Love your clothes

Love Your Clothes

Fashion is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and shipping combined. If we continue to use fast, cheap, plastic fashion, the industry’s carbon footprint will increase by 50% in the next 20 years.

Fashion uses the equivalent water consumed by over 5 million people each year, mainly in fabric dyeing and treatment. And it generates over half a million tons of plastic microfibres each year which make their way into animals and plants in the food chain.

Every year an estimated 336,000 tonnes of used clothing gets thrown in the bin in the UK. 87% of the total fibres in clothing is burned or disposed of in landfill. You can dramatically reduce the environmental impact of clothing by increasing the active life of the clothes you wear.

Currently, over 5% of the UK’s total annual carbon and water footprints result from clothing consumption. But if you keep your clothes in active use for nine months longer this will reduce their carbon, water and waste footprints by 20-30%.

The good news is that you can do a lot to reduce the impact of clothing.

Buy Less, Buy Better

Many ‘fast fashion’ clothes will have had a long journey to get to you. They’ll have been made in appalling conditions with cheap labour. Then they’ll have used up many transport miles. So ask where your clothes have been made.

If you have to buy new clothes, then try to buy the best made clothes you can from local suppliers, ideally buy clothes made of recycled fibres which have been remade in Europe, not Asia. Look at the seams and ask yourself if they will last. It is great to choose companies who support Fairwear. This is the Fairtrade standard for clothes.

Moral fibres has details of ethical clothing brands or you could try Brighton-based Fair Shop

which specialises in Fair Trade and sustainable fashion or Ruby Moon which sells sustainable and ethical swimwear and activewear.

Materials

Choose sustainable materials such as organic or recycled cotton. Cotton can be a problem if it is grown using pesticides, so make sure you know how it is grown. Organic Hemp uses little water and no pesticides. Organic Linen also uses little water or pesticides, grows in poor soil, and is biodegradable. Ideally choose clothes dyed with natural dyes rather than chemicals. What’s not to like?

Consider carefully what the clothes are made of, avoid synthetic ones that are made of petroleum and cause plastic pollution when washed and will take thousands of years to rot down into something we might be able to use again.

Some of the newer materials such as Tencel, Pinatex, Econyl and Qmonos are creating new fabrics with natural materials and even recycled plastic waste! Iinouiio is a fantastic UK business that used recycled materials to make fabric for clothing.

Preloved

Follow the current trend for vintage and slow fashion and make use of your charity, vintage or pre-loved shops. Vinted and Depop are great apps for buying and selling second hand clothes, look for a local clothes swap or host your own clothes swap.

Children’s Clothes

Parents can join many of the local marketplace groups to swap children’s clothes, which can be hardly used. Most schools also have a second hand uniform shop, so take advantage. As you know, children tend to grow out of their clothes before they wear out.

Repair

Take care of your clothes to make them last longer. Learn to make quick and easy repairs and alterations can save money. Patches, buttons and zips are fairly straight forward but if you’re not sure how, there are loads of YouTube videos on how.

Alternatively why not visit your local repair cafe. Repair Cafes usually run once a month and have amazingly talented volunteers who can look at your textile repairs. You wait while your item is repaired so you can learn how to fix it yourself in the future. The cafes ask for a small donation for the repair but it is considerably cheaper than replacing the item. If you live in Horsham District visit the Horsham Repair Cafe which we run on the last Saturday of the month at United Reformed Church, Springfield Road, Horsham.

Upcycle

Textiles are versatile materials and are great for creating into something new. Whether its another item or clothing or something new although together. One PTA from a local school took their old school uniform that wasn’t good enough quality to sell in their second hand shop and made it into bunting. It now appears at all their school events.

Leftover scraps of materials can be used for rags for cleaning or if you could take part in Sussex Green Living’s Cape of Good Hopes. The Cape is a collaborative community project designed to raise awareness of climate change. Individuals and groups make squares that represent their hopes and actions needed for a sustainable future. The squares are then stitched together to make a fabulous Cape of Good Hopes. So far we have had contributions from 5 year olds to 80 year olds – this truly is a community project.

Recycle

Swap, swish and share

If you can’t refashion, swap, sell or share, then you might need to recycle your clothes and other textiles, such as curtains, bags and belts. Don’t put them in your household bin! Hand them down, or give them to a charity shop if you can’t find a use for them.

Local ethical textile recycling

One of our trustees Karrie Mellor runs a pre-loved clothes recycling company Bags of Support. They collect clothes, shoes, belts, handbags and soft toys (no bedclothes, pillows or duvets thanks) and as part of our business partnership programme this raises money for our charity and benefits a UK charity www.necs.org.uk who support a primary and secondary school and community in a very remote part of South West Uganda.

Learn more about our business partnership programme ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions and textile collections here. Learn more about Bags of Support here or call Karrie Mellor on 07917 797084 to arrange a collection. Bags of Support offer this textile recycling service to schools in Surrey and Sussex, for every 50 kilos donated 50p is raised.

Worn out clothes

If your items aren’t in good condition, your local recycling centre will accept clothes, towels, bedlinen, blankets, shoes (in pairs), duvet covers (but not duvets), curtains, bags and belts. The clothes, shoes and other textiles that still have some life left in them will be sorted and sent for reuse. Old and well-worn clothing will be recycled by shredding and used in the ‘flocking’ industry as car seat filler.

Clothes Care

Looking after the clothes you own can reduce their carbon impact after purchase and extend their life, saving you money.

Only wash when necessary – Washing shortens the life of your clothes as well as using water and energy. Clothes can be worn many times before they need washing. Levis say on their website that you can wear their jeans 11 times before washing. Do the sniff test!

Wash at 30c – about 90% of the energy in the washing machine goes towards heating the water. Reduce the temperature to 30c whenever possible.

Synthetic materials shed microplastics, so wash less often. You could use a bag to capture the microplastics from your synthetics or a coraball.

Avoid using a tumble dryer and try to dry your clothes outside. The wind also stops them feeling stiff. If the weather is bad, you can hang clothes on curtain rails in front of a window or by a radiator, just ensure you have good ventilation.

Use earth-friendly detergents. Use laundry detergent without harmful, petrochemicals (petroleum-derived). You could switch to minimal packaging laundry products or keep your old laundry detergent bottle and visit a refill shop.

Further Information

If you’d like to know most about the future of sustainable fashion, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation talks about their vision for circular fashion economy.

Launched in 2014, the Love Your Clothes campaign has been developed together with industry organisations to help change the way the UK consumers buy, use and dispose of their clothing. The ultimate aim is to reduce the environmental impact of clothing across the UK and influence a more circular approach to clothing globally. Love Your Clothes is part of the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP), which is coordinated by WRAP, a not-for-profit organisation which receives Government support across the UK.

If you want to protect your clothes for longer, here are some eco friendly ways to remove stains from your wardrobe favourites.