The Unfashionable Side of Fast Fashion
“I can’t even fathom putting a piece of clothing in the dustbin”
I was lead to sustainability after an internship in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which left me upset and uneasy about the amounts of waste I saw lining the streets. Conversely, in my experience, the Vietnamese I met and saw were incredibly resourceful and seldom as wasteful as their streets might suggest. Through investigation, I found that while we see so much waste in developing cities, Canadians on a whole produce about three times the amount, we just don’t see it thanks to our collection systems. My first reaction? What do I do about this, and how wide does this issue span?
A couple weeks ago I was lucky to meet a fellow Unleash Talent, Claire Bates, at her office in London, England. Claire took time to teach me about the post-consumer textile processes that her company, Beyond Retro (owned by Bank and Vogue in Ottawa, Ontario), is engaged in. This includes. remanufacturing and upcycling of existing apparel; distribution of clothing bales to be sorted in various factories around the world (including spots in Toronto, Ontario!); and redistribution of the sorted clothes back to the appropriate markets for resale in vintage stores and the like.
After visiting with Claire I realized that a community close to my hometown is making headlines due to their innovative solutions to curbing textile waste. Markham, Ontario has uniquely succeeded in diverting 81% of waste continually, while our province’s capital city, Toronto, is still only aiming for 70%. Since October, around 1.4 million kilograms of textiles have been collected and Markham has seen a $761,000 (CAD) reduction in roadside garbage collection costs. The city uses clear garbage bags to ensure residents are sorting waste properly, and has provided at least 53 disposal bins for used textiles around the city.
So, what is the unfashionable side of fast fashion? Certainly not the redesigned items in Claire’s office, but more so the backdrop we’re left with if fast fashion continues. Many models, fashionistas, and everyday people pride themselves on pristine photos, often posted on Instagram and other social media. What happens when we no longer have the spotless beaches, the uncontrolled and beautifully green jungles and forests, and the clear skies for our perfectly-posed pictures? How many “Likes” can we garner when the exact thing we’re showing off (trend fashion) has ruined our own backdrop (the environment)? The important thing is that there are solutions, as demonstrated by Claire and the leaders and community of Markham, Ontario; they just need wide-scale implementation and compliance.*
I am so excited to be joining the UNLEASH Talents in Copenhagen next week to co-create the solutions we need to make sustainability and the SDGs accessible, affordable, and attainable. I am particularly interested in the ways in which cities can pivot and adapt quickly to the needs of communities to encourage sustainable consumer behaviour. A few articles that have inspired and informed this post are included below. To Markham, Ontario and Claire, thank you for the inspiration. I can’t wait to see what next week brings!
*Of course, there are many aspects of this issue that I have not even touched on (such as the difference between poly and recyclable fabrics in the post-consumer process). This article is meant as a simple introduction to my own motivations in applying for and attending UNLEASHLab 2017.
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On the clothing bales and uses for second-hand clothing.
On Markham’s innovative solutions:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/05/17/markhams-unique-recycling-program-diverts-textile-waste-from-landfill.html
https://www.yorkregion.com/community-story/7012848-markham-s-textile-recycling-program-to-save-taxpayers-86-000/
