Did you know that we produce 2.1 billion tons of waste annually worldwide? Of this, it's projected that we'll generate 60% more clothing and textile waste by 2030 over 2015. However, we can work together to reduce this type of waste.
What is causing an increase fabric/cloth waste?
As consumers, we continue to increase our fast fashion purchases and we're spending less time owning the clothing that we buy to keep up with the most recent fashion trends. Fast fashion is when retailers provide consumers with the latest trends at a lower price and sometimes made with lower quality materials. This leads to us throwing out our clothing at a faster rate than previous generations.
What can be done to reduce fabric/cloth waste?
The good news is that there are many ways to reduce cloth/fabric waste. Many people and organizations working to reduce fabric/cloth waste.
1) Creating Awareness Around Slow Fashion Purchases
Instead of buying the latest fashion trends every month or every season, encourage yourself to consider purchasing higher quality clothing pieces that last longer, also known as 'slow fashion'. This requires a change in consumer behaviour and a lifestyle change to buying clothing and fabric for their quality and longevity. This behaviour is sometimes called 'zero waste fashion'.
2) Clothing Swapping
You can encourage people to organize a community event where people can exchange clothing that is gently used and in generally good condition with others. This encourages clothing to be reused. Now a days there are many websites & apps to sell your pre-owned clothes. Some of these websites & apps are - Elanic, OLX,Etashee, Spoyl, Refashioner.
3) Clothing Donations
You can encourage people to donate clothes to others who are in need. Donating clothes is deeply satisfying. There are lot of organisation all over India which collects clothes for the needy and have centres across. Once such is "Goonj" which collects and distribute it to poor people in rural areas.
4) Purchase what you need
It is necessary to understand that just shopping for the sake of shopping is not going to help any one. Be mindful about your purchasing habits and purchasing new clothes only when needed would help in reduction of creating less demand and lesser fabric waste around
5) Sharing among family members
A t-shirt which might be small for my elder brother may fit me well. This was the thought in family 20 years ago. But, now every kid has a need to get his own clothes. We can always teach everyone to share in our family and reduce our fabric waste.
"BUY LESS
CHOOSE WELL
MAKE IT LAST"
-Viviene Westwood
Do you have idea to reduce fabric waste ? Share with us at connect@inwaster.com