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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

#171

Post by darkerside »

vasco wrote: post #145
McMiniBurger wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I didn't make it about anything. The only thing fast fashion opens in the way we see it nowadays is for shopping sprees at reduced prices. The direct implication is that it opens up this activity for people with lower purchasing power. This is not some statement about haves and have nots, but I think ignoring this fact is a bit weird. If you make something cheaper, more people are going to do that thing.

It's always funny when someone brings their own biases and accuses you of doing so for stating fairly objective facts

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#172

Post by unreal37 »

willcipriano wrote: post #156
soneca wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think is sketchy about Kiva lately?

Kiva has always seemed to have people who aren't fans of the model and has had problems in the past[0]. Lately it's been more of a feeling, the messaging has a corporate spin to it that makes it harder to give them the benefit of the doubt. A specific thing is they have done recently made the page where you withdraw funds harder to use, and it seems like they have stopped sending emails to me when I have funds availa…

Kiva sends me emails weekly, asking me to relend my funds as they get paid back. So the email is not the problem. In fact, I get emails from them every few days.

The thing that I wonder about Kiva is the "donate to Kiva" part. If you lend, and re-lend as money is paid back, and re-lend again, with the default "donate to Kiva" settings... eventually, after a couple of years, 100% of your money ends up in Kiva's hands and not a poor person.

But that said, I never expected to withdraw my money back.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#173

Post by CamelCaseName »

tiborsaas wrote: post #165
AussieWog93 wrote: post #69

I'm in e-commerce, and reading through this thread I think many people have the misconception that people make purchases to solve problems and want that solution to last as long as possible. In reality, and this is something I spent a long time coming to terms with, much shopping is done because it's fun. Spending money isn't a cost - it's the whole point of the exercise.

I'm in the minority then, I hate shopping it only brings me stress and not joy. I think I haven't bought new clothes (except underwear) in the past two years.

I suspect you're in the majority of shoppers, but the minority when weighted by dollars spent, which is OP's chief concern.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#174

Post by tfigment »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #133
TulliusCicero wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible for both to be true. People make purchases that are fun, and they'd like said purchases to solve some problem (and preferably with decent quality). Like, when I make silly gadget purchases, yes it's fun to acquire the gadgets, but I'd like them to be good products that last too.

>but I'd like them to be good products that last too. How much does this really affect your purchase, though? If you bought a Garmin watch that failed after 3 years, would you buy the new model? What if the same thing happened with your car and they refused to fix it? Would you buy the same brand again, or would you tell every single person you know to avoid them like the plague? I think the thing is, that above $X,…

Ihave a phone and tablet rhat i'm still fine with but both no longer get security updates. its hare to root these things to replace the OS. I thought one was going to update old firmware longer than it did. Companies have learned force obsolescence makes them more money; they are not responsible for helping dispose of the devices. Seems like we don't get much choice other than to not play the game I guess.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#175

Post by geoduck14 »

sokoloff wrote: post #164
rightbyte wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or wool. Maybe plastics should just be banned for any cloths but like shoes, jackets and cover pants. That would solve much of the long term waste problem.

Plastic buttons are pretty damn useful.

>Plastic buttons are pretty damn useful

You are right, but

I HATE buttons. I. HATE. Them. If there is one invention that need to be "disripted" it is the button. It is slow to button or unbutton something. If I'm tires and my fingers are wobbly, it suks. I can't button things in the dark. They break. Uuufff

My hatred for buttons came about when I had my first borne daughter. There are a lot of infant clothes with buttons. The lights are dim. The baby is wiggly. I'm exhausted. And these >Velcro is better. Zippers aren't too bad. Magnets are fancy. I bet if we put our heads together, we could do better than the button

Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#176

Post by mc32 »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #69

I'm in e-commerce, and reading through this thread I think many people have the misconception that people make purchases to solve problems and want that solution to last as long as possible. In reality, and this is something I spent a long time coming to terms with, much shopping is done because it's fun. Spending money isn't a cost - it's the whole point of the exercise.

I think some shopping is ‘security’ and ‘self-sufficiency’ impulses. However, at some point this tendency is exploited (leveraged) by industry and augmented by the tendency to peer pressure. Kids made fun of other kids who wore the same clothes over and over, for example. Not all groups succumbed to this, of course. The ‘punk’ and ‘metal’ kids didn’t get into that as much as others (though they each had their own ‘uniforms’) but they tended to be more static and you wore what you had… you didn’t need the latest Nikes (or these days Canada Goose) or what have you.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#177

Post by Kye »

cko wrote: post #80
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.

What about 1.5 pieces per week, including underwear? Seems more likely.

I've heard of people who buy new socks and underwear rather than wash them, but I doubt it's common enough to bend the average up.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#178

Post by esarbe »

t-writescode wrote: post #154
hallarempt wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was still going through life as a man, I had two dozen white dress shirts (12 short, 12 long sleeved...), three pairs of pants, a suit and summer and a winter jacket. The shirts would still be fine after wearing and washing them a hundred times or more. I replaced them at a rate of four a year... After coming out as trans, getting a new wardrobe was fun, but... It's been a year, and some dresses really fall ap…

Would gothy-style, belt-heavy designs work well here? I imagine Victorian women didn't rotate clothes at the rate implied here. This seems just ... bad

There's no benefit in producing robust clothing that can be washed and worn over many years if the populace at large is unwilling to pay for that robustness.

You'll just spend money to get provide a feature very few people actually care about and you'll hurt your competitiveness.

Much of the population was trained to be good little consumers and that's just what they are doing.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#179

Post by esarbe »

SkeuomorphicBee wrote: post #118
gsinclair wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If a woman does that, she will very often get judged by her peers. True. We all reach an age eventually where we care little for the opinions of our peers on such matters. Wisest are those who make that realisation earlier rather than later!

That would limit career prospects in many fields.

So does calling out sexism and being socially conscious in general. It still has to be done.

Re: Many clothing donations end up in African landfills

#180

Post by esarbe »

hilbert42 wrote: post #7

That's conspicuous consumption gone mad, it seems to me too many people have far too much disposable income. What is it about people that they cannot be content with their clothes in that they have to change them long before they're worn out? This is fashion gone mad. I never throw out clothes, and I can keep the same items for many years - I've still got jeans, BD dungarees, etc. that I bought over 20 years ago. Whe…

They were trained to be good little consumers and they are doing a splendid job.
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