August 22, 2023 • 48 mins
Journey with your favorite sustainability podcast into the world of online consignment shopping like thredUP and learn more than you ever wanted to know about why fast fashion is THE WORST. Bonus: find out what FFF means to us and start chanting it under your breath every time you pass a clothing store.
Sources:
- US News and World Report: 7 Top Online Consignment Shops for Selling your Clothes
- The Guardian: ‘It’s like a death pit’: How Ghana became fast fashion’s dumping ground
- Better Business Bureau: Complaints about thredUP, Inc.
- The Roundup: 17 Most Worrying Textile Waste Statistics and Facts
- Green America: What Really Happens to Unwanted Clothes?
- The Good Trade: How does textile recycling work?
- Reader’s Digest: This is What Really Happens to Your Used Clothing Donations
- Vogue: How Sustainable Is Consigning Clothing? The RealReal Is Glad You Asked
- We Hate Waste - Visible Mending is Trending
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome back to grinningAtlantic, the podcast where we
dash all your hopes and dreams.
Being an eco friendly member ofsociety, Titan get well I you
know, I think reading up my actis a podcast about nuance and
learning and how there's no suchthing as a perfect solution but
(00:27):
we're trying to arm our friendsand ourselves with information
about making the best choicesthat we can to care about the
environment and our pocketbooksand doing things effectively in
our lives. So yes, yes.
And yeah, using things thatactually function and work and
(00:49):
yeah, are not just a bigheadache. Yeah. Like DIY
dishwasher detergent.
Yes. Which if you haven'tlistened to that episode if you
if you want to hear our firstsoggy granola, that's what it
is. Yeah, but we did it. We havehad some winners this season
too. Because we're talking aboutwastes This is Season Two of
greening up my act and we've wehad some My Little Ponies
instead of four horsemen of theapocalypse so yeah, glass or
(01:13):
rest gonna Mercer Yeah, paperrecycling. Those are all
relatively functional things.
Surprisingly functional.
I think we kind of went inthinking that they were going to
be death cults on the only onethat is a death cult is plastic.
So itisn't partisan is yeah. So yeah.
So yeah, we are to marketingwriters and we love to explore
(01:34):
products that market themselvesas green or eco friendly. And we
love to just find the green Huiand all the nonsense, because we
kind of know how companiesoperate behind the scenes. So
we've dealt in our own Hui, sowe know we know what the words I
(01:56):
handed it out to the world.
Yeah, well, I'm speaking ofHawaii. There's a lot of it in
this episode. So this week, I'mjust gonna dive right in. We're
talking about clothing, dealingwith clothing, basically
clothing waste, and specificallyI was supposed to delve into
thread up which is like onlineconsignment reselling. So yes,
(02:17):
but this is it's a death cult.
I'm just gonna give that awaynow. Not that thread up is
necessarily a death cult untoitself but clothing waste in the
United States. Oh, yes. Is adeath cult. Okay, this may be
our other famine of the this isnot a My Little Pony. So okay.
(02:39):
No, yeah, but there's Don'tDon't worry we will get to the
good the good good. Okay, thankGod. So I just I'll just go
through real quick my my sourcesthis week. US News and World
Report. They had seven toponline consignment shops for
selling your clothes theguardian. This is an article I
saw actually on Instagram thatI've been saving in my phone for
(03:02):
about eight weeks now. But theGuardian had it's like a death
pit how Ghana became fastfashion is dumping ground. Oh,
Lord, just give it away. TheBetter Business Bureau
complaints about threat up ink.
The roundup had 17 most worryingtextile waste statistics and
facts. Great America had whatreally happens to unwanted
clothes. The good trade ad Howdoes textile recycling work?
(03:22):
Reader's Digest had an articleon this is what really happens
to your used clothing donations.
Vogue had an article on howsustainable is consigning
clothing. The real role is gladyou asked. And then we hate
waste which you introduced us tolast week, which is a blog
written by New Yorker. Oh, yeah,she had a bit about visible
(03:42):
mending. So I really I justadded that in because I was
like, that's perfect. So thoseare my sources for this week. I
wanted to start with what isthread up. If you're like me,
and you're chronically online,your Facebook ads on your
Instagram ads feed you throw itup or other stores like this.
It's it's an online consignmentstore. So consignment is when a
(04:02):
store takes something and sellsit on your behalf. And they keep
a percentage of it. And then ifthey don't sell it, they either
give it back to you or donateit, you know, whatever. And they
there are consignment search forfurniture and places like that's
for the record. If you need newfurniture and you want something
nice. A lot of estate sales inplaces will sell nice furniture.
For a bargain of the price. I'vealways wanted to go to one live
(04:26):
consignment stores. And they'rebetter than antique stores.
Usually state of Oh, estatesales are great, too.
Yeah, but sorry. A littledepressing. But yeah, yeah.
It's kind of a celebration oflife sometimes. I don't know.
Oh, good. I have used threat upseveral times. So I'm really
curious about and I haveopinions, but
okay, well, so the idea is, theytake your unwanted clothes in a
(04:50):
clean out bag, which they sendyou when you sign up. They sort
them for what sellable. Theysell what they can on your
behalf. They pay you for it theycould sell and then they do what
they want with the rest unlessyou ask them to send it back to
you, that's the basic premise,you're supposed to send them
gently used clothing. And payback is a percentage of what
they sell based on its sellingprice. So the smaller the, the
(05:13):
lower the price they can sell itfor the less they'll give you.
So you get like three to 15% forstuff that's under $20. And then
up to 80%. of stuff that sellsfor $200. Or Wow. So it's, it's
not really worth it for you tosell like a T shirt, that's
going to be $4. Because you'regonna get 3% of that, you know,
yeah, it's you get Pennyliteral, literal things. And
they do. Often they'll offer ofcredit, like store credit. So
(05:36):
like if you've ever shopped atthe Buffalo Exchange? Yeah,
that's a very common consignmentwell, not consignment store
because they they buy theclothes from you outright, but
they can give you store credit,which is worth more than cash.
Yeah, the issue is like if if itdoesn't sell and you don't
reclaim it, thredUP gets to dowhatever they want with it. So
we'll get into that a littlelater. Okay, US News and World
(05:57):
Report also lists queenly, thereal real vestia? Collective
Poshmark and Kittelson. Thoseare the seven including thrown
out, okay, list for onlineconsignment shops. So why would
you use thread up? Okay, it'seasy, they just send you this
clean out bag, you throw all theunwanted clothes that you have
in there, and you drop it in themail, piece of cake, right? You
(06:19):
may be able to make money, youmay be able to get some money
for, you know, your high endChanel dress that you've worn
once or your J Crew dressesstill has tags on you may you
may make some money off of that,you can get rid of the clothes,
you don't know what to do withif you're not close to a thrift
store or something where youcould drop it off and you don't
(06:40):
feel like donating it. It's it'smakes it really easy and and
then you may think in the backof your mind that you're
donating the clothes in the endbecause they say that they might
donate them if they can't sellthem. So okay, I wish
they would recycle them. But Imight have made that up in my
head,I think it's a little fuzzier on
the Okay. The other thing is, itdoes reduce your footprint. Now
(07:02):
these statistics are kind of alittle weird to get to. So
according to this article byVogue, where they're talking
about the real real, which hadjust they just created their own
sustainability calculator. Sothe real real is committed to
sustainability and fashion. Andthey, whatever you sell, or buy
used on there, it helps youcalculate like what you're
(07:24):
saving in terms of globalwarming or climate change,
output. So for instance, theysaid to put it in perspective,
consigning one pair of jeans,conserves 279 litres of water
as, as compared to like, a newpair of jeans being created,
right? A silk dress saves 30litres of water, a cashmere
(07:46):
sweater saves 80 litres ofwater. So they're ever these are
averages based on the fact thatthe real world does not have
transparency into the productionof garments listed on its site.
So that's an issue is that wedon't really know how much water
it takes to produce jeans andthings because, okay, that's
just an average.
(08:06):
Okay? And also is thatincluding, like shipping costs
or shipping, that'sjust water usage, the
sustainability calculator, whichwe could go into, would look at
different aspects, like, howmuch of the carbon footprint it
is, I mean, that that was just asampling of what a
sustainability calculator willtell you. I don't have serious
numbers on how much it saves tobuy a used pair of jeans as
(08:27):
opposed toOkay, yeah, cuz, like you said,
it's shipping right? Justaverages. Yeah,
yeah. So I mean, that's, that'sa really tough calculation, but
this was just in the productionof a new pair. Okay. It takes
279 litres of water to make anew pair of jeans
(08:48):
on average. Yeah. Right.
Which is a lot of wateractually, that is a lot. They
also said that they estimatethat for every one item that you
can sign a third of that item isnot produced a new so basically,
if you can sign three pairs ofjeans, you're saving the world
(09:10):
from creating a new pair ofjeans. Interesting kind of a
weird number but yeah, I mean,okay, sure. That is an
interesting way to look at it isthat like creating these
clothing new is is a hugeproblem. So you might want to
use a consignment store to buyand sell your clothes for that.
Okay, now why wouldn't you usethrow it up? Well, the hassles
(09:31):
don't take very much first offvoters.
They don't I mean number but italso increases your willingness
to buy junk clothes because youthink you can just resell them
so it increases wish cyclingright eating totally you're just
like oh I can just give this athrow it up when I'm done. You
also may not be donating theclothes you think you're
(09:51):
donating or recycling them? Andin my opinion, it's a scam.
Really? No? Yes. Okay, so mystory about throw it up. The
reason I I don't like them. WhenI was getting married, I bought
a dress from Saks Fifth Avenue.
And being a soon to be bride iwas like all lose weight. So I
bought a size that I was like awish size, right? Yes, I never
(10:13):
got to another weight I gotdiagnosed with an eating
disorder, I actually ended upgaining 30 pounds. So God, I
couldn't send the dress back toSaks Fifth Avenue. Because I
took too long, they had I guess,a 90 day window for returns. And
by the time I was like, thisisn't going to work. I was well
past that. So I said, You knowwhat, I'll sell it on thread up.
I had been using thread up tobuy clothing. I had us there
(10:34):
Clean Out Bag service once andsent them a bunch of clothes,
and hadn't made any money off ofit, I think of like 220 cents
off of a sweater or something.
So I was like, okay, but this isa designer dress, it's worth
money. Like it's worth $300 It'sstill got the tags on, it's
still in the bag, you know thatit came in? Well, so I sent it
(10:55):
to throw it up. And I was Ididn't click on there, like send
it back to me if it doesn'tsell. Because I was like,
There's no way it's not going tosell. So a few weeks later, I'm
like, Well, what happened to mydress? So I get on my app, and
it says it had been destroyedbecause it was in bad shape. And
they had said when they got itthat there was a huge stain on
it. Oh my god. And I said do youhave like picture evidence of
(11:17):
the stain? Because I sent itwith the tags on in the bag? And
they're like, No, we don't wedon't keep that information.
Like there's no frickin way thatthat happened. You know, I was
so upset. And I mean, it wascompounded by the fact that I
was supposed to be my weddingdress and it you know, I had
spent $8 on it. And I would hadgained weight and all these
(11:39):
miserable things about you know,what goes into the emotion of
your wedding dress, right? Thewedding industrial complex. Yes,
yes. Even if you're like tryingto be an alternative bride. It
doesn't work. Yeah, no, no, no.
It's in there. It's in there. Imy theory, and I can't prove
this is that somebody at thewarehouse saw that I had said I
(11:59):
didn't want it back. So theyclaimed it was stained, claimed
it was destroyed. And they tookit and they sold it. Because
this dress was still for sale onSaks Fifth Avenue full price.
Oh my gosh. And it wasn't like awedding dress.
It was no it was just a nice, Iactually bought a different
(12:19):
version of it and decided towear it. I actually bought it
like a full wedding dressbecause I you know got sucked
in. But I I bought a version ofit. It was just a really nice,
and I might wear it to eventsand stuff. But I wore it to my
rehearsal dinner. Uh huh. It wasjust like a, like, NICE CROCHET
lace over like a slip. Justreally pretty, like cream
(12:41):
colored dress. Yeah, kneelength. You know, very nice. But
anyway, so I am not the onlyperson that this has happened to
if you look through, throw itup. A lot of people have
problems with stuff goingmissing or you know, wow. And I
think they may have tamp down ona little bit. I haven't I
haven't touched them in, youknow, five years since then.
(13:03):
Whenever Yeah. Well, and also,they don't give you money back.
Like you get 3% on they decidehow much they're gonna sell
something for. And the thing is,there just isn't a market for
resale clothes. Like unless it'sreally nice. Nobody wants your
stupid gap tshirt. Yeah, or like a crewneck
with a stretch out neck.
(13:27):
Yeah, well, that's absolutelynot gonna sell. Right.
Because I've seen a lot ofclothes on there. And then I'm
like, these aren't don't looklike they're in good shape.
Yeah, so my thing was, I wasusing threat up a lot when they
first started and it was free toget Yeah, clean up bag. Yeah.
And you could get it right away.
But then as time went on, Ithink they just had to sort of
(13:50):
figure out a way to be comeprofitable, probably when
well and okay, I'm gonna getinto that
so the issue that people arepieces of shit when it comes to
(14:15):
trying to resell clothes, and Idon't know if it's sunk cost
fallacy or wish cycling butagain, nobody wants your T shirt
with a stretched out neck.
Nobody. Right if it has a stainon it. You can't sell that. I
don't care if it's Sean Paul gota like nobody wants your sweat
stained. And the thing is peoplejust jump if you give somebody a
clean out bag their trash in itand send it to you. Right up
(14:40):
charges me for that. Sono, it makes sense. Yeah, it
does make sense. I just rememberthey also shoot what was it was
like just a bunch of fees areadding up and I was like, this
is not worth it'snot I would rather just give
myself to Goodwill, honestly.
Yeah. And the other thing is,yeah, they don't I don't think
(15:00):
they donate their stuff. Ididn't go deep in their website,
I think they do send it totextile recycling companies,
which is fine, it's fine withme, they might sell it to them.
So they might be making moremoney off of it. Which, you
know, go capitalism. But let'stalk about the clothing
industry. Just so we can get ahang on. Why is this happening?
(15:24):
According to round up.org, thisis just gonna be a Rolodex of
numbers. Okay, up to 100 billiongarments are produced by the
fashion industry worldwide everyyear 100 billion garments 100
There aren't even 10 billionpeople on the earth. So consider
that. And not not many of themhave purchasing power to buy new
garments, either. So justconsider that 100 billion
(15:47):
garments for maybe 2 billionpeople. Okay, Sheezus 50 billion
garments per person, right?
Yikes. Each year, as much as 92million tonnes of clothing ends
up in landfills. Only 20% of alltextiles that's towels, clothing
sheets are collected for reuseor recycling. globally. So as a
(16:08):
percentage, 20% One in five.
Yeah, almost 60% of all clothingmaterial is actually plastic. So
that's nylon, acrylic andpolyester. Okay? And they're
just everywhere. So it's, it'splastic. It's plastic. Right?
textile production generates 42million tonnes of plastic waste,
(16:31):
making the textile industry thesecond highest industrial sector
in plastic after packaging. Soyou're putting Dow Jones or not
Dow Jones? Dow? Yes. Dow Joneschemical company, right. I think
just Dow. I'm sorry. Dow Jonesis the stock market. Sorry. I
worked in finance. It's Dow theDow Chemical Company fucking
(16:52):
loves I'm sorry. Pardon myFrench loves. Don't love
apologize. Yeah, it leaves it onSpotify. So we're fine. Does it?
Yeah. The other night I was likeother people need. That is
funny. Yeah. So anyway, sopackaging, and then clothing and
textiles. Okay, just considerthat if you hate plastic put
fast fashion up there. Okay.
Every time a synthetic garmentis washed, it releases tiny
(17:14):
plastic microfibers into thewater. Yes, up to 500,000 tons
of microfibers end up in theocean every year for the
turtles. Holy shit. Textiles andfashion waste account for 9% of
annual microplastic pollution.
What footwear industry andgarment industry combined are
responsible for 8% of globalgreenhouse gas emissions. 8% Oh
(17:38):
my god, the US generates justover 17 million tonnes of
textile municipal solid wasteper year, according to the most
recent EPA data, which I thinkis from 2018 Still, so that's
112 pounds per person. Textilejunk every year. You said per
year per year. 102 100pounds. 12 pounds? I definitely
don't but I'm not big intoclothes.
(18:02):
Yeah, well, that means yourneighbor next door or my
roommate who used to ordersomething new on wish every day?
God Yeah, so 60% of all unwantedclothes in textiles are just
sent to the landfill in the US.
Wow. Less than 15% are recycledand the rest 20% are burned.
Hmm.
(18:23):
Ya know, another interestingfact is we owned 60% more
clothing than we did 15 yearsago. 1550 60% more clothing than
we own 50 Just 15 years ago.
What?
So that's in the 2000s 2005 howwe've on six worlds is shipping
(18:44):
Amazon. I mean, wish. It's easy.
And the fashion industry has hasdone it. But we also wear each
item 50% Fewer than we used to.
Yeah. So you buy an item, you'regonna wear it half as much and
you have twice as many clothesas used to. This is kind of
(19:05):
makes sense.
You know what now I'm makingsome connections here because
remember, I said that like mostof the plastic that we've
created in the entire world hasbeen in the last like 15 years.
It's 17 years and baby. Oh mygod.
So clothing sales will reach 160million tons by 2050. If we keep
going at this rate.
(19:26):
God, we cracked the code yet.
This is plastic baby. Julie'starget shopping trip is the
problem. Your Amazon habit isthe problem. Oh my gosh. Okay,
so you have all these clothes.
Now. We all love Marie Kondo. Welove the clean out. You get rid
of you have 60% more clothesthan you've had before. And then
you realize like my closet isover stuff and I never wear any
(19:48):
of it and it makes me miserable.
What do I do? I donate it right?
Okay. What happens to yourclothes when you donate it?
Reader's Digest went deep intoit. On average, we throw away
780 Where 81 pounds of textilesevery year. That's on average,
you again, according to thatother statistic is 112 pounds
per person, according the latestcensus statistics, so somewhere
(20:09):
between 70 and 115 pounds perperson a year that's just
straight in the trash, juststraight the trash. Okay? Okay,
so Reader's Digest says, Here'show donations can go 90% of what
you donate to your local charityshop. That's goodwill Salvation
Army, whatever the thrift storedown the road is we had one in
Albuquerque that catersspecifically to trans youth,
(20:29):
which I love to donate to. Andshop at. That's awesome. Yeah,
but most of that will go to atextile recycler because it's
unsellable because nobody wantsher stupid shit. Okay, so most
of the stuff you donate is notgetting resold that it No, it
will go to ties before Okay.
Okay. Now the caveat for this isas long as there aren't major
(20:51):
stains, oil stains, or mildew onit. People donate fucking
mildewed clothing. I'm so angryabout this. I'm sorry. I'm just
going to drop the F bomb likeincessantly during the show. No,
guys, I used to work at a usedbookstore. I might have
mentioned that. And yes, it'slike, some people were lovely
and so clearly careful abouttheir stuff. And it was all in
(21:14):
really good condition. Often allhardbacks, whatever other people
Oh, my Lordy,the trash book you would get
with no cover and like,like stuff that was wet.
Yeah. Like, how did this gethere? People are trash. Like you
don't want to see the interioris in most people's lives.
People live in the weirdestthing. And you know what? I get
(21:34):
it sometimes you're justoverwhelmed. And you need to get
those books out of your it'syour mom's? Yeah, you know, and
you've got to clean it out. Iget it.
Well, I was gonna say we'regoing to talk about this in at
the end of the season about likehoarding, and it's truly
interesting. I've already beendoing a little bit of research
and it's like, it's not, it'snot like, we can't shame people
(21:57):
for it. No,it's blind. However, society is
100% Textile recyclers use yourclothing and whatever textiles,
towels, this includes towels,linens, etc. Carpet, padding,
insulation, rags, etc. Orthey're sent to foreign
(22:17):
countries for quote, unquote,recycling, and I will get into
later.
Sounds like plastic. Yeah.
One interesting, it is very muchlike plastic. One interesting
thing that Reader's Digestpointed out is that those
roadside collection bins thatsay like donate your clothes
here for charity, yeah, areespecially the ones that are
(22:39):
just like, painted with youknow, they don't have like an
official they're not BigBrothers, Big Sisters or
whatever. They are actuallyusually just textile recycling
companies. Oh, are like this isa charity. It's not. It's a
textile recycling company.
That's sointeresting. Is there a problem
with recycling textiles? No.
Okay, that doesn't really botherme. To be honest. That is
(23:02):
so much textile in the worldthat needs right. So I'm fine
with that. But then sometimesthey will that you're gonna say
it's just a dumpster. No. Well,so I mean, depending on what
goes in there if you throw amoldy rag in there, the whole
rest of it is a dumpster now.
Yeah, true. So yeah, but anyway,they're getting your stuff for
free. Whereas they would havehad to buy it from Goodwill or
(23:24):
whatever. So that's sometimeskind of genius. Yeah, I know but
sometimes they to operatelegally with those boxes they
have to donate a percentage oftheir charity their profit
profits to charity The thing isyou'll never know why. So if
you're just desperate to get ridof you know clothing that you
definitely can't resell just putit in one of those donation
boxes. It'll be recycled. Wow.
(23:45):
Or you can find a recyclingcompany near you.
But that's what what would youcall it not green who even like
charity Hui anyway, charity Hui?
Yeah, that's that's charity. Whofor sure. Yeah. So anyway,
that's something to be aware of.
Okay. Now, there are some timesyou may have noticed, I noticed
because I bought some jeans fromLevi's a couple of years ago.
h&m, gap, Patagonia, maidwell.
(24:07):
They all have these buybackprograms. And or take back
programs where like, if you'relike done with your pair of
jeans and like, they'll take itback, but only 1% of what they
take back can be made into newclothing. Oh, usually because
it's a cotton plastic blend.
Hmm. So plastic is again thedevil. Okay. Yes. Yes. Well, I'm
(24:29):
reevaluating my entire wardrobe,but go ahead. Yeah.
Yeah, I know. So most of thatgets donated to textile
recycling companies. Oh,interesting. Couch stuffing.
Okay, so just so you know, thosethey call those programs. They
refer to them as good trade callthem greenwashing. So really,
they're grenouille, those areokay. Yeah. Because they're
(24:51):
misleading about Yeah, cuz theysay they can do more than I
mean, they're basically likeplastic recycling. They can't do
most of what they're claimingthey gotcha okay, because they
do make claims They're turningit in to new clothes.
Well, they're saying they'lltry. Okay, so the caveat right
or the try, and it makes youfeel better about buying more
stuff from them. Yes, exactly.
Which is the same with a CocaCola company. You feel fine
(25:11):
buying a two liter bottle ofCoke because you like Well, it's
a good recycle, it won't right.
Damn geniuses. Yep. And evilgenius evil
geniuses, right? Money makingswine anyway, according to green
America, Goodwill's process isas follows 5% of the clothes
they get are sent directly tolandfills immediately, mostly
because of mildew. Then they putstuff up for sale. And remember,
(25:34):
there are human beings who aresorting this stuff. So don't
throw your bullshit clothes inthe poor people who have to do
this. It's not like, yeah, it'srough. So they'll put it up for
sale. If they cancel after fourweeks, they are sent to Goodwill
outlets where everything is 99cents a pound. Okay. I don't
know where those are. They'rethroughout the US. After that.
(25:55):
They're sent to Goodwillauctions where they're all
turned into mystery bins. Oh myGod, I know somebody who goes to
these. Okay. And they buy allthat. Okay. Yeah. So you can buy
a bin starting at $35. But youyou bid on it. Basically. It's
like Storage Wars. You don'tknow what's in it, but you're
gonna get a bin full of clothesof textiles, clothes and
(26:15):
needles. But anyway. And glass.
Yeah, it's I've heard it's justjunk. Yeah, it's really bad. Oh,
that's horrifying. Yeah. Thenthey send whatever's left to
textile recycling centers. Sothat's Hey, and so according to
Reader's Digest, it's 90% ofwhat you donate ends up in those
recycling centers.
Okay. So everything, at leastall of the sellable clothes,
(26:39):
they do try to sell it for fourweeks. See, I thought they took
a mutt like they just had somuch that they couldn't even try
to sell it. They just throw itaway.
Or throw it towards at least 5%Or so I think they do. I?
I didn't think that for anyreason. You're right. I'm just
saying like, that kind ofsurprises me actually. Because
it'sso much so much stuff. Well, I
think there may be a we may bemissing a step in the sorting
(27:04):
process where 5% is just mildewyor stained, and they have to
Yeah, throw it away. And thenprobably more of it goes through
sorting and is unsellable and sointeresting. Yeah. Well, okay.
Most thrift stores don't trackwhat happens to the clothing
after they sell it or give itaway to the next step in the
(27:25):
process. So the left handdoesn't know what the right hand
is doing. We don't know what thetextile they don't know what
happens your T shirt after itgoes to the textile recycler.
They don't know. Okay, sothere's not like statistics on
like, and then 90% of that isrecycled and 5%. You know, it's
we don't know.
Oh, so we don't really know ifthey're actually using it. All
(27:46):
right. We don't know. I mean,we'd have to go through what
textile recyclers do. Right. Sothe good trades article on
textile recycling says it's postconsumer clothing. That's the
stuff you bought more once andgave away. And pre Consumer
Collection, which is scraps formanufacturers, hotels,
hospitals, or clothing that wasnever worn because it was never
sold. Okay? Materials are sortedby fiber, so natural versus
(28:10):
synthetic and then graded foreither resale so they can resell
that to more manufacturers as atextile recycler or recycling.
So they can this got weird forme, they can tread natural
fibers and re spin them intoyarn. Most of the stuff is
turned in insulation, stuffingor cleaning rags, okay, because
you can't. Now this was where Igot a little confused. The
(28:32):
process uses thermo mechanicalprocessing, to separate
plastics, right? Natural fibersin that process burn off in the
heat. So if it's, if they'rerecycling a polyester or cotton
poly blend garment, basically,they burn off the cotton and
melt the polyester. And thenthey can write a reusable they
(28:55):
can reuse the polyester sointeresting. So they said that
natural fibers can be respondedto yarn, but that's actually
harder to do than just plasticand reuse it. Hmm. So that means
cotton is harder to recycle thanpolyester. Which is mind
blowing.
Yeah, that is, especially ifit's already mixed. If it's like
(29:18):
polyester mixed with somethingelse. Yeah. Wow. Okay.
Anyway, that was hard to wrap mybrain around, yeah.
So now let's get into theinternational clothing donation
(29:40):
scheme. International importingof pre consumer clothing is
extremely bad and post consumerclothing. So this is the article
The Guardian article that Imentioned earlier, that I've
been saving for eight weeks orwhatever. They break it down for
what happens in Ghana, which isthe biggest importer of us
clothing in Africa.
Whoa, study. ain't gonna Oh, didyou when I was in college? Yeah.
(30:03):
Did you see this? Well, Idid see a guy. So I went to
Indiana University and I saw aguy with, like, who's your
shirt? And I was like, hey,yeah, okay. Well, that wasn't
you didn't know what it was. Hewas like, Yeah, Bergen cares
aboutit. Well, they talk about, you
know, used to be when they madeall those Super Bowl shirts,
they'd make winners, because youdidn't have time to make it on
demand the day that they went.
So you have like, whichever teamthey had both teams as the
(30:26):
winner. Yeah, so the losers arelosers overnight. Yeah, well,
because we've increased theamount of clothing we have so
much in the past few years. Thisis a whole new issue in the last
15 years, right? They shipperstake those bins from Goodwill or
other aggregators, and ship themto Ghana. People will buy those
things at auction and just shipthem to Ghana. The city of Accra
(30:47):
is this largest secondhandclothing market in the world.
That's crazy. I didn't see a lotof clothes there. But I don't
know if i Wow. I mean,how long ago was that?
Well, yeah, 2010 okay as nine soit
was probably right at the start,but you know, we're damn infest
fashions fold right now. Damn.
At that market. They'll separatethe clothing into bales. Just
(31:10):
again, it's a grab bag, andtraders will spend 120 to $200
US dollars per bale 40% of theaverage bale in Accra has to be
thrown away, because it's, it'sworthless. Okay, so that's 100
tonnes every day of unusableclothing. 30% of that is
collected by a municipal wasteprogram. So the city of Accra
(31:32):
has a waste program that willcollect it, the rest of it ends
up in illegal dumps or ditchesand drains. Yeah, that isn't
surprising. Yeah, because thatis a problem and that's why we
ship our waste aways because wedon't want it in our rivers.
Well, it ends up in in Accordingthis article, the odour river.
So the article notes that thequality of secondhand clothing
(31:52):
has decreased dramatically overthe past few years. Thank you
fast fashion, which is why theOdell river is now so polluted
by discarded clothing. There'sthey're not able to resell it
like they could have when youwere there.
Oh my god. Wow. That is crazy tome.
Yeah, this in this article, theyfocused on an activist who's a
(32:12):
swimmer named Yvette Jaco Naduteta. And she swam the river to
raise awareness about thepollution. Wow. And she had a
research vessel follow her andtake samples of the water as she
swim. I was gonna say, did sheget really sick? Well, no, I
think she was able to do butlike, the pictures are
harrowing. I mean, it isseriously go look at it. It's
(32:33):
horrible. And you know, it'splastic in the water. And it
clogs the waterways and it itseriously affects nearby
farming. I mean, it is. It'sawful. So that's what happens to
your clothing. Like it ends upin the river in Ghana. And it
(32:53):
ends up in the sea turtlestomach and you're not going to
sell it on thread up. Nobodywants. Nobody wants it. So what
can you do? quit buying cheapnew clothes. Seriously. That's
it stop quick on target andbuying that dress. Not only are
they usually made in sweatshops,right? I didn't even go into
that. About who is making yourclothing, children or underpaid
(33:18):
workers in horrible conditions.
But they're also made fromplastics that pollute everything
when you wash them when youthrow them away. Whenever. So
just stop. You have enoughclothing.
Wow. Well, I was gonna say and Ialso know for a fact that social
media is contributing to it.
Because there's lots ofinfluencers who
(33:38):
feel I have to I fall prey toit. I'm like, I need that dress.
I need that dress.
Yeah, that 55 cent dress. You'relike, how is it so deep?
Yep. Because it was made by achild and it's cheaply produced
and they made a lot of them andit's plastic. And they're just
gonna throw it away. Buy highquality clothing and have it
tailored. That's it. Because ifit's high quality and it's made
(34:03):
by a sustainably made house, youknow, I can't lose any right
now. I know. I've looked at afew but we we should we will
have an episode on sustainableclothing brands. But yeah, learn
how to sew and fix clothing thathas holes in it. So that was
what the the trend that we weretalking about visible. Yeah. So
(34:24):
that that's a cool idea. Like itadds like a touch of personality
to your shoes if you patch itwith something not like a patchy
by Michaels or whatever but likea like a created flower or like
you can embroider stuff and likeI actually know a woman here in
town who does her own embroideryand patching and things and it's
(34:45):
really personalized and reallycool.
I have a problem with likewearing the crotch out of my
jeans yes not sure.
Look upside of ideas for that.
Well, I mean what there's likestitches you could do you know,
like, there's there's I'm surethere's Something I mean, I'm
not that creative myself. Yeah.
My husband. I don't know why butJoe, just, he has razor knees. I
(35:08):
have no clue. It's always onlythe knees. Even with like his
raw denim jeans. He's worn theknees out. And I'm like, I
literally have never done thatin my life. So I know what
you're doing.
I have busted through I bustthrough in the news before I
bust through anywhere else. Sofunny, maybe once but man
pockets doesn't take him long.
So my friend, he dies, hisjeans, like when they fade. He
(35:33):
has two pairs of jeans that hewears, and he dies and black.
And you know, they weren't new,but he died. Very cool. Yeah. So
that's something you could do toyou can hold clothing swaps with
your friends. Now this can be acrapshoot because your friends
might have fast fashion sizes,or different sizes. I've gotten
a lot of really great me downdresses. Yeah, my
friends. And I've done that oncebefore. I have some
(35:55):
friends with really good tastesome artists friends that I'm
like, I'll take I'll take that.
My sister and I send clothesback and forth. Sometimes. So
that too. That's smart. Yeah.
Yeah, use your Facebook BuyNothing group. There's so many
clothes on there all the time.
And there are people like I'vegotten a prom dress on there.
That we use for our runninggroup, right? Yeah, so you can
(36:16):
those by nothing groups arepretty good.
My again, mine won't let me in.
I tried again.
Boo. I don't know what the dealis. Yeah, sucks. That is weird.
I know.
Gatekeeping Yeah. Start yourjoin freecycle though.
Okay, go ahead. That's a goodfree cycles, great Craigslist.
(36:38):
Free stuff, too. Right?
Especially like baby clothes andstuff. Oh my god. Yeah, baby
clothes, because they wear themfor a day and then they're grown
out of them. And it's and thenthey get stained by avocado. So
it doesn't Yes, they haveavocado stains.
I just bought I went toSalvation Army. And I got
Charlie. I think it's a handmadelittle apron. Oh, it looks
handmade. But it was $1. And Iwas like, Yes, please.
(37:01):
Yeah, I mean, that's it. Okay,that was my next thing is buy
your clothes from thrift stores.
I mean, you can use throw it upor have the real real I don't
whenever and buy new to usestuff too. If you don't mind
that they're scoundrels. I thinkthe real role might be slightly
better than threat but again,it's all there. They're making
money off you the goodwillSalvation Army. I mean, I don't
(37:21):
go to Salvation Army forreligious purposes. But goodwill
does use their stuff for forcharitable purposes. And again,
you can put there's probablythrift stores in your
neighborhood that do goodthings.
Oh, yeah. Like tiny, small.
Yeah, small business for thefirst. I was also gonna say, I
just remembered one reason I diddislike thread up is that they
charge you to, if you don't likeyour clothes, they charge you to
(37:42):
send them back. If I'mremembering correctly, and it
was like not cheap.
No, it's more than shipping.
Yeah, it was absurd. Which iswhy one of the reasons I signed
on not to have my $300 dress andback me. Yeah, yeah, that's
fair. So try a rental service. Ido know that some of the rental
services have shady practices. Iinteresting.
(38:07):
I did Rent the Runway for aminute I did was so freakin
expensive andhard to find the right sizes
because sizes are so different.
Right? So much research. I onlydid like coats and yeah, like
that.
I enjoyed it. Like for events. Irented a dress for my birthday,
which was great. So I think it'sgood for like weddings and
stuff. I think. Yeah. It'scheaper than buying a new dress.
(38:28):
For sure. And especially justwhat are you going to do with a
new dress? But yeah, turnclothing into rags on paper
towels. Mm hmm. reuse them? Youknow?
I think I figured something outabout the rags. If you use
pinking shears, doesn't thatstop the edges from fraying?
I couldn't say that. But that'sa very good possibility.
(38:50):
Let me just look up one ofpinking shears do ya to limit
the length of frayed threads? Somine, I just cut up things are
free like crazy. So just getsome pinking shears? No,
there we go. Okay, that that'ssmart. Yeah, so you can use me
my mom used to use my dad'sundershirts to like, wipe down
windows and stuff. Oh, yeah,they're great. Yeah,
(39:12):
they're soft. They're nice. Makesure now this is really
important. Be better about yourdonations. Make sure you're
really only giving good stuff toGoodwill or thrift store right?
Because you know, BuffaloShangela, like, whatever. But
people will take whatever youhave whatever trash you give
them. And yes, your knee if youput one mildewed Ross rag, it
(39:36):
can vary in a whole barrel ofstuff and then it just is just
going to end up in the river andgonna so just horrible do your
own landfilling. If it's moldyif it's moldy throw it away. I
you know, that's the one thingyou should be throwing away is
moldy stuff. Yes. The otherthing is you can learn to sew
and make your own clothes usingupcycled materials which I will
(39:56):
applaud you for I have I boughta sewing machine I have done
nothing with it. But that alsofor for mending your clothing is
really a good idea. Just learnto sew, just
just people are really good atit. And I have friends who are
really good at it. And it'sreally amazing. I also have a
sewing machine and I like havesewn before and I know the
basics of how to operate it. Butyeah, creating Yeah.
(40:20):
Yeah, creating new stuff fromscratch. Yeah, my sister has
done a lot. She's really we'resupposed to have a sewing
session where we get on, Zoomtogether, and she's going to
teach me how to sew. But oh,that's really cool. She has
three children. So that's harderto do than it sounds right.
We'll see. Maybe sometime soon.
But so those are just my ideas.
There's plenty of things you cando with clothes. But number one
is just quit buying new clothes.
Just stop. This is probably thebiggest place that American
(40:43):
consumers can reduce theirplastic consumption just reduce
reduce reduce. Yeah, thatinfuriates me and really feels
like a kick in the ass to belike, Oh, plastic. Oh, yeah,
that I didn't even think about.
I mean, we've talked about howbamboo and hemp and cotton all
(41:04):
use all this water. plastic.
Plastic is terrible.
Yeah, it's really bad. There'snothing good about it. No.
I mean, it's cheap. That's it,but only like, it's cheap on the
front end, and on the back end,it's gonna kill all the sea
turtles. So that's, that's theprice you pay. So yeah, I know,
it's fun to go to Target and buycheap clothes. And I know
(41:24):
sometimes you just need a tshirt. You know? Fine. Okay. But
really consider how much closingdo you need? Really, right?
I want to start a capsulewardrobe.
I started to try to do that too.
But then I'm not a capsule kindof girl. But I do. Like, I do
need to wear the clothes that Ihave, you know, right? Because I
(41:46):
work from home and I'm a slob.
So I were like living is it'sI'm gonna say it is hard,
especially as a woman who's beendiagnosed with an eating
disorder, my weight hasfluctuated and who's over 30,
who's over 40 It's going evenfurther. My weight has
fluctuated insanely, right. Andso,
I mean, same like after having ababy, it's I've never, I haven't
(42:09):
stabilized, like all over theplace.
Part of me is like, Okay, youjust have to learn to get rid of
the clothes and make you feelbad because they're too small.
But then it's like, then I'lllose the weight. And I'll come
back, right. Like, I wish I hadthat to two dresses that I gave
away six years ago. Right. Youknow, it's like, all right. So
yeah, I mean, that's a big part.
Yeah, I can't buy clothes rightnow. Because I've know what no
idea what size I'm going to bein a year. But I can go to
thrift stores and find fivethings I like wearing and wear
(42:32):
those, you know, and that's it'sworth the effort. It's worth the
time.
Yeah, because I think that'swhat we're all it can be a
confidence boost if your clothesfit well, but I think that's
kind of what you're saying islike buy good stuff that a
tailored Yeah, that you gettailored it out. Yeah. And then
it will actually fit youagain. Now that's expensive. So
(42:52):
it's not for everyone. Right?
But I mean, go to the thriftstore and find one teacher that
fits you well rather than four Tshirts that kind of fits you
shoddily you know, exactly. Bemore choosy about your clothing.
Yeah. Okay, so now the TLDRgranola rating for thredUP
(43:13):
specifically, I want to give ita soggy because of my personal
experience with them and I'mstill mad about it. But in all
honesty, I'm going to give allthese online consignment stores
a three overall because a chewy,so our scale is from one to five
one being the worst being soggy.
Five being breaker tooth off,which is the best because
crunchy granola is the best thisis three is chewy, while online
(43:33):
consignment stores, like throwit up do reduce the carbon
footprint of clothingconsumption overall. Okay,
there's no arguing with that notmake not buying something new is
is best. However, they stillencourage unending consumption,
which is the reason we have thisproblem in the first place.
Right? Although we don't knowwhat they do with the clothes
(43:53):
they don't sell, so they mayjust be contributing to the pile
up in Ghana anyway, right? It'sstill better than throwing your
clothes directly in the trash,which apparently just I didn't
realize this. Most people justdo that. Yes. Because only 20%
of textiles in the US arerecycled. So Right. I mean, at
least take it to one of thoseshady looking bins. That's
actually just a textilerecycling place. Just do that.
(44:15):
Just drop it off.
It's true. That's very true.
Yeah.
So anyway, quit throwing yourstuff in the trash, reuse it
quit buy a new stuff, period.
Yeah, so that's my takeaway fromWow. Yeah. athleisure has a
whole new, like I have a wholenew understanding of
(44:35):
athleisure yoga pants. Those areall plastic. Yeah.
Yeah. Wells's.
Yeah, so well, anyway. Yeah.
Happy fuckface fast fashion.
FFF. That's what UmThank you. That is a lot of
research. Oh, my God. That islike such a topic.
(44:58):
I didn't even You didn't evenscratch the surface.
Yeah, absolutely. I'm impressedthat you even were able to
consolidate that rageresearching. That was plastic in
the Yeah, me. Yeah. Rage. Yeah,classic rage. So okay, well
what's what's next week we'redoing home composting. Oh, thank
you. Composting is next week.
(45:20):
Yes, we're going to be talkingabout mill. So I wanted to look
into this new mill. It's sort oflike a, from what I understand.
It's like a startup kind of homecomposting system. So I wanted
to say, yeah, there's a bunch ofads for it. You've probably seen
online. Yes, we're chronicallyonline. Yeah. Like on Instagram.
I've seen a bunch. And so I justwanted to look into it and see
(45:43):
if it's legit or not, are worthour time. Okay, so I'm not going
to sign up for it. It's tooexpensive,
but Oh, bummer. Okay, well, thatalready gives it a knockdown
aim, no,hard day. But I'm going to look
for reviews and stuff and kindof consolidate it. So.
Okay. Well, I'mexcited to hear about it. And
yeah, you'll see it's not evenlike crazy expensive. It's just
(46:05):
not for me right now. So yeah,that's her. Yeah, one thing at a
time, you got to buy your metalstraws first.
And I have a home composting binthat I got for free from my
county and I want to try to setthat up and actually do my own
composting. So that's really theplan. Yeah. So I gotta get on
that and stuff. Butyou have a week. Yeah, exactly.
(46:27):
I want to see warm filledcompost by next week.
On your Yeah, it's gonna be twoyears, both lush Brown. Yes. My
petunias came back. Did they?
Oh, good. Deer sprayseverything. Oh, yeah. Okay,
good. Yeah, they're thriving.
Yeah, I should post pictures.
Yes. Post rip back from thedead. My zombie petunias.
(46:54):
Yeah. Well, thank you.
Thank you. Yeah, have a goodnight and yeah, thanks for
tuning in everyone please. Ifyou could leave a review leave a
review we would love five starswe'll take for whatever granola
writing you want to give us wewill tolerate or we break your
teeth off. Yeah, please pleasetell us we broke your teeth off
(47:15):
today.
We'll pay for your dental workno
no we won't do not promise thatthey will come for you. I'm
already getting sued by threatup for calling them treacherous.
Yes, but yeah, are use reviewshelp a lot. Yeah, like
surprisingly, anywhere youlisten, you can just scroll down
and give us some stars and leavea written review. If you feel
(47:39):
like it'd be a time sowe really appreciate you
spending your time with us andlearning about fast fashion
today.
Alright, goodnight.
Welcome back to grinningAtlantic, the podcast where we
dash all your hopes and dreams.
Being an eco friendly member ofsociety, Titan get well I you
know, I think reading up my actis a podcast about nuance and
learning and how there's no suchthing as a perfect solution but
(00:27):
we're trying to arm our friendsand ourselves with information
about making the best choicesthat we can to care about the
environment and our pocketbooksand doing things effectively in
our lives. So yes, yes.
And yeah, using things thatactually function and work and
(00:49):
yeah, are not just a bigheadache. Yeah. Like DIY
dishwasher detergent.
Yes. Which if you haven'tlistened to that episode if you
if you want to hear our firstsoggy granola, that's what it
is. Yeah, but we did it. We havehad some winners this season
too. Because we're talking aboutwastes This is Season Two of
greening up my act and we've wehad some My Little Ponies
instead of four horsemen of theapocalypse so yeah, glass or
(01:13):
rest gonna Mercer Yeah, paperrecycling. Those are all
relatively functional things.
Surprisingly functional.
I think we kind of went inthinking that they were going to
be death cults on the only onethat is a death cult is plastic.
So itisn't partisan is yeah. So yeah.
So yeah, we are to marketingwriters and we love to explore
(01:34):
products that market themselvesas green or eco friendly. And we
love to just find the green Huiand all the nonsense, because we
kind of know how companiesoperate behind the scenes. So
we've dealt in our own Hui, sowe know we know what the words I
(01:56):
handed it out to the world.
Yeah, well, I'm speaking ofHawaii. There's a lot of it in
this episode. So this week, I'mjust gonna dive right in. We're
talking about clothing, dealingwith clothing, basically
clothing waste, and specificallyI was supposed to delve into
thread up which is like onlineconsignment reselling. So yes,
(02:17):
but this is it's a death cult.
I'm just gonna give that awaynow. Not that thread up is
necessarily a death cult untoitself but clothing waste in the
United States. Oh, yes. Is adeath cult. Okay, this may be
our other famine of the this isnot a My Little Pony. So okay.
(02:39):
No, yeah, but there's Don'tDon't worry we will get to the
good the good good. Okay, thankGod. So I just I'll just go
through real quick my my sourcesthis week. US News and World
Report. They had seven toponline consignment shops for
selling your clothes theguardian. This is an article I
saw actually on Instagram thatI've been saving in my phone for
(03:02):
about eight weeks now. But theGuardian had it's like a death
pit how Ghana became fastfashion is dumping ground. Oh,
Lord, just give it away. TheBetter Business Bureau
complaints about threat up ink.
The roundup had 17 most worryingtextile waste statistics and
facts. Great America had whatreally happens to unwanted
clothes. The good trade ad Howdoes textile recycling work?
(03:22):
Reader's Digest had an articleon this is what really happens
to your used clothing donations.
Vogue had an article on howsustainable is consigning
clothing. The real role is gladyou asked. And then we hate
waste which you introduced us tolast week, which is a blog
written by New Yorker. Oh, yeah,she had a bit about visible
(03:42):
mending. So I really I justadded that in because I was
like, that's perfect. So thoseare my sources for this week. I
wanted to start with what isthread up. If you're like me,
and you're chronically online,your Facebook ads on your
Instagram ads feed you throw itup or other stores like this.
It's it's an online consignmentstore. So consignment is when a
(04:02):
store takes something and sellsit on your behalf. And they keep
a percentage of it. And then ifthey don't sell it, they either
give it back to you or donateit, you know, whatever. And they
there are consignment search forfurniture and places like that's
for the record. If you need newfurniture and you want something
nice. A lot of estate sales inplaces will sell nice furniture.
For a bargain of the price. I'vealways wanted to go to one live
(04:26):
consignment stores. And they'rebetter than antique stores.
Usually state of Oh, estatesales are great, too.
Yeah, but sorry. A littledepressing. But yeah, yeah.
It's kind of a celebration oflife sometimes. I don't know.
Oh, good. I have used threat upseveral times. So I'm really
curious about and I haveopinions, but
okay, well, so the idea is, theytake your unwanted clothes in a
(04:50):
clean out bag, which they sendyou when you sign up. They sort
them for what sellable. Theysell what they can on your
behalf. They pay you for it theycould sell and then they do what
they want with the rest unlessyou ask them to send it back to
you, that's the basic premise,you're supposed to send them
gently used clothing. And payback is a percentage of what
they sell based on its sellingprice. So the smaller the, the
(05:13):
lower the price they can sell itfor the less they'll give you.
So you get like three to 15% forstuff that's under $20. And then
up to 80%. of stuff that sellsfor $200. Or Wow. So it's, it's
not really worth it for you tosell like a T shirt, that's
going to be $4. Because you'regonna get 3% of that, you know,
yeah, it's you get Pennyliteral, literal things. And
they do. Often they'll offer ofcredit, like store credit. So
(05:36):
like if you've ever shopped atthe Buffalo Exchange? Yeah,
that's a very common consignmentwell, not consignment store
because they they buy theclothes from you outright, but
they can give you store credit,which is worth more than cash.
Yeah, the issue is like if if itdoesn't sell and you don't
reclaim it, thredUP gets to dowhatever they want with it. So
we'll get into that a littlelater. Okay, US News and World
(05:57):
Report also lists queenly, thereal real vestia? Collective
Poshmark and Kittelson. Thoseare the seven including thrown
out, okay, list for onlineconsignment shops. So why would
you use thread up? Okay, it'seasy, they just send you this
clean out bag, you throw all theunwanted clothes that you have
in there, and you drop it in themail, piece of cake, right? You
(06:19):
may be able to make money, youmay be able to get some money
for, you know, your high endChanel dress that you've worn
once or your J Crew dressesstill has tags on you may you
may make some money off of that,you can get rid of the clothes,
you don't know what to do withif you're not close to a thrift
store or something where youcould drop it off and you don't
(06:40):
feel like donating it. It's it'smakes it really easy and and
then you may think in the backof your mind that you're
donating the clothes in the endbecause they say that they might
donate them if they can't sellthem. So okay, I wish
they would recycle them. But Imight have made that up in my
head,I think it's a little fuzzier on
the Okay. The other thing is, itdoes reduce your footprint. Now
(07:02):
these statistics are kind of alittle weird to get to. So
according to this article byVogue, where they're talking
about the real real, which hadjust they just created their own
sustainability calculator. Sothe real real is committed to
sustainability and fashion. Andthey, whatever you sell, or buy
used on there, it helps youcalculate like what you're
(07:24):
saving in terms of globalwarming or climate change,
output. So for instance, theysaid to put it in perspective,
consigning one pair of jeans,conserves 279 litres of water
as, as compared to like, a newpair of jeans being created,
right? A silk dress saves 30litres of water, a cashmere
(07:46):
sweater saves 80 litres ofwater. So they're ever these are
averages based on the fact thatthe real world does not have
transparency into the productionof garments listed on its site.
So that's an issue is that wedon't really know how much water
it takes to produce jeans andthings because, okay, that's
just an average.
(08:06):
Okay? And also is thatincluding, like shipping costs
or shipping, that'sjust water usage, the
sustainability calculator, whichwe could go into, would look at
different aspects, like, howmuch of the carbon footprint it
is, I mean, that that was just asampling of what a
sustainability calculator willtell you. I don't have serious
numbers on how much it saves tobuy a used pair of jeans as
(08:27):
opposed toOkay, yeah, cuz, like you said,
it's shipping right? Justaverages. Yeah,
yeah. So I mean, that's, that'sa really tough calculation, but
this was just in the productionof a new pair. Okay. It takes
279 litres of water to make anew pair of jeans
(08:48):
on average. Yeah. Right.
Which is a lot of wateractually, that is a lot. They
also said that they estimatethat for every one item that you
can sign a third of that item isnot produced a new so basically,
if you can sign three pairs ofjeans, you're saving the world
(09:10):
from creating a new pair ofjeans. Interesting kind of a
weird number but yeah, I mean,okay, sure. That is an
interesting way to look at it isthat like creating these
clothing new is is a hugeproblem. So you might want to
use a consignment store to buyand sell your clothes for that.
Okay, now why wouldn't you usethrow it up? Well, the hassles
(09:31):
don't take very much first offvoters.
They don't I mean number but italso increases your willingness
to buy junk clothes because youthink you can just resell them
so it increases wish cyclingright eating totally you're just
like oh I can just give this athrow it up when I'm done. You
also may not be donating theclothes you think you're
(09:51):
donating or recycling them? Andin my opinion, it's a scam.
Really? No? Yes. Okay, so mystory about throw it up. The
reason I I don't like them. WhenI was getting married, I bought
a dress from Saks Fifth Avenue.
And being a soon to be bride iwas like all lose weight. So I
bought a size that I was like awish size, right? Yes, I never
(10:13):
got to another weight I gotdiagnosed with an eating
disorder, I actually ended upgaining 30 pounds. So God, I
couldn't send the dress back toSaks Fifth Avenue. Because I
took too long, they had I guess,a 90 day window for returns. And
by the time I was like, thisisn't going to work. I was well
past that. So I said, You knowwhat, I'll sell it on thread up.
I had been using thread up tobuy clothing. I had us there
(10:34):
Clean Out Bag service once andsent them a bunch of clothes,
and hadn't made any money off ofit, I think of like 220 cents
off of a sweater or something.
So I was like, okay, but this isa designer dress, it's worth
money. Like it's worth $300 It'sstill got the tags on, it's
still in the bag, you know thatit came in? Well, so I sent it
(10:55):
to throw it up. And I was Ididn't click on there, like send
it back to me if it doesn'tsell. Because I was like,
There's no way it's not going tosell. So a few weeks later, I'm
like, Well, what happened to mydress? So I get on my app, and
it says it had been destroyedbecause it was in bad shape. And
they had said when they got itthat there was a huge stain on
it. Oh my god. And I said do youhave like picture evidence of
(11:17):
the stain? Because I sent itwith the tags on in the bag? And
they're like, No, we don't wedon't keep that information.
Like there's no frickin way thatthat happened. You know, I was
so upset. And I mean, it wascompounded by the fact that I
was supposed to be my weddingdress and it you know, I had
spent $8 on it. And I would hadgained weight and all these
(11:39):
miserable things about you know,what goes into the emotion of
your wedding dress, right? Thewedding industrial complex. Yes,
yes. Even if you're like tryingto be an alternative bride. It
doesn't work. Yeah, no, no, no.
It's in there. It's in there. Imy theory, and I can't prove
this is that somebody at thewarehouse saw that I had said I
(11:59):
didn't want it back. So theyclaimed it was stained, claimed
it was destroyed. And they tookit and they sold it. Because
this dress was still for sale onSaks Fifth Avenue full price.
Oh my gosh. And it wasn't like awedding dress.
It was no it was just a nice, Iactually bought a different
(12:19):
version of it and decided towear it. I actually bought it
like a full wedding dressbecause I you know got sucked
in. But I I bought a version ofit. It was just a really nice,
and I might wear it to eventsand stuff. But I wore it to my
rehearsal dinner. Uh huh. It wasjust like a, like, NICE CROCHET
lace over like a slip. Justreally pretty, like cream
(12:41):
colored dress. Yeah, kneelength. You know, very nice. But
anyway, so I am not the onlyperson that this has happened to
if you look through, throw itup. A lot of people have
problems with stuff goingmissing or you know, wow. And I
think they may have tamp down ona little bit. I haven't I
haven't touched them in, youknow, five years since then.
(13:03):
Whenever Yeah. Well, and also,they don't give you money back.
Like you get 3% on they decidehow much they're gonna sell
something for. And the thing is,there just isn't a market for
resale clothes. Like unless it'sreally nice. Nobody wants your
stupid gap tshirt. Yeah, or like a crewneck
with a stretch out neck.
(13:27):
Yeah, well, that's absolutelynot gonna sell. Right.
Because I've seen a lot ofclothes on there. And then I'm
like, these aren't don't looklike they're in good shape.
Yeah, so my thing was, I wasusing threat up a lot when they
first started and it was free toget Yeah, clean up bag. Yeah.
And you could get it right away.
But then as time went on, Ithink they just had to sort of
(13:50):
figure out a way to be comeprofitable, probably when
well and okay, I'm gonna getinto that
so the issue that people arepieces of shit when it comes to
(14:15):
trying to resell clothes, and Idon't know if it's sunk cost
fallacy or wish cycling butagain, nobody wants your T shirt
with a stretched out neck.
Nobody. Right if it has a stainon it. You can't sell that. I
don't care if it's Sean Paul gota like nobody wants your sweat
stained. And the thing is peoplejust jump if you give somebody a
clean out bag their trash in itand send it to you. Right up
(14:40):
charges me for that. Sono, it makes sense. Yeah, it
does make sense. I just rememberthey also shoot what was it was
like just a bunch of fees areadding up and I was like, this
is not worth it'snot I would rather just give
myself to Goodwill, honestly.
Yeah. And the other thing is,yeah, they don't I don't think
(15:00):
they donate their stuff. Ididn't go deep in their website,
I think they do send it totextile recycling companies,
which is fine, it's fine withme, they might sell it to them.
So they might be making moremoney off of it. Which, you
know, go capitalism. But let'stalk about the clothing
industry. Just so we can get ahang on. Why is this happening?
(15:24):
According to round up.org, thisis just gonna be a Rolodex of
numbers. Okay, up to 100 billiongarments are produced by the
fashion industry worldwide everyyear 100 billion garments 100
There aren't even 10 billionpeople on the earth. So consider
that. And not not many of themhave purchasing power to buy new
garments, either. So justconsider that 100 billion
(15:47):
garments for maybe 2 billionpeople. Okay, Sheezus 50 billion
garments per person, right?
Yikes. Each year, as much as 92million tonnes of clothing ends
up in landfills. Only 20% of alltextiles that's towels, clothing
sheets are collected for reuseor recycling. globally. So as a
(16:08):
percentage, 20% One in five.
Yeah, almost 60% of all clothingmaterial is actually plastic. So
that's nylon, acrylic andpolyester. Okay? And they're
just everywhere. So it's, it'splastic. It's plastic. Right?
textile production generates 42million tonnes of plastic waste,
(16:31):
making the textile industry thesecond highest industrial sector
in plastic after packaging. Soyou're putting Dow Jones or not
Dow Jones? Dow? Yes. Dow Joneschemical company, right. I think
just Dow. I'm sorry. Dow Jonesis the stock market. Sorry. I
worked in finance. It's Dow theDow Chemical Company fucking
(16:52):
loves I'm sorry. Pardon myFrench loves. Don't love
apologize. Yeah, it leaves it onSpotify. So we're fine. Does it?
Yeah. The other night I was likeother people need. That is
funny. Yeah. So anyway, sopackaging, and then clothing and
textiles. Okay, just considerthat if you hate plastic put
fast fashion up there. Okay.
Every time a synthetic garmentis washed, it releases tiny
(17:14):
plastic microfibers into thewater. Yes, up to 500,000 tons
of microfibers end up in theocean every year for the
turtles. Holy shit. Textiles andfashion waste account for 9% of
annual microplastic pollution.
What footwear industry andgarment industry combined are
responsible for 8% of globalgreenhouse gas emissions. 8% Oh
(17:38):
my god, the US generates justover 17 million tonnes of
textile municipal solid wasteper year, according to the most
recent EPA data, which I thinkis from 2018 Still, so that's
112 pounds per person. Textilejunk every year. You said per
year per year. 102 100pounds. 12 pounds? I definitely
don't but I'm not big intoclothes.
(18:02):
Yeah, well, that means yourneighbor next door or my
roommate who used to ordersomething new on wish every day?
God Yeah, so 60% of all unwantedclothes in textiles are just
sent to the landfill in the US.
Wow. Less than 15% are recycledand the rest 20% are burned.
Hmm.
(18:23):
Ya know, another interestingfact is we owned 60% more
clothing than we did 15 yearsago. 1550 60% more clothing than
we own 50 Just 15 years ago.
What?
So that's in the 2000s 2005 howwe've on six worlds is shipping
(18:44):
Amazon. I mean, wish. It's easy.
And the fashion industry has hasdone it. But we also wear each
item 50% Fewer than we used to.
Yeah. So you buy an item, you'regonna wear it half as much and
you have twice as many clothesas used to. This is kind of
(19:05):
makes sense.
You know what now I'm makingsome connections here because
remember, I said that like mostof the plastic that we've
created in the entire world hasbeen in the last like 15 years.
It's 17 years and baby. Oh mygod.
So clothing sales will reach 160million tons by 2050. If we keep
going at this rate.
(19:26):
God, we cracked the code yet.
This is plastic baby. Julie'starget shopping trip is the
problem. Your Amazon habit isthe problem. Oh my gosh. Okay,
so you have all these clothes.
Now. We all love Marie Kondo. Welove the clean out. You get rid
of you have 60% more clothesthan you've had before. And then
you realize like my closet isover stuff and I never wear any
(19:48):
of it and it makes me miserable.
What do I do? I donate it right?
Okay. What happens to yourclothes when you donate it?
Reader's Digest went deep intoit. On average, we throw away
780 Where 81 pounds of textilesevery year. That's on average,
you again, according to thatother statistic is 112 pounds
per person, according the latestcensus statistics, so somewhere
(20:09):
between 70 and 115 pounds perperson a year that's just
straight in the trash, juststraight the trash. Okay? Okay,
so Reader's Digest says, Here'show donations can go 90% of what
you donate to your local charityshop. That's goodwill Salvation
Army, whatever the thrift storedown the road is we had one in
Albuquerque that catersspecifically to trans youth,
(20:29):
which I love to donate to. Andshop at. That's awesome. Yeah,
but most of that will go to atextile recycler because it's
unsellable because nobody wantsher stupid shit. Okay, so most
of the stuff you donate is notgetting resold that it No, it
will go to ties before Okay.
Okay. Now the caveat for this isas long as there aren't major
(20:51):
stains, oil stains, or mildew onit. People donate fucking
mildewed clothing. I'm so angryabout this. I'm sorry. I'm just
going to drop the F bomb likeincessantly during the show. No,
guys, I used to work at a usedbookstore. I might have
mentioned that. And yes, it'slike, some people were lovely
and so clearly careful abouttheir stuff. And it was all in
(21:14):
really good condition. Often allhardbacks, whatever other people
Oh, my Lordy,the trash book you would get
with no cover and like,like stuff that was wet.
Yeah. Like, how did this gethere? People are trash. Like you
don't want to see the interioris in most people's lives.
People live in the weirdestthing. And you know what? I get
(21:34):
it sometimes you're justoverwhelmed. And you need to get
those books out of your it'syour mom's? Yeah, you know, and
you've got to clean it out. Iget it.
Well, I was gonna say we'regoing to talk about this in at
the end of the season about likehoarding, and it's truly
interesting. I've already beendoing a little bit of research
and it's like, it's not, it'snot like, we can't shame people
(21:57):
for it. No,it's blind. However, society is
100% Textile recyclers use yourclothing and whatever textiles,
towels, this includes towels,linens, etc. Carpet, padding,
insulation, rags, etc. Orthey're sent to foreign
(22:17):
countries for quote, unquote,recycling, and I will get into
later.
Sounds like plastic. Yeah.
One interesting, it is very muchlike plastic. One interesting
thing that Reader's Digestpointed out is that those
roadside collection bins thatsay like donate your clothes
here for charity, yeah, areespecially the ones that are
(22:39):
just like, painted with youknow, they don't have like an
official they're not BigBrothers, Big Sisters or
whatever. They are actuallyusually just textile recycling
companies. Oh, are like this isa charity. It's not. It's a
textile recycling company.
That's sointeresting. Is there a problem
with recycling textiles? No.
Okay, that doesn't really botherme. To be honest. That is
(23:02):
so much textile in the worldthat needs right. So I'm fine
with that. But then sometimesthey will that you're gonna say
it's just a dumpster. No. Well,so I mean, depending on what
goes in there if you throw amoldy rag in there, the whole
rest of it is a dumpster now.
Yeah, true. So yeah, but anyway,they're getting your stuff for
free. Whereas they would havehad to buy it from Goodwill or
(23:24):
whatever. So that's sometimeskind of genius. Yeah, I know but
sometimes they to operatelegally with those boxes they
have to donate a percentage oftheir charity their profit
profits to charity The thing isyou'll never know why. So if
you're just desperate to get ridof you know clothing that you
definitely can't resell just putit in one of those donation
boxes. It'll be recycled. Wow.
(23:45):
Or you can find a recyclingcompany near you.
But that's what what would youcall it not green who even like
charity Hui anyway, charity Hui?
Yeah, that's that's charity. Whofor sure. Yeah. So anyway,
that's something to be aware of.
Okay. Now, there are some timesyou may have noticed, I noticed
because I bought some jeans fromLevi's a couple of years ago.
h&m, gap, Patagonia, maidwell.
(24:07):
They all have these buybackprograms. And or take back
programs where like, if you'relike done with your pair of
jeans and like, they'll take itback, but only 1% of what they
take back can be made into newclothing. Oh, usually because
it's a cotton plastic blend.
Hmm. So plastic is again thedevil. Okay. Yes. Yes. Well, I'm
(24:29):
reevaluating my entire wardrobe,but go ahead. Yeah.
Yeah, I know. So most of thatgets donated to textile
recycling companies. Oh,interesting. Couch stuffing.
Okay, so just so you know, thosethey call those programs. They
refer to them as good trade callthem greenwashing. So really,
they're grenouille, those areokay. Yeah. Because they're
(24:51):
misleading about Yeah, cuz theysay they can do more than I
mean, they're basically likeplastic recycling. They can't do
most of what they're claimingthey gotcha okay, because they
do make claims They're turningit in to new clothes.
Well, they're saying they'lltry. Okay, so the caveat right
or the try, and it makes youfeel better about buying more
stuff from them. Yes, exactly.
Which is the same with a CocaCola company. You feel fine
(25:11):
buying a two liter bottle ofCoke because you like Well, it's
a good recycle, it won't right.
Damn geniuses. Yep. And evilgenius evil
geniuses, right? Money makingswine anyway, according to green
America, Goodwill's process isas follows 5% of the clothes
they get are sent directly tolandfills immediately, mostly
because of mildew. Then they putstuff up for sale. And remember,
(25:34):
there are human beings who aresorting this stuff. So don't
throw your bullshit clothes inthe poor people who have to do
this. It's not like, yeah, it'srough. So they'll put it up for
sale. If they cancel after fourweeks, they are sent to Goodwill
outlets where everything is 99cents a pound. Okay. I don't
know where those are. They'rethroughout the US. After that.
(25:55):
They're sent to Goodwillauctions where they're all
turned into mystery bins. Oh myGod, I know somebody who goes to
these. Okay. And they buy allthat. Okay. Yeah. So you can buy
a bin starting at $35. But youyou bid on it. Basically. It's
like Storage Wars. You don'tknow what's in it, but you're
gonna get a bin full of clothesof textiles, clothes and
(26:15):
needles. But anyway. And glass.
Yeah, it's I've heard it's justjunk. Yeah, it's really bad. Oh,
that's horrifying. Yeah. Thenthey send whatever's left to
textile recycling centers. Sothat's Hey, and so according to
Reader's Digest, it's 90% ofwhat you donate ends up in those
recycling centers.
Okay. So everything, at leastall of the sellable clothes,
(26:39):
they do try to sell it for fourweeks. See, I thought they took
a mutt like they just had somuch that they couldn't even try
to sell it. They just throw itaway.
Or throw it towards at least 5%Or so I think they do. I?
I didn't think that for anyreason. You're right. I'm just
saying like, that kind ofsurprises me actually. Because
it'sso much so much stuff. Well, I
think there may be a we may bemissing a step in the sorting
(27:04):
process where 5% is just mildewyor stained, and they have to
Yeah, throw it away. And thenprobably more of it goes through
sorting and is unsellable and sointeresting. Yeah. Well, okay.
Most thrift stores don't trackwhat happens to the clothing
after they sell it or give itaway to the next step in the
(27:25):
process. So the left handdoesn't know what the right hand
is doing. We don't know what thetextile they don't know what
happens your T shirt after itgoes to the textile recycler.
They don't know. Okay, sothere's not like statistics on
like, and then 90% of that isrecycled and 5%. You know, it's
we don't know.
Oh, so we don't really know ifthey're actually using it. All
(27:46):
right. We don't know. I mean,we'd have to go through what
textile recyclers do. Right. Sothe good trades article on
textile recycling says it's postconsumer clothing. That's the
stuff you bought more once andgave away. And pre Consumer
Collection, which is scraps formanufacturers, hotels,
hospitals, or clothing that wasnever worn because it was never
sold. Okay? Materials are sortedby fiber, so natural versus
(28:10):
synthetic and then graded foreither resale so they can resell
that to more manufacturers as atextile recycler or recycling.
So they can this got weird forme, they can tread natural
fibers and re spin them intoyarn. Most of the stuff is
turned in insulation, stuffingor cleaning rags, okay, because
you can't. Now this was where Igot a little confused. The
(28:32):
process uses thermo mechanicalprocessing, to separate
plastics, right? Natural fibersin that process burn off in the
heat. So if it's, if they'rerecycling a polyester or cotton
poly blend garment, basically,they burn off the cotton and
melt the polyester. And thenthey can write a reusable they
(28:55):
can reuse the polyester sointeresting. So they said that
natural fibers can be respondedto yarn, but that's actually
harder to do than just plasticand reuse it. Hmm. So that means
cotton is harder to recycle thanpolyester. Which is mind
blowing.
Yeah, that is, especially ifit's already mixed. If it's like
(29:18):
polyester mixed with somethingelse. Yeah. Wow. Okay.
Anyway, that was hard to wrap mybrain around, yeah.
So now let's get into theinternational clothing donation
(29:40):
scheme. International importingof pre consumer clothing is
extremely bad and post consumerclothing. So this is the article
The Guardian article that Imentioned earlier, that I've
been saving for eight weeks orwhatever. They break it down for
what happens in Ghana, which isthe biggest importer of us
clothing in Africa.
Whoa, study. ain't gonna Oh, didyou when I was in college? Yeah.
(30:03):
Did you see this? Well, Idid see a guy. So I went to
Indiana University and I saw aguy with, like, who's your
shirt? And I was like, hey,yeah, okay. Well, that wasn't
you didn't know what it was. Hewas like, Yeah, Bergen cares
aboutit. Well, they talk about, you
know, used to be when they madeall those Super Bowl shirts,
they'd make winners, because youdidn't have time to make it on
demand the day that they went.
So you have like, whichever teamthey had both teams as the
(30:26):
winner. Yeah, so the losers arelosers overnight. Yeah, well,
because we've increased theamount of clothing we have so
much in the past few years. Thisis a whole new issue in the last
15 years, right? They shipperstake those bins from Goodwill or
other aggregators, and ship themto Ghana. People will buy those
things at auction and just shipthem to Ghana. The city of Accra
(30:47):
is this largest secondhandclothing market in the world.
That's crazy. I didn't see a lotof clothes there. But I don't
know if i Wow. I mean,how long ago was that?
Well, yeah, 2010 okay as nine soit
was probably right at the start,but you know, we're damn infest
fashions fold right now. Damn.
At that market. They'll separatethe clothing into bales. Just
(31:10):
again, it's a grab bag, andtraders will spend 120 to $200
US dollars per bale 40% of theaverage bale in Accra has to be
thrown away, because it's, it'sworthless. Okay, so that's 100
tonnes every day of unusableclothing. 30% of that is
collected by a municipal wasteprogram. So the city of Accra
(31:32):
has a waste program that willcollect it, the rest of it ends
up in illegal dumps or ditchesand drains. Yeah, that isn't
surprising. Yeah, because thatis a problem and that's why we
ship our waste aways because wedon't want it in our rivers.
Well, it ends up in in Accordingthis article, the odour river.
So the article notes that thequality of secondhand clothing
(31:52):
has decreased dramatically overthe past few years. Thank you
fast fashion, which is why theOdell river is now so polluted
by discarded clothing. There'sthey're not able to resell it
like they could have when youwere there.
Oh my god. Wow. That is crazy tome.
Yeah, this in this article, theyfocused on an activist who's a
(32:12):
swimmer named Yvette Jaco Naduteta. And she swam the river to
raise awareness about thepollution. Wow. And she had a
research vessel follow her andtake samples of the water as she
swim. I was gonna say, did sheget really sick? Well, no, I
think she was able to do butlike, the pictures are
harrowing. I mean, it isseriously go look at it. It's
(32:33):
horrible. And you know, it'splastic in the water. And it
clogs the waterways and it itseriously affects nearby
farming. I mean, it is. It'sawful. So that's what happens to
your clothing. Like it ends upin the river in Ghana. And it
(32:53):
ends up in the sea turtlestomach and you're not going to
sell it on thread up. Nobodywants. Nobody wants it. So what
can you do? quit buying cheapnew clothes. Seriously. That's
it stop quick on target andbuying that dress. Not only are
they usually made in sweatshops,right? I didn't even go into
that. About who is making yourclothing, children or underpaid
(33:18):
workers in horrible conditions.
But they're also made fromplastics that pollute everything
when you wash them when youthrow them away. Whenever. So
just stop. You have enoughclothing.
Wow. Well, I was gonna say and Ialso know for a fact that social
media is contributing to it.
Because there's lots ofinfluencers who
(33:38):
feel I have to I fall prey toit. I'm like, I need that dress.
I need that dress.
Yeah, that 55 cent dress. You'relike, how is it so deep?
Yep. Because it was made by achild and it's cheaply produced
and they made a lot of them andit's plastic. And they're just
gonna throw it away. Buy highquality clothing and have it
tailored. That's it. Because ifit's high quality and it's made
(34:03):
by a sustainably made house, youknow, I can't lose any right
now. I know. I've looked at afew but we we should we will
have an episode on sustainableclothing brands. But yeah, learn
how to sew and fix clothing thathas holes in it. So that was
what the the trend that we weretalking about visible. Yeah. So
(34:24):
that that's a cool idea. Like itadds like a touch of personality
to your shoes if you patch itwith something not like a patchy
by Michaels or whatever but likea like a created flower or like
you can embroider stuff and likeI actually know a woman here in
town who does her own embroideryand patching and things and it's
(34:45):
really personalized and reallycool.
I have a problem with likewearing the crotch out of my
jeans yes not sure.
Look upside of ideas for that.
Well, I mean what there's likestitches you could do you know,
like, there's there's I'm surethere's Something I mean, I'm
not that creative myself. Yeah.
My husband. I don't know why butJoe, just, he has razor knees. I
(35:08):
have no clue. It's always onlythe knees. Even with like his
raw denim jeans. He's worn theknees out. And I'm like, I
literally have never done thatin my life. So I know what
you're doing.
I have busted through I bustthrough in the news before I
bust through anywhere else. Sofunny, maybe once but man
pockets doesn't take him long.
So my friend, he dies, hisjeans, like when they fade. He
(35:33):
has two pairs of jeans that hewears, and he dies and black.
And you know, they weren't new,but he died. Very cool. Yeah. So
that's something you could do toyou can hold clothing swaps with
your friends. Now this can be acrapshoot because your friends
might have fast fashion sizes,or different sizes. I've gotten
a lot of really great me downdresses. Yeah, my
friends. And I've done that oncebefore. I have some
(35:55):
friends with really good tastesome artists friends that I'm
like, I'll take I'll take that.
My sister and I send clothesback and forth. Sometimes. So
that too. That's smart. Yeah.
Yeah, use your Facebook BuyNothing group. There's so many
clothes on there all the time.
And there are people like I'vegotten a prom dress on there.
That we use for our runninggroup, right? Yeah, so you can
(36:16):
those by nothing groups arepretty good.
My again, mine won't let me in.
I tried again.
Boo. I don't know what the dealis. Yeah, sucks. That is weird.
I know.
Gatekeeping Yeah. Start yourjoin freecycle though.
Okay, go ahead. That's a goodfree cycles, great Craigslist.
(36:38):
Free stuff, too. Right?
Especially like baby clothes andstuff. Oh my god. Yeah, baby
clothes, because they wear themfor a day and then they're grown
out of them. And it's and thenthey get stained by avocado. So
it doesn't Yes, they haveavocado stains.
I just bought I went toSalvation Army. And I got
Charlie. I think it's a handmadelittle apron. Oh, it looks
handmade. But it was $1. And Iwas like, Yes, please.
(37:01):
Yeah, I mean, that's it. Okay,that was my next thing is buy
your clothes from thrift stores.
I mean, you can use throw it upor have the real real I don't
whenever and buy new to usestuff too. If you don't mind
that they're scoundrels. I thinkthe real role might be slightly
better than threat but again,it's all there. They're making
money off you the goodwillSalvation Army. I mean, I don't
(37:21):
go to Salvation Army forreligious purposes. But goodwill
does use their stuff for forcharitable purposes. And again,
you can put there's probablythrift stores in your
neighborhood that do goodthings.
Oh, yeah. Like tiny, small.
Yeah, small business for thefirst. I was also gonna say, I
just remembered one reason I diddislike thread up is that they
charge you to, if you don't likeyour clothes, they charge you to
(37:42):
send them back. If I'mremembering correctly, and it
was like not cheap.
No, it's more than shipping.
Yeah, it was absurd. Which iswhy one of the reasons I signed
on not to have my $300 dress andback me. Yeah, yeah, that's
fair. So try a rental service. Ido know that some of the rental
services have shady practices. Iinteresting.
(38:07):
I did Rent the Runway for aminute I did was so freakin
expensive andhard to find the right sizes
because sizes are so different.
Right? So much research. I onlydid like coats and yeah, like
that.
I enjoyed it. Like for events. Irented a dress for my birthday,
which was great. So I think it'sgood for like weddings and
stuff. I think. Yeah. It'scheaper than buying a new dress.
(38:28):
For sure. And especially justwhat are you going to do with a
new dress? But yeah, turnclothing into rags on paper
towels. Mm hmm. reuse them? Youknow?
I think I figured something outabout the rags. If you use
pinking shears, doesn't thatstop the edges from fraying?
I couldn't say that. But that'sa very good possibility.
(38:50):
Let me just look up one ofpinking shears do ya to limit
the length of frayed threads? Somine, I just cut up things are
free like crazy. So just getsome pinking shears? No,
there we go. Okay, that that'ssmart. Yeah, so you can use me
my mom used to use my dad'sundershirts to like, wipe down
windows and stuff. Oh, yeah,they're great. Yeah,
(39:12):
they're soft. They're nice. Makesure now this is really
important. Be better about yourdonations. Make sure you're
really only giving good stuff toGoodwill or thrift store right?
Because you know, BuffaloShangela, like, whatever. But
people will take whatever youhave whatever trash you give
them. And yes, your knee if youput one mildewed Ross rag, it
(39:36):
can vary in a whole barrel ofstuff and then it just is just
going to end up in the river andgonna so just horrible do your
own landfilling. If it's moldyif it's moldy throw it away. I
you know, that's the one thingyou should be throwing away is
moldy stuff. Yes. The otherthing is you can learn to sew
and make your own clothes usingupcycled materials which I will
(39:56):
applaud you for I have I boughta sewing machine I have done
nothing with it. But that alsofor for mending your clothing is
really a good idea. Just learnto sew, just
just people are really good atit. And I have friends who are
really good at it. And it'sreally amazing. I also have a
sewing machine and I like havesewn before and I know the
basics of how to operate it. Butyeah, creating Yeah.
(40:20):
Yeah, creating new stuff fromscratch. Yeah, my sister has
done a lot. She's really we'resupposed to have a sewing
session where we get on, Zoomtogether, and she's going to
teach me how to sew. But oh,that's really cool. She has
three children. So that's harderto do than it sounds right.
We'll see. Maybe sometime soon.
But so those are just my ideas.
There's plenty of things you cando with clothes. But number one
is just quit buying new clothes.
Just stop. This is probably thebiggest place that American
(40:43):
consumers can reduce theirplastic consumption just reduce
reduce reduce. Yeah, thatinfuriates me and really feels
like a kick in the ass to belike, Oh, plastic. Oh, yeah,
that I didn't even think about.
I mean, we've talked about howbamboo and hemp and cotton all
(41:04):
use all this water. plastic.
Plastic is terrible.
Yeah, it's really bad. There'snothing good about it. No.
I mean, it's cheap. That's it,but only like, it's cheap on the
front end, and on the back end,it's gonna kill all the sea
turtles. So that's, that's theprice you pay. So yeah, I know,
it's fun to go to Target and buycheap clothes. And I know
(41:24):
sometimes you just need a tshirt. You know? Fine. Okay. But
really consider how much closingdo you need? Really, right?
I want to start a capsulewardrobe.
I started to try to do that too.
But then I'm not a capsule kindof girl. But I do. Like, I do
need to wear the clothes that Ihave, you know, right? Because I
(41:46):
work from home and I'm a slob.
So I were like living is it'sI'm gonna say it is hard,
especially as a woman who's beendiagnosed with an eating
disorder, my weight hasfluctuated and who's over 30,
who's over 40 It's going evenfurther. My weight has
fluctuated insanely, right. Andso,
I mean, same like after having ababy, it's I've never, I haven't
(42:09):
stabilized, like all over theplace.
Part of me is like, Okay, youjust have to learn to get rid of
the clothes and make you feelbad because they're too small.
But then it's like, then I'lllose the weight. And I'll come
back, right. Like, I wish I hadthat to two dresses that I gave
away six years ago. Right. Youknow, it's like, all right. So
yeah, I mean, that's a big part.
Yeah, I can't buy clothes rightnow. Because I've know what no
idea what size I'm going to bein a year. But I can go to
thrift stores and find fivethings I like wearing and wear
(42:32):
those, you know, and that's it'sworth the effort. It's worth the
time.
Yeah, because I think that'swhat we're all it can be a
confidence boost if your clothesfit well, but I think that's
kind of what you're saying islike buy good stuff that a
tailored Yeah, that you gettailored it out. Yeah. And then
it will actually fit youagain. Now that's expensive. So
(42:52):
it's not for everyone. Right?
But I mean, go to the thriftstore and find one teacher that
fits you well rather than four Tshirts that kind of fits you
shoddily you know, exactly. Bemore choosy about your clothing.
Yeah. Okay, so now the TLDRgranola rating for thredUP
(43:13):
specifically, I want to give ita soggy because of my personal
experience with them and I'mstill mad about it. But in all
honesty, I'm going to give allthese online consignment stores
a three overall because a chewy,so our scale is from one to five
one being the worst being soggy.
Five being breaker tooth off,which is the best because
crunchy granola is the best thisis three is chewy, while online
(43:33):
consignment stores, like throwit up do reduce the carbon
footprint of clothingconsumption overall. Okay,
there's no arguing with that notmake not buying something new is
is best. However, they stillencourage unending consumption,
which is the reason we have thisproblem in the first place.
Right? Although we don't knowwhat they do with the clothes
(43:53):
they don't sell, so they mayjust be contributing to the pile
up in Ghana anyway, right? It'sstill better than throwing your
clothes directly in the trash,which apparently just I didn't
realize this. Most people justdo that. Yes. Because only 20%
of textiles in the US arerecycled. So Right. I mean, at
least take it to one of thoseshady looking bins. That's
actually just a textilerecycling place. Just do that.
(44:15):
Just drop it off.
It's true. That's very true.
Yeah.
So anyway, quit throwing yourstuff in the trash, reuse it
quit buy a new stuff, period.
Yeah, so that's my takeaway fromWow. Yeah. athleisure has a
whole new, like I have a wholenew understanding of
(44:35):
athleisure yoga pants. Those areall plastic. Yeah.
Yeah. Wells's.
Yeah, so well, anyway. Yeah.
Happy fuckface fast fashion.
FFF. That's what UmThank you. That is a lot of
research. Oh, my God. That islike such a topic.
(44:58):
I didn't even You didn't evenscratch the surface.
Yeah, absolutely. I'm impressedthat you even were able to
consolidate that rageresearching. That was plastic in
the Yeah, me. Yeah. Rage. Yeah,classic rage. So okay, well
what's what's next week we'redoing home composting. Oh, thank
you. Composting is next week.
(45:20):
Yes, we're going to be talkingabout mill. So I wanted to look
into this new mill. It's sort oflike a, from what I understand.
It's like a startup kind of homecomposting system. So I wanted
to say, yeah, there's a bunch ofads for it. You've probably seen
online. Yes, we're chronicallyonline. Yeah. Like on Instagram.
I've seen a bunch. And so I justwanted to look into it and see
(45:43):
if it's legit or not, are worthour time. Okay, so I'm not going
to sign up for it. It's tooexpensive,
but Oh, bummer. Okay, well, thatalready gives it a knockdown
aim, no,hard day. But I'm going to look
for reviews and stuff and kindof consolidate it. So.
Okay. Well, I'mexcited to hear about it. And
yeah, you'll see it's not evenlike crazy expensive. It's just
(46:05):
not for me right now. So yeah,that's her. Yeah, one thing at a
time, you got to buy your metalstraws first.
And I have a home composting binthat I got for free from my
county and I want to try to setthat up and actually do my own
composting. So that's really theplan. Yeah. So I gotta get on
that and stuff. Butyou have a week. Yeah, exactly.
(46:27):
I want to see warm filledcompost by next week.
On your Yeah, it's gonna be twoyears, both lush Brown. Yes. My
petunias came back. Did they?
Oh, good. Deer sprayseverything. Oh, yeah. Okay,
good. Yeah, they're thriving.
Yeah, I should post pictures.
Yes. Post rip back from thedead. My zombie petunias.
(46:54):
Yeah. Well, thank you.
Thank you. Yeah, have a goodnight and yeah, thanks for
tuning in everyone please. Ifyou could leave a review leave a
review we would love five starswe'll take for whatever granola
writing you want to give us wewill tolerate or we break your
teeth off. Yeah, please pleasetell us we broke your teeth off
(47:15):
today.
We'll pay for your dental workno
no we won't do not promise thatthey will come for you. I'm
already getting sued by threatup for calling them treacherous.
Yes, but yeah, are use reviewshelp a lot. Yeah, like
surprisingly, anywhere youlisten, you can just scroll down
and give us some stars and leavea written review. If you feel
(47:39):
like it'd be a time sowe really appreciate you
spending your time with us andlearning about fast fashion
today.
Alright, goodnight.
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