Shopping Smart (kinda)

Every part of the fashion industry and its waste has an impact on the environment. Fashion waste often refers to any items of clothing thrown away. However, the industry is responsible for waste in many other areas. This includes manufacturing waste, water, dyes and chemical waste, and packaging waste. 

Clothing is a necessity, however, it’s often overconsumed. Nothing is more overconsumed than clothing from stores selling fast fashion. The term “fast fashion” refers to “cheaply produced and priced garments that copy the latest catwalk styles and get pumped quickly through stores to maximize on current trends.”

The term fast fashion was first used in the early 90s, when Zara first moved to New York. The term was coined by the New York Times to describe Zara’s mission to get garments from the design stage to being sold in stores in just 15 days. 

The biggest stores in the fast fashion world include Zara, Shein, UNIQLO, Forever 21, and H&M. And over the years, the quality of clothing has decreased drastically, even though production has increased. The number of times an item of clothing is worn before being thrown out has fallen 36% in the last 15 years. 

Fast fashion brands produce 50% more items today compared to 2000. These retailers are creating clothing waste by over-ordering. When the cheap clothes don’t sell and the trends are no longer trendy, those clothes are discarded, and new clothes are made in 15 days by people in horrible working conditions, not getting paid fair wages. 

Fashion is Cyclical, so Don’t Throw Away ANYTHING

This is even more frustrating when these fast fashion brands are just reproducing the styles and trends they made years prior because fashion and trends are cyclical, meaning they will always come back in style, even ugly, dumb trends that make people insecure. I’m looking at you, low-rise jeans. 

Low-rise jeans have risen from the dead because fashion operates on a pattern often referred to as the “20-year rule,” where trends from two decades ago re-emerge in modern fashion. A new generation “discovers” past styles and makes them modern. 

With access to the internet, specifically Pinterest, if you’re anything like me, the 20-year rule is easy to follow since you can find looks from any season, any year. Because these trends are re-emerging, fast fashion stores feel the need to keep up and reproduce all the clothes they produced years prior. 

I’m Gonna Pop Some Tags

Thrifting reduces carbon emissions, reduces waste, and can reduce demand for textile production, which is the direct opposite of fast fashion: slow fashion. 

Thrift shops now contribute to an over $64 million market, and apps such as TheRealReal, Depop, and ThredUp have caused the industry to flourish and have made it trendy to shop sustainably. And let’s not forget old reliable eBay! 

But, everything has a downside, unfortunately. The thrift shop trend has now encouraged overconsumption. Not only do people feel encouraged to buy more, but they are also encouraged to resell or donate even more. Of course, donations are great, but too much of a good thing can go bad. 

When stores receive a surplus of donations from shoppers, they are forced to throw away those clothes. Only 10-20% of donated clothes find their way to the commercial floor. The remaining, unsold donated clothes create more pollution. 

How Do We Make Them & Where Do They Go?

When I think of fashion’s impact on the environment, I think of the millions of tons of clothing items that are left in landfills around the world. The production of clothes also has an impact, specifically on water consumption. And AI is taking over, so we need as much water as we can get. How can people make their grocery and check lists if ChatGPT runs out of water to fuel itself? 

Fashion is the second-largest consumer of water. To put it in perspective, it requires about 700 gallons to produce one cotton shirt and 2,000 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans. Not only is it using all the water, but it’s also polluting all the water. Textile dyeing is the world’s second-largest cause of water pollution since the water leftover from the dyeing process is often dumped into ditches, streams, or rivers. 

Where do our clothes go to die? After the clothes no longer fit, after they get stained with mysterious substances, or simply have gone so out of style you’re a little embarrassed you ever owned them in the first place. 

In America alone, there are approximately 18 million tons of textile waste a year. On average, 700,000 tons of used clothing are exported overseas, and 2.5 million tons of clothing are recycled. Over three million tons are incinerated, and a staggering 10 million tons are sent to landfills. Worldwide, humans produce 97 million tons of textile waste a year. China and the US are the two countries that produce the most fashion waste in the world by far. 

China produces approximately 22 million tons of textile waste per year, and the US produces approximately 18 million tons of textile waste per year. India is the third-largest country in the world, with approximately 9 million tons. Italy, Germany, France, and the UK follow India on the list, but they don’t even hit one million tons of waste. 

The average American throws out approximately 81 pounds of clothes every year. The average clothing item should last between 100 and 200 wears, though most are thrown out before then. The average lifespan of clothing is just over three years. 

Once these clothes are thrown out, it can take more than 200 years for clothes to decompose in landfill sites. Synthetic fibers like polyester, nylon, and acrylic take hundreds of years to biodegrade. A 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated that 35% of all microplastics found in the ocean come from synthetic textiles like polyester. 

I found an article from CBS News published in 2023 that discusses a massive landfill of used clothing from around the world in Chile. It’s an illegal landfill and one of the biggest in the area, because yes, there are more in the area. CBS reported that there were clothes made all over the world and sold in the US in the pile, including menswear from Alabama, H&M clothing made in Pakistan, and even a graduation sash from a high school in New Jersey. 

The United Nations found that Chile received 126,000 tons of used clothing in textiles in 2021. The majority of those clothes came from the European Union, China, and the United States. Just a quarter of those used clothes were resold, with most ending up in illegal landfills. The U.N. report said the problems were caused by "fast fashion" and "unregulated overproduction and overconsumption on a global scale." African countries like Senegal and Ghana also suffer from landfills with hundreds of thousands of tons of clothing waste. 

Shop Smart 

I think the biggest threat in general is overconsumption because when you buy things you don’t need, you don’t use them, and you throw them away, and they get lit on fire in some landfill somewhere. This is why I truly try to shop smart and buy things I truly want, need, and know will fit into my wardrobe, so it’s guaranteed I will wear it one day. 

My biggest style icon is Jennifer Love Hewitt in Ghost Whisperer. I have wanted that wardrobe since I was eight years old. So, thrift stores and online resellers like eBay are pretty much the only places I can find quality clothes that make me look like I can see spirits and help them crossover. 

When I’m shopping, I usually ask myself: where will I wear this, do I already have anything similar to it, would Melinda Gordon wear this while looking into the life of a spirit who has been haunting her? 

Sometimes, I fall for the $5 item where I don’t need it, but it’s only $5, so I might as well get it. Might as well not, because you might as well charge it rent in your closet, because that’s where it’s going to stay for about five years until you finally redonate it to the store you bought it from. 

Which leads back to the influx of donations. You may want to look for other places to donate clothes besides thrift stores. Extra clothes can be brought directly to centers and shelters for those experiencing homelessness or domestic violence. 

Bigger chain stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army have a huge stock of second-hand products that may never even be placed on the floor. When donated directly to an organization serving individuals, you know those clothes are going to be worn.