Hi All,
Over the past few years there have been many new initiatives launched from some of the biggest high street and designer brands, from Zara to Adidas have all got on the ‘Green’ and ethical bandwagon and about time too. There have always been those designers that have worn their eco friendly designs on their sleeves, such as Stella McCartney, but let’s face it the highstreet has had some job to catch up. Now though, more ad more of the affordable brands, such as H&M and Forever 21 are catching up in the race to save the planet and pay workers for the job they do.
The question is, is disposable fashion ever going to be environmentally friendly?
A recent survey conducted by the British environmental charity Global Action Plan. discovered that 7.5 Billion items of clothing are sent to landfill each year – my wardrobe maybe consists of 200 items, which makes that amount of clothing totally mind blowing. Not to mention the fact that as they re not biodegradable, they will stay there for years into the future. With so many stations to recycle clothing nowadays, why are we choosing to ignore them?
SO What is being done? Well H&M launched their ethical cotton range in 2007 to much success, Tesco have begun introducing eco friendly materials into their collections – not something any of us thought would happen – and many ethical brands such as People Tree are now common knowledge.
H&M are quoted as stating that “It is a misconception that affordable products cannot be sustainable. We maintain affordable prices by having small mark-ups, buying in large volumes, having effective logistics, having no middlemen, designing the products ourselves and having our own stores … you need resources which smaller companies may not have,” (Quote from the BBC)
However this is only the beginning of what is going to be a long process of cutting down wasted fashion, making sure the factories across the globe are ethical and keeping any emissions to a minimum. This will mean recycling drives – which are not really needed as there are more than enough recycling points in the UK, we just need to actually use them. Is it a problem of fashion consumption? Maybe, there have been any stores over the years that offer you incentives if you bring your unwanted clothes to them, which you will then spend on buying MORE clothes. But I am as guilty of this as anyone else! I will get rid of the old only to replace them with items that I will rarely wear. OK, so I do recycle my clothing or give bags to charity, but this isn’t the point is it? However I am doing my part – now we just need the backing of some of the major players.
What do you think about the amount of fashion we consume? Do you recycle your old clothing or not?