We show you how you can extend the life cycle of clothes and even track your impact
Most of us have unused wealth literally lying around in our closets — in the form of clothes that we don’t want or need anymore. The increasing amount of unused clothes in our wardrobes is not only inefficient from a monetary point of view but also — and foremost — from a sustainability perspective. The 8th of October is World Circular Textiles Day on which circularity advocates in the fashion community come together to discuss the upcoming challenges on the industry’s road towards sustainable and circular practices. Initiatives like these are much needed because today the fashion industry is in dramatic imbalance.
The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world
The global fashion industry is responsible for 10% of global CO2 emissions. This is more than international flights and maritime shipping combined. Furthermore, the industry uses as much water in one year (e.g. in cotton farming or dyeing) as the consumption needs of countries the size of Ireland or Finland. Not only water conservation but also water quality is deteriorating. 20% of the entire global wastewaters are by-products from fabric treatment and 500,000 tons of plastic microfibers (e.g. from polyester) are dumped in the ocean each year — the equivalent of 50bn plastic bottles. Further causes of environmental harm that are caused at fashion items’ end of life include incinerateíon or disposal in landfills which pollute our earth and air and are still by far the dominant final destination for fibers that are used in clothing.
Individuals’ need to be empowered and their activism must become measurable
As the industry largely fails to turn these trends around consumers’ roles become increasingly
important. The above facts and figures sound overwhelming and — frankly — abstract from an individual consumer’s point of view. So, one starts to wonder how we as consumers can have a measurable impact to counteract the negative trends that we observe in the fashion industry during the last 10–20 years.
At Twig, we take these issues very seriously and make it our mission to enable our users to lead a sustainable — circular — lifestyle. Twig is built based on the principles of the circular economy and therefore aims to increase the valuable lifetime of clothes in order to reduce the carbon, water and waste footprints of fashion goods. Studies have shown that by reselling 1kg of clothes, around 25kg of CO2 emissions and around 1,000l of water can be saved which would have been used to produce new items otherwise. These numbers are already adjusted by the additional/new impacts that occur to enable the re-use of the items (shipment, quality control, warehouse operations etc.).
Twig facilitates the exchange of unwanted or unneeded clothes by providing our users with a potential reselling value of the products (i.e. real-time prices) and enabling them to instantly sell them through our app. In due course, we are launching a feature that even lets you pay for new products or services with your unwanted or unneeded items. Through an “Impact passport” users shall be able to continuously track their contributions to the environment — each re-sell at a time! This puts us in a position to track our environmental activism and brings much needed transparency into the global fashion industry.
It is also about conscious consumption/usage and social responsibility
Even if the above is a great way to contribute to the re-circulation of goods, we also want to emphasise that the use phase, i.e. how well we take care of the clothes we own and love is a decisive factor in a sustainable/circular fashion system. Especially in industrialised/developed countries, the number of times that people wear their clothes has been declining since the 2000s. At the same time, the production of new clothes is increasing. Clothing items usually last 100–200 wears but there are estimations that many pieces are only worn 7 to 10 times before they are discarded. Furthermore, the times we wash our clothing as well as the programs we choose are often unsustainable. Often, cold washing programs suffice to properly clean our clothes — as long as we are not talking about your sweaty sports socks.
- Buy quality over quantity
Quality over quantity is the golden rule for a lot of areas — but we celebrate it especially in clothes. Purchasing an investment item can save the environment as you will be able to wear it countless times before it starts to look overworn, lose its shape and fray (just a couple of things that fast fashion items present within days of wearing) and you will also look great! Shopping with a quality over quantity mindset can also save your pocket. Buying low quality items often means you have to make purchases often, even though a small price tag here and there does not seem like much — it will add up to more than one quality piece will cost over time.
- Avoid buying clothes because of trends — switch to a more sustainable wardrobe
Trends, especially in recent years where social media creates and leads the majority of these trends are fast spreading and extremely short. We urge our readers to understand the damage that these rapid trends can cause and how we should avoid entertaining these trends and keeping up with them. Switching to a more sustainable wardrobe can firstly and foremostly help reduce the amount of underage and underpaid textile workers as well as reducing environmental damages. It can also give you a better relationship with your wardrobe as you learn to cherish and use your clothing items in a smarter and more reusable way.
Last, but surely not least we want to mention the social responsibility that our clothing gives to us. Most of the world’s apparel is still produced in developing countries and we believe it is up to each of us to ensure that the fashion industry also supports marginalised and socially deprived communities. Therefore, we collaborate with donation partners to whom we donate a share of the products that we receive from our customers. For this, we are in touch with Oxfam, British Heart Foundation or The Salvation Army. We also plan to enable our users to choose to directly donate a share of their selling price or their clothing items to our partners through our app.
Sources: cleanup.org, Chalmer University, The World Bank, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Farfetch, GreenStory
