EPA calculates that unwanted clothing and footwear resulted in 13
million tons of waste back in 2018, Rhode Island, PBS weeklies Isabel
Legibility in reports on how many young people are now turning to
thrift Ng to help the environment and their wallets.
Imagine what it would be like to not buy any new clothes
in 2017. I got a striped shirt that was like I said, like, this is
my last new thing I'm ever going to get. That was the goal for Han
Ray yawn.
A student at Rhode Island School of Design. He went nearly two years
without buying a single new item of clothing. What did you do? Instead,
buying used so going through thrift stores finding things it's more
based on need rather than want. So buying less and getting less also
learned how to sew his own clothes, socks and make his own repairs
You can see in the pocket here, like originally there is no bottom
in the pockets.
Says his new approach to shopping began when he saw how clothes were
made and how it affects the environment. Huge amounts of water are
used, like produced a single yard of fabric or
Especially in dies and processing and agriculture to like cotton
is a
Pretty like
Water hungry plant. And he says not too many people know the polyester
comes from drilling oil and synthetics. Shed fabrics make fuzz Belinda
that comes out in your dryer and from synthetic fabrics. That's microplastics.
One study found that a polyester garment can cast off more than 1900
fibers in a single wash.
Which then make their ways through sewers and into waterways.
Really reached a tipping point after seeing reports about the frequent
human rights abuses when making fast, cheap clothes in Bangladesh,
environmental and labor laws are frequently ignored in the $1 billion
export leather industry. Wastewater with harmful chemicals is dumped
into neighborhoods streams The water seen here is actually dyed blue
because of the process.
Workers processed skins without protective gear, exposing them to
known cancer causing agents like chromium.
And child workers are frequently seen operating heavy machinery.
Fashion also causes problems long after it's been made. Author and
journalist Adam Minter has written about the global recycling industry
for the past two decades. One of the things that's happened over
the last 25 years really is that garments have become more difficult
to recycle, and that's where you start seeing large amounts of textile
waste
says This is why, in part we're seeing
A thrift ng trend because of the development of you know of apps.
The posh marks the thread up, Um
You know various other apps eBay. People are able to post for sale
their old garments straight out of their closet
and they're purchased that way, and we love it will wear it a couple
of times and then we'll sell it. 24 year old Jacqueline Ju Tress
uses deep pop a resale app. That's a favorite among Gen. Z. A lot
of people selling clothing online starts with like the closet clean
out like for sure that's where it starts. You can put a towel over
it and then just iron it quick, quick, recently made her seven
100 sale on the platform. It's very sustainable and that you know
It's all being purchased secondhand offline uterus hunts for deals
at the Goodwill outlet in Hamden, Connecticut. She calls it the bins
here they sell by the pound. And the more you buy the cheaper it
is every half hour Nubians roll onto the floor. It's serious business
for their main clientele. Pickers, people who buy in bulk and resell
It should be. No hands on the tables and federal rotation is complete.
Everyone has to wait for a signal before they can compete for the
best clothes.
Leftover clothes head through the doors to Goodwill's recycling center.
It onto a conveyor belt compressed into £1000 bales and then stacked.
They might be shredded and used to stuff cushions cut into rags or
get exported abroad. It's just a small slice of a global secondhand
market, and there's all kinds of consumer survey data showing that
younger consumers. Gen. Z, starting with Gen. Z primarily.
Are open to this idea of use and reuse. But he says their excitement
hasn't made a dent in the massive market for new clothes. But some
retailers like Patagonia and Superstore WalMart are listening. They
now offer second hand on their websites. This is part of a massive
consumer shift. That's not necessarily going to happen overnight.
But I do think we are seeing a change where you are going to have
secondhand use quality as a bigger part of the overall apparel retail.
They'll change. What's your short take on what's the most responsible
way to be a consumer of clothes by secondhand? But when you buy new
stuff by durability stuff that can be reused that can see that second
half the company.
Island School of Design. Henry John continues to so and thrift, but
after nearly two years, his strict no new clothes streak came to
an end. I think I broke it for dress socks, actually, and socks weren't
the only challenge underwear I That was one of the things that did
end the vying new clothes, things getting new underwear. I don't
think anyone claims that one so I'm definitely not so strict anymore.
Every once in a while, if I need something
And I can't make it or don't have the time to make it.
And can't find it and fit it and repair it. Then I'll go and get
something new. So it's kind of like getting something new is the
last resort. If all my other things don't work out for PBS news weekend,