Sustainability

The Cost of Clothing: Redefining Value Through Recycling

In a world where fashion trends change faster than ever, it’s easy to overlook the true cost of clothing. At Recyclr, we believe that the price we pay for fashion should extend beyond the price tag. It should encompass the environmental and social impact of our choices.

 

The Hidden Costs

When you buy a new piece of clothing, you’re not just paying for the fabric and labor; you’re also contributing to hidden costs

Environmental Impact

The fashion industry is a significant contributor to pollution, water usage, and waste. From production to disposal, each garment carries an ecological footprint.

Resource Depletion: Traditional clothing manufacturing consumes vast quantities of water, energy, and nonrenewable resources.

Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to action to eliminate extreme poverty, reduce inequality, and protect the planet. The United Nations (UN) aims to reach these goals in 2030. There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals, all of them unanimously adopted by world leaders at a historic UN summit in New York, in September 2015. With the SDGs, the UN aims to mobilize governments, companies, organizations, and individuals worldwide to protect the planet and people. 

An expanding population

In the past 15 years, clothing production has drastically increased, driven by the rise of fast fashion and a growing middle-class population across the globe. By 2050, there will be 10 billion humans on Earth that all need to be fed and dressed. If growth continues as expected, total clothing sales could reach 160 million tonnes in 2050, more than three times today’s amount. The fashion industry will then be accountable for adding 22 million tonnes of microfibres to the oceans.

Fast fashion

In the last 15 years, clothing production and consumption has doubled and the average consumer purchases 60% more clothing. The average number of times a garment is worn, however, has significantly decreased (-36% between 2000 and 2015). A garbage truck full of textiles is being trashed every second. 1 Nearly three-fifths of all clothing ends up in incinerators or landfills within a year of being produced.7 Consumers buy more than they need. So, what about asking ourselves the question: do we need all this?

Water pollution

An industry standard pair of jeans uses up to 7.000 litres of water (that’s close to 54 full bathtubs). After agriculture, textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of fresh water globally, even though the world is simultaneously facing freshwater scarcity.8 Billions of people don’t have access to safe water. 

OUR MISSION

Incorporating Fiber Recycling as a Part of the Solution

To change the wasteful system, everyone—brands, manufacturers, officials, investors, and consumers—must join in. Here’s what we suggest:

  1. Make clothes that can be reused, remade, recycled, or composted safely. Big fashion brands should invest in better materials, use them in production, and commit to using them more.

  2. Consumers can help by making smart choices, creating sustainable wardrobes, and asking for more eco-friendly fashion.

The fashion industry emits as much greenhouse gas as France, Germany, and the UK combined. By 2030, it needs to cut emissions in half to fight climate change.

India is a huge exporter of clothes, helping the economy and creating lots of jobs. A lot of fabric scraps from making clothes get thrown away. But these scraps can be turned into new clothes through recycling. We work on recycling fabric waste from Indian garment makers to make high-quality yarns that big brands accept. If you give your garment waste responsibly, it helps create trust in recycled goods among brands. This transparency matters.