Sometimes my head simply wants to explode! It is not that I am suffering from some strange neurological condition.  I just have a real problem with waste, especially when it comes to clothes. Don’t get me wrong, I love to get new clothes and I don’t believe there is anything wrong with having a great wardrobe. It is what happens to discarded clothes that gets my goat and it is time that this thorny issue garnered a little more publicity.

The Fashion Mountain

Increased disposable incomes, fashion awareness and affordable clothes are trends which have combined to create a veritable mountain of discarded clothing in developed countries.  These days we don’t have to think twice about buying some garments as they are so very cheap and that means that inevitably we all sometimes grab a few things which prove to be mistakes.  Fashions change so quickly that even the things which do prove to be a success can quickly become last season’s news and so the more fashion conscious amongst us will move on to pastures new.

Help People and Help the Planet

Too many of our mistakes and the styles that have fallen out of favour end up in the bin or are left languishing somewhere in the darkest recesses of our wardrobes, never to be seen again. This is a terrible waste and we should all think more carefully about what to do with our clothes. We may have grown tired of them but that does not mean that they have reached the end of their useful lives. The planet’s resources are depleting, clothing manufacture harms the environment and there are millions of people who cannot afford new clothes and so our thoughts should turn to those issues and right now!

New Lives for Old Clothes

If you have clothing that you simply do not wear and know that you will probably never wear then don’t leave it to rot. If you cannot summon the enthusiasm to sell it on then donate it to charity or at the very least put it in a textiles bin at your local recycling centre.  Charities can raise valuable funds from your unwanted clothes or give the garments to people who really need them. The vast majority of clothing is recyclable, no matter what its condition, and this can save valuable resources when the fibres are used again.  Why cultivate more cotton using huge volumes of water and pesticides when there are millions of tons of the stuff hiding in our homes?

Denim Blues

Our favourite garments in our wardrobes are certainly our jeans. There are billions of jeans in the world and jeans manufacture accounts for a huge percentage of cotton cultivation and tons of chemical dyes that are far from eco-friendly.  Our jeans come at a cost but we can offset this by recycling our jeans and there are many ways to give denim a second life. Think before you throw denim away and the word will be a better place!

Article by Sally Stacey