Clothing is so cheap in the UK now the temptation is to buy more than we need and just chuck away what we don’t fancy after all. Yet each t-shirt or top that’s casually discarded used 800 litres of water to make it. Each lost sock had been shipped perhaps half way around the world at a huge cost in CO2.
To make a tonne of clothing uses more energy than to make a tonne of steel! Yet in the UK we buy 2 million tonnes of clothes every year, and chuck more than half of that into landfill sites. There, it degrades and releases methane into our atmosphere, a greenhouse gas which is 21 times more powerful than CO2. To cut your fashion carbon footprint, try asking a few questions:
A fifth of the clothes UK consumers buy are “fast fashion”, seen as cheap and disposable, but that means more energy is used in creating items that are thrown out after a few wears. Buying to last means you can splash out every now and then on well-made designs that will last longer – and you’ll be tackling climate change in the process.
Buying recycled clothes instead of brand new ones is a great way to cut your carbon footprint. From charity shops to high fashion vintage outfitters via online auction sites, there are countless options available. Second-hand clothes are an especially good option for babies and children – because they outgrow their clothes so quickly – and could save you a lot of money.
There are three golden rules to follow to make sure your clothes have the smallest carbon footprint possible once you’ve bought them:
1.2 million tonnes of clothing waste every year go to UK landfills. You can prevent your clothes going to landfill by taking your unwanted clothes and shoes (tied in pairs) to charity shops or to textile banks – these are often located next to community recycling banks.
Cutting waste doesn’t have to mean making sacrifices. A low waste lifestyle can mean less carbon emissions and be good for your pocket.
Wasting less means you help to keep valuable materials out of landfill sites. It also means that less energy and raw materials are used to make new products, helping to tackle climate change.
Around the globe climate change will affect rainfall patterns, cause snow and ice to melt and affect the intensity of extreme weather
