Resizing fashion’s carbon footprint
Cheap clothing has become a disposable product in our society and most people in Europe recycle or donate less than half the clothing they discard — and they discard a lot — with the rest going into landfills.
And despite the global economic downturn, more clothes, home furnishings and other textiles are being bought than ever. Great Britain alone has seen a 60-percent increase in textile purchases over the last decade. Experts estimate that British consumers throw out more than a million tonnes (1.1 million U.S. tons) of textiles in the form of clothes and other products every year. A European Union environmental report calls fabric Britain’s “fastest growing waste stream.”
Meanwhile, the Bureau of International Recycling, an industry advocacy group, claims that a single kilogram of collected used clothing can help reduce up to 3.6 kilograms, or almost 8 pounds, of CO2 emissions. Read more via Sustainable Innovation: Reducing Fashion’s Carbon Footprint – NYTimes.com.
