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Reducing the environmental impact of clothing (from fibre to final product)

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Reducing the environmental impact of clothing (from fibre to final product)

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All over the world 85% of unwanted clothes are put into landfill. Did you know that two thirds of what you throw out is plastic that doesn't break down. The clothing production also creates lots of toxic chemicals and pollution which is dispersed into the environment.

How we can stop this happening:

1. When the clothes are worn out and old cut them up into rag sizes to use as a cleaning tool around the house.

2. You can hand down these clothes in the family or give them to younger members of the community.

3.  BUY LESS, we tend to think that having more things will make us happy when we don't need it.

4. Buy better quality clothes because the cheap fast fashion stores don't have clothes that will last a long time. You can also buy specific sustainable brands of clothing.

5. THINK TWICE BEFORE THROWING OUT YOUR CLOTHES
Don’t throw your clothes in the normal bins! Most of them consist of synthetic, non-biodegradable fiber and will just pile up in the landfill. There are other options:

-Try to repair them. Sometimes with a bit of imagination, you can repair or even redesign a torn garment.

- Donate your clothes to your friends, family, neighbours, or to charity.

- Some clothes shops take back used clothes from their own brand or even from other brands.

- Put them in the textile recycling bin. Textiles can be recycled to make new clothing.

6.  Buy second hand, rent and swap
There are many stores all around the world that are second hand stores so that you can buy clothes that are ok quality and at a way cheaper price. You can also rent clothes, this is a newly popular way of getting clothes for a shorter period of time such as baby or pregnancy clothes, party dresses etc.

7. Keep an eye on your washing
Washing our clothes has a significant environmental impact. The average household does almost 400 loads of washing every year, consuming about 60,000 litres of water.

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Reducing clothing waste, and managing unwanted clothing

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Reducing clothing waste, and managing unwanted clothing

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Americans generate around 11 billion pounds of clothing waste each year but yet only 15 percent of it is recycled. One person throws about 37kg of clothes each year. That means 12 billion kg of textiles and clothes end up just sitting in landfills but we can change that. Australia is the second largest consumers of textiles meaning we throw a lot more away than what we think. Two thirds of that 37kg we throw away is made up of plastic fibres that may never breakdown and will just sit in landfills.

There are many ways we can reduce clothing waste and manage it:

1. Swap and share
You could create a clothing exchange with your friends and family so that you don't throw out as many clothes by reusing them. If you think giving to charity is good well in most cases it is but when you give your clothes to charity only 10% makes it to people in need. It can also save loads of money by reusing what your friends don't want or need anymore. You could also regift your clothing to someone else who might really appreciate it and want it. It could make someones day look up and you will feel good about yourself once you do it.

2. DIY
When you are over your clothes you can find many youtube videos or just come up with your own ways to redesign the clothes you don't want anymore. You can take an old, used top and cut it up to create a new crop top. You can also use pinterest to get inspiration

3. Selling
You could have a garage sale with your family and sell all your clothes you don't want anymore. You could also sell old toys and many more things instead of clothes. You can make lots of cash with just your old clothes so it benefits you and others. You could also sell your old clothes online and put them up for sale on ebay, wish, etsy or amazon.

4. Reuse
You don't need to diy, sell or swap any of your old clothes you could, if you wanted to but there are many more options. You could just wear it as comfy pyjamas. If one of your t-shirts had holes in it you could wear it as a ripped t-shirt to reuse it.  You could turn your clothes into a more functional product such as turning a t-shirt into an old rag or cloth to clean things around the house. which means you are saving money, time and the earth.

When you next clean out your wardrobe think about the environment and all those landfills piling up because of you. You can reuse many clothing items and recycle them so be mindful of our earth.

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Ensuring fair wages, and good working conditions for workers 

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Ensuring fair wages, and good working conditions for workers 

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Fair Wages
Many leading brands endorse a code of conduct that includes living wages and sign a commitment to ensure their suppliers meet the basic needs of employees, but research shows that workers are struggling to make enough money for a living. This means that workers struggle to afford decent food, housing and healthcare.

Steps to Fair Wages

1. Realising that minimum pay cannot deliver adequate living standards.

2. Governments and brands need to realise that the voluntary approach to fair wages has failed for decades. Only way to change this is by making a law which will force all retailers to stop putting new store openings and profits before economic justice.
3.  Support workers rights to form or join independent trade unions so that workers and their unions who are not paying decent wages are made to pay rates.

Good Working Conditions
We have known this for decades: most of our clothes are made in countries in which workers rights are limited or non-existent.  Production sites are regularly moving location, on the lookout for ever cheaper labour costs.

Buisness owners are  taking advantage of poor populations who have no choice but to work for any salary, in any working conditions.

We know that if working conditions improve in one country, companies will just move to another. We believe that we cannot expect much from the corporate world or from government if consumers do not push for a change.

The collapse of the Rana Plaza in 2013 killed 1134 garment workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This shows the unacceptable working conditions of the whole fashion industry.
These days employees usually work with no ventilation, breathing in toxic substances, inhaling fiber dust or blasted sand in unsafe buildings. Accidents, fires, injuries, and disease are very frequent occurrences on textile production sites.

On top of that, clothing worker face a lot of phsical and verbal abuse.

So what can you do?
The best way for you to make a difference is to buy Fairtrade clothing.
Fairtrade specifically refers to brands or products that have been independently certified by the Fairtrade International. In order to receive a Fairtrade certification, a brand must meet certain standards that support the fair payment and rights of producers from underdeveloped countries, the conservation of the environment and the promotion of environmentally sustainable practices.

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"Aussies Send 85% Of Textiles To Landfill | Textile Beat." Textilebeat.Com, 2016, https://textilebeat.com/aussies-send-85-of-textiles-to-landfill/.

"5 Ways To Reduce Clothing Waste - Sustainability." Sustainability, 2018, https://sustainability.ncsu.edu/blog/changeyourstate/closets-afterlife-5-ways-reduce-clothing-waste/.

"How To Achieve Fair Wages In The Fashion Industry - We Ask The Experts." the Guardian. N. p., 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2018.

Spring, Alexandra. "Landfill Becomes The Latest Fashion Victim In Australia's Throwaway Clothes Culture." The Guardian, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/dec/06/landfill-becomes-the-latest-fashion-victim-in-australias-throwaway-clothes-culture.
"Working Conditions." Sustainyourstyle, 2018, https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/working-conditions/.
"5 Steps To Building Better Working Conditions In Global Supply Chains." Sustainablebrands.Com, 2018, https://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/supply_chain/cory_searcy/5_steps_building_better_working_conditions_global_supply_cha.

How can we reduce our Fashion Environmental Impact. (2018). SustainYourStyle. Retrieved 15 November 2018, from https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/reducing-our-impact/