Can we really recycle our old clothes?

How many pieces of clothing are YOU buying every year? 👆

Dump waste in your own country rather than discarding and dumping it in poor countries.

We can, but we should buy less! ;) No tech is going to save us from overconsumption.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle recycling comes third. reduce the number of clothes bought first

Influencer culture is much to blame here. Influencers are constantly showing new things and people get tempted to buy everything the influencers show without knowing if the material is actually good or if the craftsmanship will actually hold up. And people replace things so fast because they’re shown exactly that by influencers. It’s terrible

I keep wondering, as a quilter, why nobody has started manufacturing batting out of waste textiles. I already use pilly old thrifted blankets and towels inside my quilts because that's more sustainable than buying more bags of new polyester batting. There's got to be a way to shred up waste fabric and either fluff it up into stuffing for pillows and toys, or hammer it into batting sheets for quilts. And yet the only eco option I can ever find is stuffing made from pop bottles.

14 clothes per year per person?! I buy maybe 1-2 in a year and wear till they tear. Then they are repurposed for home use and then for cleaning. Who is buying my share of 12-13 other clothes?

In a dump within a year? I'm still wearing clothes from high school...

As children, we only had one set of new clothes once a year. Nowadays when I need clothes, I just get them from a charity shop. We really need to keep clothing out of landfills as much as possible.

I am a minimalist, so I only buy the same basic designs over and over again and only buy clothes as they need replacing... Which is every few years... The last time I spent over $100 on clothing was probably 5 years ago...

Am I the only one that does NOT like to buy new clothes? I only buy (clothes) second-hand personally. it's not so much from an environmental standpoint, but mostly 50 economic and 50 fashion, because oftentimes we did better before.

Make wearing garbage fashionable like that scene from Zoolander. Fashionistas will wear anything with a fancy label on it. You can literally sell waste at a profit and reduce pollution simultaneously.

There's a free store in my town & they get so many clothing donations that they can't keep nearly all of it. I know they have a deal with some company that takes it, but Idk the details. As a crafter, I want to take some of it off their hands but I need more ideas & time to implement them. Anything I sell has some proceeds go to them. I haven't bought any new clothes in years, actually. The newest clothing I have is the leg warmers I made from the arms of a worn sweater the free store got in. Very helpful in a chilly home!

I honestly think it would be better to invest in increasing the number of thrift stores and repair shops. Reusing comes before recycling (and is the most useful of the three Rs).

Hello, surprised there was no mention of Prato, the Italian town which has specialised in garment recycling for decades if not longer, producing high quality textiles in wool, cotton, linen etc. easy to think that we need technology to solve part of the problem, yet this one town has been using the same techniques successfully for a really long time. Follow up report?

Thank you , these documentaries are so necesary to become concious in the first place. Everyone of us is responsable for items we buy in any moment, textiles , food, furniture etc. We can start now and really think where It lands one day It is not used anymore.

Regarding that last question, it isn't an either/or situation. It is a both/and situation. Reduce consumption, and repair, and reuse, and recreate, and reuse, and redistribute responsibly, and recycle when necessary. Most important: make fashion personal. Don't be a pawn of the industry. If you have clothes you love, wear them for 30 years, with pride!

Wait a Moment! Shopping has never been easier? Try to find clothing that isn't garbage already in the shop or after the first wash. Shopping has never been harder. It is almost easier to sew your own.

I buy at thrift shops so I can get 100% natural fibre clothes. Most clothing these days is made with some, if not all, polyester (plastic) which breaks down very quickly when used as clothing, sofas covers, etc. This is not the case with natural fibers.

I agree about having no fashion sense. I don't care what's in or what's out. I retired 13 years ago and am still wearing shirts that I wore for work. I've got a few items in my drawers that are 25-30 years old, but still wearable. Actually, since I bought some items, they have come into fashion twice more! When I do replace, these days it's a red tshirt or black sweat pants that gets bought. I keep them for years, down grade them when worn, eventually use as cleaning clothes. I throw away as a last resort. I just don't see the point of fashion, and as for fast fashion, well, I think that it is rather silly.