A staggering 235 million items of unwanted clothing were expected to be dumped in UK landfill in 2017 and the average American is estimated to bin 81lb (37kg) of used clothing annually. Overconsumption and the inevitable disposal of unwanted clothing has become a worrying global problem and, in many cases, clothing is unnecessarily binned when it could be repaired or recycled.
Filling landfill with clothing and textiles costs the UK alone an estimated £82m every year. On the flip side, the consumption of clothing is hugely important to the economies of many countries. Research from The British Fashion Council, for example, found fashion contributes £28bn to the UK economy – globally it is a $2.4 trillion (£1.9 trillion) industry.
Despite this, materialistic values and a widespread desire for new things, twinned with fashion’s raison d’etre to create – and sell – different styles, has reduced the functional value of clothing, making it easily disposable. A staggering 100 billion items of clothing are being produced annually, and 50 per cent of fast fashion pieces are disposed of within a year.
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