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Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

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Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#51

Post by mint2 »

bruceb wrote: post #12
rileyphone wrote: post #6

I've taken to buying almost all my clothes second hand recently, both for this reason and I find the selection and styles far better than what fast fashion provides. Thrift stores like Goodwill provide some gems, but the best shopping comes from we-buy-your-clothes type places like Buffalo Exchange and Crossroads, and the prices are better too!

But you exchange more of your time at 2nd hand places. The reason new exists is not just the styles, but the higher likelihood you are going to find the correct (or near to it) size.

That’s only true if one is an average size or isn’t mindful of fit. Shopping new can be a huge drag otherwise.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#52

Post by halpert »

Avshalom wrote: post #35
halpert wrote: post #13

The weird part of this isn’t that fast fashion generates a lot of trash. Almost every part of the American lifestyle generates tons of waste. The strange part is that the US strong arms African countries into buying the “donated” garments from textile recyclers. I’ll be throwing my used garments directly into the landfill in the future.

One of the great talking points of capitalism is that competition breeds efficiency, so no: the complete decoupling of production from demand is at least A weird part.

The article mentions that clothing fell from 10% of the average US households budget to 2%. That sounds like efficiency to me, especially if more clothes are being purchased.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#53

Post by cm2012 »

We could dump ten times the clothes and it wouldn't matter. Landfill space is not at all rare, it wouldn't even be a huge engineering project to build a hole big enough to house all human trash for the next hundred years.

Frankly, the gains from having cheap clothing and letting people express themselves far outweighs the downsides from the waste.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#55

Post by devindotcom »

BurningFrog wrote: post #38

The article describes a world of affluence, reaching deep into the poorest parts of Africa. Gone are the days when people would have to be naked when they washed the only piece of clothing they owned. Somehow this eradication of third world poverty is bad. Because everything is bad if you want to think of it that way. Just one point: Clothing ending up in landfills are a form of carbon sequestration.

This is a really misguided comment. Africa, as far as an entire continent can be generalized, is not as you describe and hasn't been in a long time. Nations there face many challenges, but nakedness is not among them.

And this is not even remotely close to "eradication of third world poverty." Rich countries are doing this to avoid filling their own landfills. That there are side benefits for some is good, but it's hardly transformative, especially at the volumes described.

And yes, it's sequestration compared to burning them. But the production of these garments at enormous volumes is wasteful and toxic. The culture of waste and disposability, and treating poor countries as sovereign landfills that should be grateful for our luxury garbage, are serious problems.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#56

Post by halpert »

ghufran_syed wrote: post #28
halpert wrote: post #13

The weird part of this isn’t that fast fashion generates a lot of trash. Almost every part of the American lifestyle generates tons of waste. The strange part is that the US strong arms African countries into buying the “donated” garments from textile recyclers. I’ll be throwing my used garments directly into the landfill in the future.

Sound more like the US government won’t allow African governments to maintain tariff-free and trade-barrier-free access to US markets without the African governments reciprocating. It’s the African customers choosing to pay the American recyclers, not the US government. Clearly African governments think its in their interests to maintain that trade deal - that’s probably why they agreed to it in the first place.

And yet we outlaw plenty of things that have negative effects on society. And of course, our biggest trading partner (China) does not allow free market access to US companies. Don’t pretend this about some lofty ideal. It’s about profit, pure and simple.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#58

Post by kube-system »

devindotcom wrote: post #55
BurningFrog wrote: post #38

The article describes a world of affluence, reaching deep into the poorest parts of Africa. Gone are the days when people would have to be naked when they washed the only piece of clothing they owned. Somehow this eradication of third world poverty is bad. Because everything is bad if you want to think of it that way. Just one point: Clothing ending up in landfills are a form of carbon sequestration.

This is a really misguided comment. Africa, as far as an entire continent can be generalized, is not as you describe and hasn't been in a long time. Nations there face many challenges, but nakedness is not among them. And this is not even remotely close to "eradication of third world poverty." Rich countries are doing this to avoid filling their own landfills. That there are side benefits for some is good, but it's h…

It wasn't too many generations ago that you'd find poor people in the US with one set of clothing.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#59

Post by mc32 »

kube-system wrote: post #58
devindotcom wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really misguided comment. Africa, as far as an entire continent can be generalized, is not as you describe and hasn't been in a long time. Nations there face many challenges, but nakedness is not among them. And this is not even remotely close to "eradication of third world poverty." Rich countries are doing this to avoid filling their own landfills. That there are side benefits for some is good, but it's h…

It wasn't too many generations ago that you'd find poor people in the US with one set of clothing.

I know people who have just about one garment per day of the week and they rotate them. That is it. Not because they are poor --they just don't like change and like the same thing.

And, indeed, before the '50's, many Americans had a couple of changes of clothing for the week plus their Sunday clothes. So even we're not that far removed from that time.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#60

Post by pkaye »

gexla wrote: post #45
HFguy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t believe that the average American buys 68 pieces of clothing a year. I’d like them to share the source of that. The author doesn’t offer one that I saw. TBC, I think wearing something 3-4 times and discarding it is horrible.

Book this is extracted from and the passage is here... https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=-4ODDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3&dq=... They don't seem to have a source. Not linked anyways. Sources might be listed at the end of the book. ETA: Ah, they have the "source" in "notes." They are quoting a CEO of a retailer, so I guess they wouldn't ask sources. You would need to "fact-check" the CEO. ;) I suppose you could just skip over a…

> According to Jennifer Hyman, the C.E.O. of Rent the Runway, I am not alone. “Every woman has the feeling of opening up her closet and seeing the dozens of dead dresses that she’s worn only once,” she told me recently. Each year, as Hyman is fond of pointing out, the average American buys sixty-eight items of clothing, eighty per cent of which are seldom worn; twenty per cent of what the $2.4-trillion global fashion industry generates is thrown away.

So its probably a made up statistic so they can justify their business model of renting clothes.

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