Tag: textiles

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Celebrate International Day of Zero Waste on March 30 by reducing textile waste

Photo by smirart for Adobe Stock Images (Education license, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Note that ISTC does not endorse, either explicitly or implicitly, any manufacturer, vendor, product, or service. Mentions of specific products or businesses below are provided for informational reference only.

The International Day of Zero Waste, observed on March 30th annually, was established through UN General Assembly Resolution 77/161 and is jointly facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). The day highlights the importance of waste reduction, sustainable materials management, and responsible consumption and production as part of sustainable development.

This year’s theme and why it matters

This year’s theme is “Towards zero waste in fashion and textiles.” According to the non-profit organization Global Fashion Agenda, 92 million tonnes of textile waste are produced globally each year. (Note that a “tonne” or metric tonne is equal to 2,204.6 lbs., as opposed to a “ton,” a.k.a. short ton, which is equal to 2000 lbs.) In 2018, the U.S. EPA found that nearly 17 million tons of textile waste were generated nationwide, with 11.3 million of those tons going to landfills (3.2 million tons were combusted).  According to the Illinois Materials Management Advisory Committee Report to the General Assembly (2021), 279,188 tons of clothing were disposed of in Illinois landfills in 2018, along with 235,523 tons of “other textiles.” In its 2017 report A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation stated that between 2000 and 2015, global clothing production doubled while the duration of garment use decreased by 36 percent. So-called “fast fashion,” defined by Merriam-Webster as “an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers,” tends to involve production of less durable items that wear out quickly, contributing to this trend of high production rates and shorter periods of use.

In a previous ISTC blog post (dated 6/26/24), we pointed out the connection between textile waste, particularly clothing waste, and plastic pollution, given that 60% of material made into clothing into clothing is plastic, including polyester, acrylic, and nylon textiles. The UNEP report Catalysing Science-based Policy Action on Sustainable Consumption and Production: The Value-chain Approach & its Application to Food, Construction and Textiles (2021) indicates the fashion and textile sector account for 9 percent of microplastic pollution reaching the oceans annually.

Further, it is estimated that over 15,000 chemicals are used in textile manufacturing processes, some of which are toxic or prone to persistence in the environment (Roos, et al, 2019). Textile manufacturing also uses lots of water and is responsible for massive greenhouse gas emissions. Given the variety of textiles produced, and with some being natural and others synthetic, it’s hard to characterize the total amount of water used for, and emissions resulting from, all textile production worldwide. Considering a cotton t-shirt as an example, a frequently cited article from the Spring 2014 edition of World Wildlife Magazine claims it takes 713 gallons (2700 liters) of water to produce one cotton t-shirt. Mayer and Birkocak (2024) estimate the textile and apparel industry accounts for approximately 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Suffice it to say, due to the massive amounts of resources involved in the production of textiles, the potential for pollution from the manufacture and use of textiles, and the amount of textile waste filling dwindling landfill space, anything we can do to reduce waste associated with textiles is important.

Ideas for positive action

While the potential negative impacts associated with textiles seem daunting, there are several things that individuals can do to prevent textile waste and manage them more responsibly at their end-of-life. Here are a few suggestions to consider.

  • Resist “fast fashion” by reducing the amount of clothing you buy. Avoid trends and purchase more “timeless” styles that will serve you for years to come. Look for individual pieces (shirts, pants, accessories, etc.) that can be paired with multiple other items in your wardrobe to create more outfits with fewer items. If you want some guidance, check out How to Create Different Outfits with Fewer Items (& Sustainably) from Project CeCe and How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe: Wear Fewer Pieces, Create More Outfits from Closet Cachete. How to Create More Outfit Choices With Fewer Clothes includes examples using men’s fashions.
  • Invest in more durable items. The upfront cost may be higher, but reducing the need to replace worn out items can make that worthwhile in the long run. Check out Good on You’s guide to choosing clothes that last.
  • When possible, buy secondhand clothing from thrift stores, consignment shops, or similar outlets. You might get lucky and find some deeply discounted, high-quality items that wound up at a thrift store precisely because they were made to last! In any event, keeping wearable clothing in use longer conserves the resources invested in their creation. If you have items that are still wearable but no longer wanted, consider donating or consigning them at relevant local charities or shops.
  • Participate in, or host, a clothing swap, in which friends or community members come together to exchange items that are still in good shape but no longer wanted by the original owner. Check out the Wikipedia article on clothing swaps for more information on this phenomenon. For advice on planning your own, see 4 Tips For Throwing A Successful Clothing Swap from Southern Living and How To Host A Clothing Swap Party: Step-By-Step Guide from Almost Zero Waste.
  • Repairing your clothing and textiles, rather than replacing them when seams rip or holes begin, is another strategy to conserve natural and financial resources. If you’re not handy with needle and thread, connect with friends or family who are, or support the local economy by taking items to an alteration shop or shoe repair service in your area. You can also do an Internet search for a local Repair Café, Fixit Clinic, or similar gathering where others might help you fix your items. You might also look for no-sew options using iron-on patches, fabric glue, or shoe glue (Shoe Goo is a popular brand of the latter, available in many hardware or “big box” stores; though typically used to repair soles that are separating from uppers, the Shoe Goo website notes that it can also be used for other repairs, such as fixing holes in backpacks). Marissa Elena’s Simple Ways To Mend Your Clothing Without A Sewing Machine is a good resource with embedded videos for illustration.
  • Wash your clothing less frequently and use cold water when you do. Unless you’ve sweat profusely or been doing a particularly dirty job, your outer garments might be able to be aired out and worn at least one additional time before getting tossed in the laundry basket. Washing less often will reduce wear and tear on your clothing and reduce your chores as a bonus. Check out Real Simple’s guide on how frequently to wash various types of clothing. And Don’t Bother Using Hot Water to Wash Your Laundry from Consumer Reports should set your mind at ease about the efficacy of cold water, which means less energy used during washing.
  • Reuse your textiles for crafts or cleaning rags. Some people enjoy making quilts or rag rugs from fabrics reclaimed from old clothes, or even tote bags or hot pads. See 9 Ways to Make a Rag Rug you’ll Want to Try! for some inspiration. If you’re not crafty, consider repurposing your castoffs into cleaning rags you can launder after use—an option that will also help you reduce your use of disposable items like paper towels. Some textiles are of appropriate size to use as rags as-is (e.g., an old washcloth or cloth diaper), but if you want to cut old shirts or pants down to size, use pinking shears to reduce fraying.
  • Recycle textiles that are not suitable for donation that can’t be repurposed in your own home. Check city, county, or local non-profit websites for “where to recycle it” guides, or do an Internet search to find recycling options near you. If you’re not sure which agency to contact in your area, reach out to the Illinois Recycling Foundation for guidance. Textiles collected for recycling might be turned into industrial rags, insulation or other construction materials, or carpet padding, among other items. Like more traditional recyclables, textiles should be seen as resources that don’t belong in landfills.

If you’re already doing some of the things suggested above, great! If it’s all new to you, don’t try to tackle everything at once. Choose one or two suggestions that fit well with your situation and circumstances and try them out. Talk to friends and family about your successes, and any challenges you encounter. They might help you overcome barriers and you just might inspire them to fight waste too! Don’t focus on trying to be perfect–you’re human, after all. If you try too many new things at once, or get too wrapped up in doing the exact “right thing,” you may become overwhelmed and either never start your new habit, or start and quickly give up. Every small step you take to reduce waste matters. If you’ve read through this whole post, congratulations–you’ve taken the first step toward sustainable behavior by being open to new practices!

More ways to get involved in waste reduction

Visit the UNEP website and click on “Events” to find Zero Waste Day events near you, or to add your own event to their map!

If you represent an organization or business interested in reducing all types of solid waste (beyond textiles) and managing materials more responsibly, learn more about the services of the ISTC Zero Waste team and contact them at istc-zerowaste@illinois.edu.

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Plastic Free July: Tips for reducing plastic pollution from your clothing and textiles

Plastic Free July 2024

Plastic Free July is an awareness campaign coordinated by the Plastic Free Foundation which began in 2011 and is geared toward encouraging individuals to reduce plastic waste and pollution through small lifestyle changes, especially through the reduction of single-use plastic. To celebrate Plastic Free July in 2023 on this blog, we focused on a few ‘atypical tips’ for reducing plastic pollution by highlighting some common, non-intuitive sources of plastic. This year, we’ll similarly focus on a source of plastic pollution that you may find surprising—clothing and other textiles.

As always, please remember that ISTC does not endorse, either explicitly or implicitly, any particular manufacturer, vendor, product, or service. Information about specific products, manufacturers or vendors is provided for reference only.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), about 60% of material made into clothing is plastic, including polyester, acrylic, and nylon textiles. Every time we wash these clothes, they shed plastic microfibers, a form of microplastics, which are up to five millimeters in size. Think of emptying the lint trap of your dryer; clothes shed material in the washing machine as well but are released along with the wastewater. While water treatment plants can remove a majority of these fibers from water, plants vary in their removal efficacy and none can remove 100% of these tiny particles. Some make their way into the environment when the treated water is discharged to lakes or rivers, or via the collected sludge (aka “biosolids”) from treatment plants, which is sometimes applied to agricultural fields as fertilizer.

Textiles are also increasingly being treated as disposable goods. “Fast fashion” is defined as “an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers.” This typically means individual articles of clothing are of low quality and likely to wear out quickly, at which point they’re discarded (too often in landfills) and replaced by new inexpensive, less durable items. According to the Illinois Materials Management Advisory Committee Report to the General Assembly (2021), 279,188 tons of clothing were disposed of in Illinois landfills in 2018, along with 235,523 tons of “other textiles.” In that same year, the U.S. EPA reported that nearly 17 million tons of textile waste were generated nationwide, with 11.3 million of those tons going to landfills (3.2 million tons were combusted). The recycling rate for all textiles was 14.7 percent in 2018, with 2.5 million tons recycled. So although clothing and other textiles aren’t “single-use” plastics, they are examples of materials that are not necessarily built to last that contribute to the release of plastics into the environment.

So what can you do to reduce plastic pollution from textiles?

Resist fast fashion and reduce consumption. In general, reduce the amount of clothing you buy. Think about what items you really need and will wear repeatedly, and avoid accumulating more clothes than you can reasonably use. Choose versatile separates that can be paired with multiple other items in your wardrobe to create different outfits. When you must buy something, look for items that are durable and well-made. This will often (but not always!) mean that you’ll invest more money up-front. However, if you need to replace items less frequently, that investment will pay off in the long run. Check out Good on You’s guide to choosing clothes that last, and The Luxe Strategist’s detailed ‘An Actually Practical Guide to Shopping for High-Quality Clothes’.

Second-hand first.  When you do buy clothing, consider used but “new to you” items. Participate in clothing swaps with friends or community members. Shop at thrift stores, consignment shops, or online resellers in search of those interchangeable and durable pieces mentioned above. The Luxe Strategist guide referenced above points out that truly vintage (pre-1970s) clothes are “built like tanks, and the differences between those and lower-quality clothes from today are unmistakable.” Extending the useful lives of textiles that have already been manufactured is important to reduce the demand for new items, keep existing clothing out of landfills, and conserve the embodied resources (e.g. energy, water, labor, etc.) that went into manufacturing those items. Fewer newly produced clothes mean fewer new plastics required to meet consumer demands.

Choose responsibly produced new items, made from non-synthetic fibers whenever possible. This may sound relatively simple, but if you’re concerned about sustainability in general, it’s important to acknowledge that a lot of resources and potentially harmful chemicals go into the production and harvesting of natural, non-synthetic fibers (e.g., cotton, silk, wool, etc.) as well as their processing, dyeing, and distribution. So keeping sourcing and production in mind will always be advisable. If you’re not able to find the particular item you need made from natural fibers, then the next best option would be items resulting from textile-to-textile recycling, as a way to increase demand for responsible management of textiles at the end of their first life. Even better if you find items made from recycled natural fibers! It can feel overwhelming to try to navigate the various factors involved in sustainable production, so check out this recent article from CNN Underscored highlighting 15 sustainable clothing brands, as well as Good On You’s explanation of the relative impacts of various clothing materials, including plant-based, animal-derived, and synthetics. In general, certified B Corporations meet standards for environmental and social impacts, so clothing and textile brands with this certification might be deemed preferable.

Consider your laundry routine and repair your textiles. Fewer chores are a good thing–for you and the environment! One of the simplest steps you can take to reduce plastic pollution is to launder your clothing and textiles less frequently. Fewer trips through the wash cycle mean fewer plastic particles sent down the drain. Plus, you’ll save water and electricity and your clothes won’t wear out as quickly! Unless you’ve sweat profusely, been exposed to harsh elements, or participated in a particularly dirty job like digging or painting, your outer garments might be able to be aired out and worn at least one additional time before getting tossed in the laundry basket. Check out Real Simple’s guide on how frequently to wash various types of clothing. When you do laundry, use cold water unless you have deeply soiled items. Cold water is effective at getting laundry clean, and research has shown that colder wash cycles result in decreased microfiber generation.

Returning to the notion of cleaning your lint trap, air-drying clothes is another option for reducing wear that leads to microfiber shedding.

Mending rips, patching worn spots, replacing buttons, and otherwise altering clothing are great ways to keep your textiles in service for longer, which can reduce the need for new synthetics and keep plastics out of landfills and the environment. If you’re not skilled with a needle, support the local economy by taking your items to a tailoring and alteration shop. If you’re willing to do it yourself but lack experience, an abundance of online guides and videos can help you learn basic techniques. For example, see “Simple Ways To Mend Your Clothing Without A Sewing Machine.”

Trap or filter microfibers released in your washing machine, and consider the washer itself. There are ways to minimize the plastic pollution drained from your washer. First, if you’re in the market for a new washing machine, consider a front-loader. According to Energy Star, not only are these machines more resource efficient, but they’re gentler on clothes, resulting in less microplastic shedding.

Low-tech in-wash plastic pollution reduction options include using a device to collect loose fibers in the wash water, like the Cora Ball, or washing your synthetic fabrics inside garment bags, so you can manually remove collected fibers and put them in the trash. High-tech options include external filters that can be attached to your existing washing machine, or the emerging technology of washing machines with a built-in filter. France became the first country to regulate plastic microfiber pollution from laundry by adopting a law that will require new washers to have microfiber filters by 2025, so such machines will hopefully become increasingly commonplace.

When they can no longer be used, recycle your textiles. When your clothing and other textiles are no longer useful, don’t send them to the landfill! Check with your local government for area textile recycling options or consult the Illinois Recycling Foundation directory. If options aren’t available in your area, consider a mail-in take-back program.

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