We often hear the people say how they grew up with limited clothes and that they were given new ones only on special occasions like birthdays or festivals. However, the shopping scenario today is much different from the time they lived in. People no longer wait for a special occasion to buy new clothes. The sight of new trends on display, that looks very similar to an outfit seen in a
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magazine or something that a favourite celebrity was seen wearing recently, is impetus enough for people to rush into the stores, fill their shopping bags and swipe their cards. Although a comparative increase in disposable income is an obvious reason for this change, it is not the only reason.
Even with busy schedules that doctors have, it is almost impossible for them to think about running to the tailor for every small tear or alteration. As a result, you end up picking or buying new clothes rather than repairing the old ones. Also, who doesn’t love to stay up to date with the latest in fashion, isn’t it?
Today, we are living in an age of ‘Fast Fashion’ which is essentially the phenomena of quick-changing fashion trends because of which, clothing brands mass-produce inexpensive clothing to keep up with these trends. The fashion industry has gone from having 4 retailing seasons to releasing new designs almost every other week. This creates a lot of waste since people are now disposing-off clothes faster than ever. And while fast fashion clothing is relatively affordable, in the longer run, consumers end up spending more, since trends change quickly and consumers tend to buy new clothes to replace ‘old’ trends with new ones. Moreover, as manufacturers have to accelerate production to get the new designs in stores, the quality is compromised. In addition to the poor quality of clothing, fast fashion is unsustainable and has severe implications on the environment. According to WWF, it takes about 20,000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of cotton and about 2,700 litres of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt. While commercially grown cotton and the process of making cotton clothes leads to a huge wastage of water, synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon require large amounts of fossil fuels and chemicals for production and lead to wastage of non-renewable resources. And while natural fabrics such as cotton, linen, silk and wool are degradable, synthetic fibres are non-bio-degradable and persist in the environment for long periods of time and add to the problem of textile pollution. Moreover, if production waste containing dyes, chemicals and fibre particles is released untreated, it can pollute water bodies, soil and the groundwater and severely affect the
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aquatic biodiversity. According to a UN report, ‘93 billion cubic metres of water – enough to meet the needs of five million people – is used by the fashion industry annually, and around half a million tons of microfibre, which is the equivalent to 3 million barrels of oil, is now being dumped into the ocean every year’.
As per the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the fashion industry is considered to be the second most polluting industry in the world. Today, however, the fast-fashion labels are becoming increasingly cautious about the impact of their industry on the environment. For instance, leading global fashion brand H&M has committed itself towards ‘sustainability’ and ‘climate positive fashion’. In 2018, H&M claimed to have collected 20,649 tonnes of textiles for recycling, through their garment collecting initiative and by 2020 it aims to source 100% sustainable cotton. Zara, another, leading fashion brand in the world too, has committed itself towards sustainability. It has launched a campaign called ‘Join Life’ through which it aims to collect used garments for recycling and has a Join Life Collection- an upcycled outwear collection that is made from recycled polyester.
While other brands can take inspiration from such labels to make the fashion industry more sustainable, we at an individual level can take certain steps to ensure our shopping habits do not add to the environmental damage. For instance, we can initiate the idea of ‘thrifting’, that is second-hand or vintage shopping which has become popular in the west. For instance, Goodwill, a USA based organization operates a network of retail thrift stores, that refurbishes and resells donated items, that would otherwise end up in landfills.
Community swaps can also be a good way of reducing textile pollution. They are essentially events where people with similar fashion sense can come together and barter, used but wearable clothes. Community Swaps are a good way of reusing fast fashion clothing by exchanging them with someone else’s clothes. Understanding your style and cautiously purchasing and investing in sustainable clothing that you can and are likely to wear for a longer period of time can also help. Being mindful while shopping and purchasing quality over quantity can really help downsize your wardrobe and give you a push in the direction of sustainable fashion.
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Learning simple skills such as stitching or iron patching to mend or hide damages to clothes can prove to be useful and can increase the life span of your clothes. And if you feel inspired enough to extend this idea of ‘repairing’ and ‘mending’ clothes at a community level, you can start your own ‘Repair Café’. The concept of a ‘Repair Café’ was devised by a woman named Martine Postma who started the first-ever Repair Café in the Netherlands in 2009 and started the Repair Café Foundations. Repair Cafes are essentially free meeting spaces where you can find all the tools necessary to make any kind of repairs to your goods with the help of specialists or expert volunteers. Today, there are over 1500 such cafes worldwide and the foundation also provides support to those who want to start such Repair Cafes within their communities.
Another way to curb textile pollution can be to recycle old clothes into mats, bags, blankets and so on and to encourage the idea of ‘Renting Clothes’, to get greater utility from a single outfit. These are just a few simple steps that we can follow individually to reduce our contribution to textile pollution. Such steps can also help make the overall fashion industry more sustainable and make, indulging in fashion and shopping a more satisfying and guilt-free experience.
India, however, has always been a nation of recyclers and up cyclers. We have been practising sustainable fashion for centuries. For instance, the practice of hawkers and peddlers going from door to door, exchanging clothes for new utensils is extremely common throughout the nation. These clothes are then sold by them to recyclers and up-cyclers to be converted into blankets, rugs and so on. We also have our local magicians, in the form of tailors (darjeewalas, rafoowalas), alteration experts and so on who can fit, mend and repair any kind of damages to our clothes, making them unnoticeable, like it never happened. We even have a strong tradition of handing down clothes and finally re-using them as cushion/pillow covers or kitchen rags when they can no longer be worn. Moreover, there are a number of charities in India who upon request, come and collect used clothes so that they can be refurbished or upcycled and donated among the poor and those in need such as orphanages, old age homes, women shelters and so on. And so, while we must appreciate sustainable practices taking place globally, it is equally important to appreciate and encourage these practices taking place within our own communities as they might look like small acts but contribute greatly towards sustainability.
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