to challenge this consumer mindset.
Through educating the public on newer sustainable terms related to the elongating of a garment’s life cycle, this so-called “waste” can actually be looked at in a positive light.
First, the general term for this ‘waste as a resource’ approach is known as circular fashion, or a circular economy. The principles include: reduce, reuse, recycle, and in a perfect scenario, there would be zero waste. Some ‘circular fashion’ companies such as EcoAlf pledge to keep a product’s life as long as possible and reuse all materials that go into production.
Downcycling vs. Upcycling
Upcycling is a term that is progressively becoming more and more familiar to consumers. In short, it is when the quality and usefulness of a material is retained in its next lifecycle. For instance, a project I took part in was taking old, used t-shirts and turning them into cute and handy tote bags. This would be an example of upcycling, using “deadstock”—which is previously produced materials that are repurposed to create something new.
Downcycling is still the reuse of products and materials, however it is specifically when the quality of a material decreases each time it’s recycled. Normally, once the constituent elements are broken down into raw materials, they are reused if possible but typically as a lower-value product. The negative association with downcycling is that even though it is still a form of recycling and often keeps garment scraps out of landfills, they eventually end back up there as the products tend to be low-quality.
In this complicated fashion industry, materials are often the most costly part of clothing production, while textiles are also the most wasted resource. When companies focus more on the end of a garment’s lifecycle and consumers become comfortable with reusing and recycling clothing waste, the fashion industry could succeed at aiding this planet.
On my next blog, I will begin to evaluate smaller scale sustainable brands that I have been researching. I truly look forward to it! See you next time!
