he darkest secret of the fashion industry: the triumph of 'f

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Each year, the industry creates more than 100 billion items of clothing, enough for each person on the planet to receive 14 new items of clothing per year, and more than double the amount produced in the year 2000. To make matters worse, because of our buy-and-return culture, many of those clothes end up back in the hands of retailers. And despite what many people believe, the majority of returned garments are not replaced, reused or reused, but end up in the trash. The problem is serious: every day tens of millions of garments are thrown away to make way for new ones. And every year, 101 million tons of clothing end up in landfills . This fast fashion trend (low-cost clothing) only increases our waste. New Balance is going after Skechers: its Fresh Foam sole is very comfortable and the Arishi V4 are on sale For example, Zara produces 450 million garments, with 20,000 new styles each year , whose design becomes obsolete in just one year, so they are replaced with new ones in the following season.



And if 20,000 seems like a lot to you, wait until you see what the "new girl in the office, that is, Shein, produces . The Chinese company, founded in 2008, launches 6,000 new styles... a day! And not all of those clothes sell. Many cheap clothing companies have mountains of excess stock that they struggle to get rid of. The Christmas season exacerbates the problem. At Christmas, many more people buy clothes that they then return and many get rid of old clothes to make room for new ones. According to a report from market research firm The WhatsApp Number List NPD Group , now that the pandemic is over, people plan to buy more winter coats and loungewear for the holidays and travel. For their part, retailers are urging consumers to buy, buy, buy to get rid of all the stocks accumulated due to problems with the supply chain . However, this excess consumption only causes more waste. 30% of what we buy online is returned, and according to ReturnGo , 25% of returned products end up in the trash.







Despite green brands' promises to recycle what customers return, old clothes are rarely renewed. According to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, less than 1% of used clothing is reused . Of plastic, 9% is recycled, while about 70% of cardboard. In 2013, H&M became the first major retailer to launch a global used clothing collection program, installing thousands of bins in stores in 40 countries. The company encouraged customers to deposit their used clothing, offering vouchers and discount coupons to people who took advantage of the program. But according to a 2016 Fast Company report , most of the clothing that H&M collects ends up being donated, while the rest is turned into products such as cleaning cloths or wipes, whose useful life before ending up in the trash is very short. . When clothing cannot be recycled, it ends up in landfills around the world, such as the Chilean desert. When clothing cannot be recycled, it ends up in landfills around the world.