Waste Not | Steps You Can Take To Reduce Your Fashion Footprint

Did you know that the volume of clothing Americans throw away each year has doubled in the last 20 years? Yiiikes. Not only is the average person buying more items of clothing, but they are also only keeping them for half as long. Collectively we are consuming and trashing fashion at a higher rate than our planet 🌎 can handle, with more and more textile waste ending up in landfills. While we love fashion, we don’t want our clothes to destroy our planet. Luckily there are steps we can take to reduce our fashion footprint while still staying (sustainably) stylish.

Buy Less

The single best thing we can do for the planet is to consume less. Every new item of clothing made has a substantial carbon footprint attached to its manufacturing … even the greenest garment uses resources for production and transport to your home, creating some environmental impact.

Shop Mindfully

Buy pre-owned, swap, or rent your clothing. By choosing used over new, you eliminate the harmful carbon emitted when producing a new garment, reducing your footprint by 60-70%. If you are buying new, support brands that have achieved a circular or zero-waste supply chain where they offset all emissions and waste from their entire supply chain.

Extend The Wear

Invest in quality items, re-wear them and repair them if necessary to extend their longevity. By extending an item's wear life by just nine months you can reduce the environmental impact by as much as 30%! You’ll be making the most of the natural resources used to produce them, and diverting textiles from landfills.

Take Care

Care for clothes in low-impact ways that have a smaller environmental toll (and keep garments in good shape for longer). Launder Less - most things can be worn a few times before hitting the hamper. Wash In Cold - heating water accounts for the majority of your washing machine's energy use. Skip The Dryer - air drying is a huge energy savings, plus it’s gentler on your clothes.

And Finally ….

Always think twice before tossing anything! An easy way to extend the use phase of clothing (apart from using it longer yourself) is to re-sell, or donate to friends, family, neighbors and charities. Only 15% of all discarded clothes are sold, donated, or recycled in the US with 85% of them ending up in a landfill. 

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