Happy Earth Day! You may have heard that fast fashion and overconsumption are issues contributing to global climate change, but do you understand why? 

The Problem

In this era of fashion, trends come in and out of style so quickly that consumers are constantly buying new clothes and throwing out their old ones. In order to keep up, fast fashion companies produce cheaply made clothing using synthetic materials that will fall apart after a few wears. This leads consumers to throw out their clothing and purchase new clothing to replace it, creating an endless cycle of consumption and waste.

The Effect

In order to keep up with demand, fast fashion brands now create twice as many garments as they did in 2000. In order to keep up with new trends, they cut down production time to only a few weeks. This means making huge sacrifices in terms of quality and waste. Fast fashion brands waste an estimated 15% of textile fabric used in the manufacturing process because they do not optimize their patterns to prevent excess waste.

But fast fashion brands are not the only ones creating waste. Every year, consumers across the globe produce roughly 92 million tons of textile waste. The average American throws away 81.5 lbs of clothing every year, and an estimated 85% of that waste goes to landfills.

What You Can Do

• Invest in high quality clothing that will last instead of buying cheap, trendy clothing that will fall apart after a few wears. When shopping, look for styles that you love regardless of trends, so that you will wear them no matter what is considered fashionable at the time.
• Rather than throwing them away, look for ways to upcycle or reuse your old clothes in your own home. If you’re just tired of the style of a garment, try dyeing it a new color or using the material to sew a new one. If your garment is too thin to be worn, you could always use it as a cleaning rag.
• Shop at clothing companies that are prioritizing sustainability, whether that means using fabric made of recycled/responsibly sourced materials, lowering their carbon emissions, or not keeping inventory.

Our Part

Kecogee is your source for sustainable dog  and human clothing. We use the innovative 3D Knitting process to produce all of our dog garments, which means we use responsibly sourced materials, produce minimal textile and water waste, and we keep no inventory. All of this together helps us lower our carbon emissions and prevent excess waste. Read our full article on 3D Knitting here!

Statistics from Earth.org