8:49 pm - Fri, May 18, 2012

Blogging away…

So I have this bad habit of being really active on twitter and finding super many interesting articles to read …. LATER. Because somehow when I’m on twitter it’s on a small annoying screen and I’m doing something like relaxing in bed or waiting for a bus. So I ‘Favorite’ these articles for ‘Later’.

One of the most intriguing arguments that have come up later on my feed has been about the recent H&M Conscious Collection which is a debate I’ve been active in a few times on this blog. Now M&S also have a brand new initiative which is meant to “Reduce Raw Material Costs” according to Drapers, now it seems to me that everyone is in love with this project. My fear is that instead of raising awareness of the massive amounts of low-quality clothes bought every day with no consideration to its longevity in the closet. What I’m basically saying is that doesn’t this initiative just tell people to buy more cheap disposable clothes, because we can easily use it all over again at no cost.

 - I hope you’ve all seen pictures of this wall of 10,000 pieces of clothing. Photo: Su-mu via Treehugger

This quote that really gets me nervous that this might be true is from Start.uk:

Just imagine - every time we think about going shopping, we’ll also now be thinking about donating something. One in, one out! It’s not only the perfect wardrobe management strategy but will, in due course, lead to a much better selection of clothes to sift through in Oxfam shops. Brilliant

I understand the need for people to understand that landfill is not the right destination for clothes. I was so surprised at finding quite a few decent shirts in the bin on a rainy day (sadly). To be fair I don’t understand why if paper, plastics and glass bottles go in the recycle bin our garments shouldn’t.

William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue in their well-respected book on the Cradle to Cradle concept that there ishardly any material today that can be recycled because the process reduces the quality of the material and most recycling is in reality downcycling. Consider what options Treehugger considers for clothes that can neither be sold nor reused by designers: 

 mattress filling, carpet underlay or as a last resort, incinerated. Some of the garments will even be turned in to new fibres for use in new garments.

This is called downcycling. And actually while they keep maintaining that no clothes are sent to the landfill, at Everything Must Go, the Oxfam representative told us that any clothes which was unsellable and of mixed material or wet when received (so could go mouldy and contaminate an entire bale on cargo) would have to go landfill. 

 - The lovely Joanna Lumley explaining the concept

So I guess on the positive:

Donation banks indoors, no mould
Raise awareness of clothes donation
Clothes donation made easy

However, with the marketing communications that M&S are sending out I can’t say that this will do much for the sustainability of our future wardrobes.

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