November 2020: Clothing Challenge
The impact of the clothing industry is huge. It accounts for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than aviation and shipping combined – and is the world’s second most polluting industry. It’s hugely thirsty – making the cotton for just a t-shirt and pair of jeans needs up to 20,000 litres of water.
And half a million tonnes of microfibres from washing our polyester clothes – basically, plastic – end up in the sea each year.
Britons buy 38 million items of clothing each week – an average of a new garment every 12 days for each of us. And 11 million items go to landfill each week.
So let’s take action! Pick one of more of the following challenges to do this month – or make up one of your own.
Sources
The Guardian: 'Fast fashion speeding toward environmental disaster, report warns'
The Guardian: 'The five ways that fashion threatens the planet'
Love Not Landfill
The impact of the clothing industry is huge. It accounts for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than aviation and shipping combined – and is the world’s second most polluting industry. It’s hugely thirsty – making the cotton for just a t-shirt and pair of jeans needs up to 20,000 litres of water.
And half a million tonnes of microfibres from washing our polyester clothes – basically, plastic – end up in the sea each year.
Britons buy 38 million items of clothing each week – an average of a new garment every 12 days for each of us. And 11 million items go to landfill each week.
So let’s take action! Pick one of more of the following challenges to do this month – or make up one of your own.
- ACTION: Go the month without buying any newly made items of clothing, including accessories.
- ACTION: Start using the ‘30 wears’ test and don’t buy any new clothes that you don’t think you’ll wear at least 30 times.
- ACTION: Make your clothes last longer by fixing those that need repairs. If you don’t know how, learn how to do it (YouTube!) or task-swap with someone who knows.
- ACTION: Go through your wardrobe for clothes that you no longer want and get them back into the resource-stream: swap them, donate them, or put them out for recycling.
- RESEARCH: Look at the online shops – including charity shops – offering high-quality secondhand clothing online, and at sustainable suppliers, so that the next time you need something, you’ll be ready with some good sources.
- RESEARCH: Watch The True Cost, a 2015 film exploring the true impact of fashion on people and planet (available on Amazon and Netflix or by digital download) and/or the 2019 BBC documentary The Price of Fast Fashion.
- CAMPAIGN: Sign the Fashion Revolution Manifesto. Fashion Manifesto are the big player in trying to green fashion in the UK.
- AMPLIFY: Ask five friends to sign the Fashion Revolution Manifesto too.
- AMPLIFY: Tell your friends and family about the challenges you’re taking this month and ask them to join in.
Sources
The Guardian: 'Fast fashion speeding toward environmental disaster, report warns'
The Guardian: 'The five ways that fashion threatens the planet'
Love Not Landfill
