3 ms·

Real sustainability might mean not buying at all in the first place or to buy within a community if it is available and especially with textiles, not from remot

Real sustainability might mean not buying at all in the first place or to buy within a community if it is available and especially with textiles, not from remote open markets - you don't know which levers are in place for a business to make its profits, which costs are dissipated to everybody but the profiteer. Policies and programmes help. But don't fool yourself to be relieved of your consumers responsibility by recycling. Somebody else will shoulder the external costs. Recently a local social organisation offered numbers for textile donations: women make up 80% of their donations, 10 tons per week, men are mostly recipients. Less than 10% are reused or resold, the rest might become insulation. They lamented: we get too much. Access to cheap textiles is easy.

mises 7y ago
I'm not sure what you mean here with not buying. Do you mean not replacing clothes seasonally based on what's "en vogue"? If so, that may be why women make up most of the donations: they do tend to use clothes for a much shorter time. I still remember being shocked when I spoke to a young lady who told me she wore a dress two times at most. I've never been much of an environmentalist, but I guess I can feel good about keeping clothes for years and not changing them with styles.
- cosmodisk 7y ago
  I used to dress relatively well.Lots of good quality clothes. Then I put on lots of weight and was like " fuck it,I look like shit anyway", so started buying the cheap stuff. A pair of jeans-£6, t-shirts-£3, etc.The only exception is footwear- I don't buy cheap shoes,as they are crap. £6 jeans last only a couple of months before they become unwearable,as the material is usually subpar. So I kept buying them every 2 month or so. However recently I stopped buying this cheap crap,and usually buy clothes that are high quality and they do last. That's how I'd describe less consumption.

mises 7y ago

I'm not sure what you mean here with not buying. Do you mean not replacing clothes seasonally based on what's "en vogue"? If so, that may be why women make up most of the donations: they do tend to use clothes for a much shorter time. I still remember being shocked when I spoke to a young lady who told me she wore a dress two times at most. I've never been much of an environmentalist, but I guess I can feel good about keeping clothes for years and not changing them with styles.

cosmodisk 7y ago
I used to dress relatively well.Lots of good quality clothes. Then I put on lots of weight and was like " fuck it,I look like shit anyway", so started buying the cheap stuff. A pair of jeans-£6, t-shirts-£3, etc.The only exception is footwear- I don't buy cheap shoes,as they are crap. £6 jeans last only a couple of months before they become unwearable,as the material is usually subpar. So I kept buying them every 2 month or so. However recently I stopped buying this cheap crap,and usually buy clothes that are high quality and they do last. That's how I'd describe less consumption.