If you’ve got something coming up, the urge to shop can be real. Nothing in your wardrobe looks right, everyone’s already seen what you have and you just fancy something new. And Bermuda shorts are back and you really want to get in on that.
But what happens when the shorts are “out” again? It’s okay to just keep buying new stuff if you donate it to a charity shop, right? Not really. The endless cycle of clothes shopping is causing water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and landfill.
Shop til you drop?
If it feels like all your stuff is dated, it’s no wonder. Zara offers 24 new clothing collections each year; H&M offers 12 to 16, according to consulting company McKinsey. The only way to keep up with this hamster wheel of new “looks” is to keep shopping.
Clothing can be manufactured faster than ever. To maximise profits, retailers must constantly entice us to buy more. The average consumer buys 60 per cent more pieces of clothing now than 15 years ago, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says. Each item is now only kept for half as long.
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Shop of horrors
That metallic top and those barrel leg jeans are bang on trend, but when the next trend comes, things can get ugly.
Every second, the equivalent of one bin truck of textiles is landfilled or burned, according to the UNEP. Textiles are also estimated to account for 9 per cent of annual microplastic losses to the ocean.
There’s the human cost too: textile workers are often paid derisory wages to work long hours in appalling conditions.
Constant craving
Some 21 per cent of people are high-frequency shoppers, buying clothes weekly, according to a 2021 survey for the Environmental Protection Agency. These are typically women aged under 50. Some 55 per cent of high-frequency shoppers wear new clothes only a few times, with 46 per cent buying items they never wear.
A buy-and-return culture means a lot of clothes go back to retailers. Most returns aren’t restocked, repurposed or reused — they end up in the garbage, according to Business Insider.
“Because second-hand is f****n’ grand”
Ignoring social media and staying off the high street can help you stop shopping and save money. You could also “shop” your way out of the habit by joining a clothing reuse hub such as Change Clothes Crumlin.
“Our goal is to make sure second-hand is community-focused, fun, affordable and social,” says ChangeClothes.org founder Mary Fleming.
Fleming saw the dark side of fashion on a family holiday to Kenya.
“I saw the textile mountains for myself and left with a new perspective on what my weekly shopping habit was doing,” she says.
Shoppers at Change Clothes Crumlin pay €5 for a 30-minute browsing and trying-on session with five to 10 other shoppers. Each brings 10 items of clean, new or in-good-condition clothing to the Crumlin Road studio to trade for similar items.
Shoppers get one token for “everyday high-street” items from the likes of Penneys, H&M and Zara, says Fleming. Pieces from COS, All Saints and North Face, for example, will score two tokens. You’ll get three tokens for vintage and designer items.
Shoppers spend less and refresh their wardrobe with clothes that are new to them, says Fleming. As Change Clothes Crumlin’s motto goes, “Because second-hand is f****n’ grand”.
“You’ll see people leaving with your clothes too, and there is a great sense of satisfaction in that,” says Fleming. “There’s a community buzz, the opportunity to meet like-minded people and to see your stuff get a second life right in front of you.”