18 Let’s Talk Trash! MAY / JUNE 2024 ©2023-2024 The Keenan Group, Inc
myfmbank .com
Landfill of Unused Fast Fashion Clothes Has Grown Large Enough to Be Seen From Space
atelier is a workshop where an artist creates. An atelier is basically a studio, but it sounds way cooler. It’s a French word, so say it with an accent.
LET’S FACE IT, we are addicted to the next big trend, and the fashion industry has taken note, producing over 100 billion items of clothing each year to keep up with the ever changing demand. The fashion industry is quite literally banking on you changing your mind. Where once clothing was lovingly hand stitched by atelier Vistas and crafted to be passed down through generations, it is now made predominantly of low-cost synthetic blends, more commonly put together by machines and not built to last for more than the current fashion season. Does Mother Earth care about what outfit we choose to go to school in each morning? Probably not. She’s more of a non-judgmental type. What she does care about, as should you, is where the materials come from, how they were sourced and produced, and whether they were built to last and honor the natural resources that made them. The constant turnover of clothing due to changing trends and cheaply made goods leads to vast amounts of waste that are rapidly filling landfills. The 92 million tons of clothes-related
waste each year is responsible for overfilling landfills. To tell you how jarring this figure is, that number is equivalent to approximately 81.5 pounds of textile waste per person per year and around 2,150 pieces of fast fashion thrown out per second countrywide. Exacerbating the issue is that the prominent synthetic fibers in fast fashion don’t readily break down, meaning once they hit the landfill, they are there to stay for 20 to 200 years. This is a new problem . In the past 15 years, the number of times an article is worn has been reduced by 36%. The fast fashion industry is one of demand. Fashion waste is a consumer problem as much as it is an industry problem. It is social constructs (more, newer, fresher) driven by things like social media resulting in environmental damage at an alarming rate. To combat this, the fast fashion industry needs to pivot towards more durable processes and materials, which will allow for increased wearability and reduce overall textile waste. Source: https://www.kindlaundry.com/blogs/educational/why-is-fast-fashion-bad-for- the-environment
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker