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You're bored of that little dress from last summer, and that sweater has pilled. Did that shirt shrink or have you put on weight? And oh God, those shorts! Note to self: never again drink and shop. Slightly embarrassed that they've still got the tags on, you bundle them up with the other stuff and hide it in the boot of your car. Marie Kondo was right, this stuff does not spark joy, and it's better off out of your life. Not in the bin though, obvs. No landfill for you! You are responsible citizen. You will do the right thing: you will take these fashion fails down to the opshop.
The true cost of fast fashion
Fashion journalist Clare Press appeared on the ABC's Lateline to talk about the rise of fast fashion globally, and its far-reaching consequences on both the industry and labour markets. Vision courtesy ABC News 24.
Producers of an upcoming TV series on waste dumped this clothing mountain in Sydney's Martin Place earlier this year to demonstrate the scale of our disposable fashion habit
Problem is, that sweater may well end up in landfill even so. Those shorts should make it to the shop floor, since they've never been worn, but when their next owner realises they make her look a Battenberg cake, they might be off to landfill too. Where they will stay. For up to 200 years, being polyester, which is essentially plastic and non-biodegradable.
Even if they were made of natural fibres which would more easily break down, warns sustainable textiles whiz Clara Vuletich, landfill is not some lovely composting situation.
"Conditions aren't right for the efficient breakdown of even those textiles marketed as sustainable and biodegradable," she says. "Basically, you don't want to send clothing to landfill."
Yet that's exactly what we do. Australians are the second largest consumers of new textiles after north America. We buy on average 27 kilograms per capita each year. We can't fit it all in our bulging wardrobes. According to ABS stats for 2009/10, Australians send 500,000 of tonnes leather and textiles waste to landfill yearly. Chances are that figure is higher now.
Our fashion habit is out of control. We're buying more and more clothes, at cheaper and cheaper prices, and it's unsustainable.
On Monday night Vuletich and I appeared on Lateline to discuss a report on the problem of low-quality clothing donations made to op shops. "It's kind of absurd," said Zachary Moore-Boyle, who works in the Vinnies store in Newtown, "the rate at which people are consuming clothes, many of which can only have been worn once before they start disintegrating." View More