It is hard to overstate the damage dedicated followers of fashion do to our world every single day and you can forget about a fashion crisis hitting New York – to borrow a phrase from the wonderful Frank and Walters; the fashion crisis is hitting everywhere.
According to the European Environment Agency, the production of textiles is the fourth-largest cause of environmental pressure after food, housing and transport. The United Nations, for its part, describes the industry as the second-worst polluter on the planet, behind oil.
The textile sector is the cause of 10 per cent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, pumping at least 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere ever year. That makes fashion worse for the environment than air travel and shipping combined.
The industry also uses more water than a country the size of Ireland, pollutes rivers with dyes and toxic chemicals, and treats many of the people it employs appallingly.
And all so we can buy cheap tat which often doesn’t last. About 13 million tonnes of clothes end up landfill or in incinerators in the United States every year, while globally close to 100 million tonnes of textile waste is created, which works out at about one rubbish truck full of clothes heading into landfill every single second.
To put that incomprehensible number another way, more than 4,000 pieces of clothing will have been binned or burned somewhere in the time it has taken you to read this sentence.
In times past, waste on this scale would have been as unimaginable as it was unacceptable. In times past, people were happy to make do and mend, while the concept of fast fashion was as alien as click and collect or high-speed broadband.
But – to borrow a phrase – we are where we are. Our love of cheap clothes endures but that is not to suggest the times aren’t a-changing.
Mary Portas – the one-time “Queen of Shops” – illustrates just how much they are changing. She has gone from being the doyenne of must-have fashion to decrying what she now describes at the “hamster wheel of consumerism”.
In her recently-published book Rebuild: How to Thrive in the New Kindness Economy, she says the “central tenet of rampant consumerism has been killing our planet. It has been exploiting vast numbers of people. It has been draining the only resources we will ever have. And, in its relentless drive to make us sate our anxiety by consuming more and more, it has been killing our collective wellbeing.”
In a recent interview with Pricewatch for this newspaper, Portas took some responsibility for the world of “rampant consumerism” she has now turned her back on. She said that for a long time she felt “a huge amount of guilt” but added that she “had to be a bit accepting of myself. I had no idea that consumerism was killing the planet, I had no idea. We didn’t have a bloody clue.”
No one can claim not to have a clue now, though.
While many brands and shops have been falling over themselves with boasts about the sudden sustainability of their production chains and their use of recyclable materials and all the rest, the bottom line is that no clothes can be produced in a way which is more sustainable than not producing them at all.
Second-hand shopping
Which brings us to the world of second-hand shopping. By buying clothes which are second-hand, a person can acquire new stuff – if they need it – without contributing to climate crisis. And depending on where you choose to shop, you can also support worthy causes when you spend. Oh, and it saves you money too.
Right now we are in the middle of Second Hand September, an initiative first organised by Oxfam Ireland in 2019 with a view to encouraging people to shop in a way that was better for the planet, for their pockets and for some of the world’s poorest people.
It asks people to only buy second-hand clothes for just 30 days with a view to raising awareness about the harm and impact throwaway fashion has on both our planet and its people, as well as the role its 47 shops and businesses might have in making our world a better place.
Oxfam points to a global demand for sustainable and ethical clothes – something which saw 33 million people in the US alone buying second-hand clothes for the first time last year.
“People are starting to see just how much pressure throwaway fashion is putting on our planet and people, and how unsustainable it is,” says Oxfam Ireland’s director of trading Trevor Anderson, adding that staff in shops across the network have seen “an increase in younger people shopping Oxfam and we believe this reflects a growing movement of more conscientious and ethically-driven consumers in Ireland – and thrifting, or shopping second-hand, offers people an alternative, more sustainable option.”
He says that movements such as the Fridays for Future climate strikes, further reinforce the idea that it’s “young people driving home the urgent need for climate action. That is why we are calling on them to be Second Hand September champions – to join us in our campaign and help spread the word about the impact fast fashion is having on our environment, as well as its impact on the women and men who make our clothes – a majority of whom don’t earn a living wage for their work.”
He points to a world which is – in parts – burning, drowning and starving and says people using their “power and behaviour to push big corporations and governments in the right direction is about as powerful a tool as we could wish for in bringing about positive change. By shifting our habits and consumer choices to more sustainable ones, we can all play a role and be changemakers for our collective future.”
Anderson adds: “Climate change is happening now and is already one of the most harmful drivers of increasing hunger and starvation, migration, poverty and inequality all over the world. We need to start recognising the links between our choices and policies in relatively wealthy countries like Ireland, and their impact in many of the places Oxfam works – from garment workers in Dhaka to Pacific island communities bearing the brunt of our climate emergency.”
He says that by joining the Second Hand September movement people “can send a message to our political leaders and the fashion industry, asking them to change their policies and practices to better protect the people who make our clothes and the planet we all share, and together we can inspire others to join us in saying yes to second-hand”.
Bargains
Anderson is also quick to point out that by shopping second-hand people are not only using the power of the wallet to send a message to big business or lessening the damage fashion does to the planet, they can also bag themselves bargains to boot.
He says that five years ago “the consumer profile of people who came into our shops would have been older but what we are finding now, particularly post-pandemic, is that we are seeing a tremendous number of young people. There has been a massive change with younger people coming in, not because they are saying they will never shop fast fashion but because they are making a conscious decision to do something that will make a difference.”
He recalls that when he started working with Oxfam three decades ago people would come into the shops with their own bags because they didn’t want to be seen leaving with an Oxfam bag. “There is no stigma anymore, people are more than happy to tell their friends how little they got their clothes for. The pandemic has certainly changed people’s perceptions and they way they behave and what they believe in, and they are asking questions and one of those questions is where are the clothes they buy coming from.”
But for Second Hand September or second-hand any month of they year to work, it has to go in two directions. People have to buy clothes but people also have to donate them.
Anderson says: “We are also asking people to rethink their wardrobe, to look at it and ask themselves: ‘When was the last time I wore this? There is probably someone out there who will love this.’”
It could be you.
