Is Preloved Fashion Sustainable?
Is Preloved Fashion Sustainable?
Stella McCartney is known for advocating sustainability in the luxury fashion industry. Ever since the fashion brand launched the ‘World of Sustainability’ document. Unlike many luxury brands who are just scratching the surface of luxury fashion, the McCartney brand showcased its sustainability procedures.
Young affluent consumers seek to express who they are rather than what they own. It is beyond just using conscious materials such as vegan leather or organic cotton, more transformational sustainability items are wielded into pieces.
One of the major reasons why preloved fashion items are a sustainable choice is because basically it saves money. However, apart from being easy on people’s pockets, another benefit of purchasing preloved fashion items is environmental sustainability. Yes, purchasing preloved items is eco-friendly by being a recycling system that helps everyone in the community.
Three environmental benefits of purchasing preloved fashion:
Textile Waste:
The preloved luxury industry provides the opportunity for someone else other than the previous owner to use the precious luxury items for a few more years, or maybe for the rest of the item’s life. This extends the lifespan of the item when many clothes get disposed of by most people. It is one of the best ways to deal with textile waste because clothes usually get thrown out after a few wears.
Eco-Friendly:
A lot of water and chemicals go into manufacturing most of our luxury items. Approximately 1800 gallons of water are required to make one pair of jeans. But if we took the preloved fashion industry into consideration of living a more sustainable life. Instead of using large amounts of water which preferably could be used for other purposes such as planting for example.
Recycling:
What is the relationship between purchasing preloved items and recycling?
The preloved fashion industry encourages the development of a recycling community. Purchasing preloved items assists in keeping the recycling system for people are cannot afford these items and are now able to have them.
These are a few of the environments as well as the societal benefits of purchasing preloved items. The choice to buy a preloved item over a new one means you are turning that item into a more sustainable item. Each family throws out about 70 Kg of clothes every year, these items then will go straight to a landfill, selling an item instead of tossing it out or giving it away makes it more sustainable.