• Home
  • News
  • Fashion
  • Recycle Now urges clothing re-use

Recycle Now urges clothing re-use

By FashionUnited

loading...

Scroll down to read more
Billions of pounds worth of wearable clothes and other textiles could be saved from landfill each year if we all reused more and wasted less, according to Oxfam and the Recycle Now campaign, launching this year’s Recycle Week, which runs from 22-28 June.

A new poll conducted by Recycle Now reveals only 39 per cent of consumers consider the environmental impact of throwing clothes away and yet 63 per cent2 of our clothing is going to landfill where some of it will biodegrade in airless conditions to form methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

In fact, we buy approximately 2 million tonnes of new clothing and textiles every year, estimated to be worth a £38 billion, but recycle or reuse just 16 per cent of what we discard. Aside from the financial cost of this, the majority of people are unaware of the harmful impact on the environment.

Production of clothes is a major drain on natural resources – it uses up 10 times more energy than the production of steel or glass. On average, each UK resident purchases around £600 worth of clothes per year and discards £400 worth. As this year’s Recycle Week kicks off and encourages us all to think about the many, easy ways we can all waste less in our daily lives.

David McCullough, Trading Director at Oxfam, is supporting Recycle Week and encouraging others to get involved. McCullough said: “Recycling clothes is just as important as reusing or recycling any other material. A huge amount of natural resources go into the production of clothing, so while it’s easy to get wrapped up in fast fashion, spare a thought for the environment, as well as your purse! Why not make the most of your existing wardrobe and pledge to donate what you don’t want and recycle what you can’t use this Recycle Week.”

Image: Recycle

Recycle