It’s time to declutter your wardrobe and get rid of old clothes but how you do it impacts the environment.
With new trends emerging in this age of fashion, fashionists are unlikely to trim their wardrobe budget. What is dubbed as being classy and having a good sense of fashion can cause irreparable harm to the environment.
Why buy clothes you don’t need only to start looking for how to get rid of them? Not everyone is aware of the environmental consequences of textile waste. It is wise to make responsible and sustainable choices when shopping
How you dispose of old clothes says a lot about you and how seriously you consider textile waste a threat to the environment. It’s time to start making sustainable choices to clear out your wardrobe.
The Importance of Sustainably Getting Rid of Old Clothes
There are a lot of things to be worried about when it comes to reducing solid waste littering our surroundings. While we struggle to reduce plastic waste in landfills, textile waste is also piling up at a fast pace.
Between 1999 and 2009, textile waste in the United States increased to approximately 40%. The expectation was to see an increase in textile waste in the United States in the next decade (2019).1
Efforts from government agencies, non-profit organizations, researchers, and media outlets to educate consumers on the environmental consequences of textile waste were not enough to reduce the solid textile waste at landfills.
The apparel and fashion industry is fast developing and this raises some concern regarding environmental pollution. According to a review of Sustainable Practices of Cloth Disposal, about 10 to 20% of the textile fashion industry experiences wastage.2
China is one of the countries generating huge amounts of textile waste. The textile industry in the country generates up to 253 tons of textile waste sent to landfills.
The European nation of Slovenia according to Zurga et al. (2015), composts about 3 to 4% of solid waste, which includes clothes and textiles.3
According to the report by the National Solid Waste Management Department (NSWMD) of Malaysia, the country generates over 8 million tons of apparel and textile waste each year.4
Textile waste is classified into two types which include pre-textile wastes and post-textile wastes.
- Pre-textile waste: These are wastes generated by the textile industry and cotton fibres.
- Post-textile wastes: These are textiles that are sold to consumers and recycled into other goods.
Learn more: 10 Ways to Adopt a Zero-Waste Lifestyle
Sustainable Clothes are those Already In Your Wardrobe
Are you a college student on a budget or someone who advocates for sustainability, the best way to reduce textile waste is to avoid buying new clothes.
Put yourself through the challenge of not buying a single cloth for a whole year. Unplanned shopping from fashion brands can lead to buying clothes that won’t fit or satisfy your classy fashion sense.5
Buying only what you need from a fashion brand shows you are making a sustainable and fashionable choice. Excessive purchases from fast fashion brands are not considered sustainable.
Stop buying clothes for every event or concert that you want to attend. Instead, try buying pieces of clothes that fit that you can re-wear over and over again.
Sustainable Ways to Get Rid of Your Clothes
Let’s talk about how you can get rid of your clothes in a sustainable way.
Sell Old Clothes
If a colourful jacket in your wardrobe doesn’t fit anymore, sell it alongside other clothes you need to get rid of. You will find people through platforms like eBay and Depop to sell your old clothes.
You can also use other marketing strategies like garage sales to sell off old clothes.
Donate Old Clothes to Charities or Mutual Aid Organizations
Some people need old clothes, especially homeless people living in makeshift homes during the winter months. But before donating old clothes, make sure they are washed and clean.
Find an organization to donate your clothes to. You can search for places like foster care programs, homeless shelters, emergency youth shelters, domestic violence shelters, or prisons to donate clothes.
Learn more: 10 Ways to Create a Zero-Waste Kitchen
Compost Your Natural Clothes
This is for items made from biodegradable materials that are no longer useful to you. Being completely biodegradable, items can be composted.
However, you must avoid mixing these materials with other fabrics. Shred the material to a fine form and remove items that are not compostable such as buttons and zippers.
Upcycle Clothes
Torn clothes can be sewn and repaired instead of disposing them. You can also make something creative by embroidering, patching or sewing old garments.
Transform old pants into shorts or use fabrics from worn-out clothes to sew new pieces. You can also use excessive fabric to a make stylish bag for yourself.
Buy Secondhand Clothing
Buying secondhand clothes is an eco-friendly fashion choice. Buying new clothes is not environmentally friendly. Making new clothes impacts the environment.
According to Yale Sustainability, growing enough cotton to produce a pair of jeans requires up to 1,800 gallons of water. It’s wise to conserve resources by choosing to buy secondhand or extending the lifespan of clothes.
Learn more: How to Dispose Waste Properly: 4 Effective Methods
Search for Organic Items and not Synthetic Fabric
A few examples of organic clothes are those that are 100% cotton, bamboo, linen, hen, and silk. These are compostable fabrics that you can get rid of once they are worn out.
Try Clothing Swap
Clothing swap is also a sustainable way to get rid of old clothes. You can host a clothing swap to get new fabrics for free. You can have your friends join you in exchanging old clothes for better ones.
Conclusion
A more sustainable and charitable way to get rid of old clothes is by donating them to local mutual aid groups. Selling old clothes or buying secondhand clothes is also an eco-friendly way to declutter your closet.
These are the best steps to reducing textile waste in landfills.
Sources
- Pamela S. Norum: “Towards Sustainable Clothing Disposition: Exploring the Consumer Choice to Use Trash as a Disposal Option.” 2017. ↩︎
- Arasinah Kamis et al.: “Sustainable Practice Of Clothes Disposal: A Review Of Critical Literature.” 2019. ↩︎
- Zala Žurga et al. (2015): Environmentally Sustainable Apparel Acquisition and Disposal Behaviours among Slovenian Consumers. DOI:10.1515/aut-2015-0044 ↩︎
- sgo.sagepub.com. Sustainability and Philanthropic Awareness in Clothing Disposal Behavior Among Young Malaysian Consumers. DOI: 10.1177/2158244015625327 ↩︎
- Yale Sustainability: “How to Sustainably Clean Out Your Closet.” ↩︎