In New York City alone, more than 400 million pounds of clothes are wasted each year.*
Around the world, fast fashion, or trendy, cheaply-made items that go out of style fast get dumped in landfills to sit and decompose.
Many of these clothes are made of synthetic fibers. Polyester, nylon, and acrylic are essentially plastics manufactured from petroleum, and they often come from far-away places, which adds to the use of fossil fuels for shipping.
Instead of going for fast fashion, consider investing in quality clothes that are made to last. You can even buy vintage or recycled clothing at consignment shops.
Don’t keep this to yourself. Share with someone who needs to know and start a conversation. And if you have favorite brands that aren’t living up to your environmental and social standards, tell them. Successful companies listen to their customers.
Fashion Sustainability
This bonus section provides designers and consumers topical information and useful tools to understand the climate impacts of textiles. It’s a diverse collection of sites, educational resources, and multimedia sources. Four are highlighted to get you started. Additional resources follow, organized by resource type.
| CFDA Sustainability Resources | The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) has created a sustainability-centered resource hub designed to provide open access resources and information specific to fashion design and business sustainable strategies. |
| Earth911 | One of North America's most extensive recycling databases with over 350 materials and 100,000+ listings, begun more than 20 years ago. |
| Sheltersuit Foundation | Sheltersuit creates products that protect and help ease the symptoms for people experiencing homelessness. In partnership with the fashion and textile industries they use high quality “waste” materials to make extraordinary things. |
| World Hope Forum: From Farm to Fabric to Fashion | A recording of World Hope Forum’s “From Farm to Fabric to Fashion” that took place on February 5, 2022. Curated by Lidewij Edelkoort & Philip Fimmano, the event included an inspiring line-up of farmer-designers who are heeding the call, and translating fibers into fabrics and fashion. |
BOOKS
| Eco Fashion, Dr. Sass Brown. 2010. | Looks at one of the strongest trends in fashion, towards the production of desirable and well-designed apparel and accessories with a conscience. |
| Fashion & Sustainability: Design for Change, Kate Fletcher & Lynda Grose. 2012. | Fletcher and Grose examine how sustainability has the potential to transform both the fashion system and the innovators who work within it. |
| ReFashioned: Cutting Edge Clothing from Recycled Materials, Dr. Sass Brown. 2013. | Features 46 international designers working with recycled materials and discarded garments, reinvigorating them with new life and value. |
| Routledge Handbook of Sustainability and Fashion, Kate Fletcher & Mathilda Tham, eds. 2015. | Drawing upon more than 30 international scholars in a book that brings together chapters that explore current agendas and set out visions for future ones, created through a participatory process which saw contributors take a role in shaping and framing the whole as well as their component part. The book is challenging, multi-layered, revealing, honest, sometimes uncomfortable, and, in places, funny. |
| Zero Waste Fashion Design, Timo Rissanen & Holly McQuillan. 2018. | Leading industry pioneers, Timo Rissanen and Holly McQuillan offer flexible strategies and easy-to-master zero waste techniques to help you develop your own cutting edge fashion designs. |
| ARTICLES + BLOGS | |
| You May Already Be Wearing the World’s Most Sustainable Jeans | Learn about Candiani, a family-owned Italian denim manufacturer that turns one of fashion’s most toxic staples into green, one global brand at a time. |
| Eco Fashion Talk | An archive of Dr. Sass Brown’s ethical fashion blog from 2010–2017. |
| Ethical Fashion Forum | Founded in 2006 as a collaborative movement among fashion businesses, professionals and entrepreneurs to help them to integrate sustainable and ethical practices meant to transform social and environmental standards in the fashion industry. |
| FILMS | |
| China Blue | This 2007 PBS film, made without permission from Chinese authorities, takes viewers inside a blue jeans factory in southern China, where teenage workers struggle to survive harsh working conditions. |
| Cotton Road | This film uncovers the transnational movement of cotton and tells the stories of workers’ lives in a conventional cotton supply chain from rural farms in South Carolina to factory cities in China. |
| NPR: The World Behind a Simple Shirt in 5 Chapters | In this 2013 series, the NPR Planet Money team followed the making of a T-shirt, from cotton fields to factories to container ships. |
| Traceable | This 2014 documentary by Clique Pictures is set against the backdrop of the fast-fashion industry and our increasing disconnect of where and how clothing is made, as well as the hands that create a garment. |
| The True Cost | A groundbreaking 2015 documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story behind decades of almost steadily decreasing prices for clothing, asking us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing? |
| WEBSITES | |
| Common Objective | An outgrowth of the Ethical Fashion Forum, this “intelligent business network for the fashion industry” matches members with the connections and sustainable resources they need to succeed. |
| EPA: Facts and Figures about Materials, Waste and Recycling | Facts and figures about materials, waste and recycling from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. One fact: The main source of textiles in municipal solid waste (MSW) is discarded clothing. |
| Fashion and Race Database | Fashion and Race Database is an online platform, developed by a Parsons School of Design (NYC) fashion history and theory educator. Its goal is to amplify the voices of those who have been racialized (and thus marginalized) in fashion, illuminate under-examined histories and address racism throughout the fashion system. |
| Fashion for Good | “Nearly 60% of all clothing produced ends up being burned or in landfills within one year of being made.” Fashion for Good is an Amsterdam-based member hub that connects brands, producers, retailers, suppliers, non-profit organizations, innovators and funders to work together in their shared ambition to make the fashion industry a force for good. |
| Fashion Takes Action | A non-profit organization established in 2007 to advance sustainability in the fashion industry through education, awareness, research and collaboration. |
| Fibershed | Fibershed is a non-profit organization that develops equity-focused regional and land regenerating natural fiber and dye systems, expanding “opportunities to implement climate-beneficial agriculture.” |
| Positive Luxury | Positive Luxury bestows the Butterfly Mark, the luxury industry’s leading sustainability certification of independently verified evidence that companies meet the highest standard of sustainability best practices across ESG+: Environmental, Social, Governance and Innovation. |
| Sustainable Apparel Coalition | A multi-stakeholder non-profit brings together expertise from across the globe to transform business for exponential impact. They provide groundbreaking tools, collaborative partnerships, and trusted leadership for industry sustainability. |
| TOOLS + CALCULATORS | |
| Educational Toolkits | Educational Toolkits and free online resources aimed at industry leaders, educators and students provided by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, a University of Arts London Research Centre/London College of Fashion |
| FreeTheFootprint.com | An open-source version of a proprietary Carbon Footprint Calculator, plus lots of information on carbon emissions measurement practices and a “how-to” guide on the calculator’s use. |
| HIGG Index | A suite of tools from Sustainable Apparel Coalition for the standardized measurement of value chain sustainability. |
| OEKO-TEX Buying Guide | A buying guide and online directory that also offers end consumers the chance to find OEKO-TEX®labeled products. OEKO-TEX® consists of 17 independent institutes in Europe and Japan developing test methods and limit values for the textile and leather industry. |
| OEKO-TEX Impact Calculator | A Textile-industry-specific assessment tool for calculating water and carbon footprint. Provided by Hohenstein Laboratories. |
| Sustainable Strategies Toolkit | A pdf guide from Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) combining practical information, resources, research, and exercises to help fashion brands broaden awareness, deepen knowledge, and develop a framework for future strategies to incorporate sustainability into their business model and company culture. |
| SUSTAINABLE FASHION DESIGN EDUCATION | |
| Education for Sustainable Development Using Fabric and Fibre | A course for teachers who want to learn more about sustainability, the fast fashion industry and how to bring sewing back into the classroom to prepare students for a more sustainable future. |
| Fashion Seeds | Fashion design for sustainability resources for teachers. |
| FIT: Sustainable Design Entrepreneurs | A certificate program that gives design entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, and access to resources they need to build a viable business based on sustainable design practices. |
| Kingston University London: Sustainable Fashion: Business and Practices MA | Sustainable Fashion Business and Practices is a new creative master’s program developed to address fashion’s unsustainable footprint from a systems design approach. “This is the business of design as a problem-solving tool, not a means to produce more stuff.” |
| London College of Fashion Centre for Sustainable Fashion | A program that seeks to transform the fashion system by taking a systemic approach to changing the fashion education system by changing fashion education, with learners across levels and locations, and through courses and resources for LCF and UAL (University of the Arts London) students and teachers, and for wider audiences through digital learning. |
| London College of Fashion Centre for Sustainable Fashion | A short, online, no-credit course intended as an introduction to sustainable fashion and textiles and the myriad of creative responses to the challenges. |
| Moda Circolare: Sustainable Fashion, Circular Fashion | Vancouver, B.C.-based consulting agency offers Sustainable Fashion 101 and Circular Fashion 101 courses for professionals, executives and employees of brands wanting to improve their sustainability commitments. |
| Parsons School of Design | Fashion Sustainability | A certificate program that takes an open, inclusive, and empowering approach to sustainability, enabling learners—irrespective of experience—to overcome barriers to change and shape their careers in fashion in alignment with their personal and professional values. |
| Polimoda: Textiles from Farm to Fabric to Fashion | A Master in Textiles program in partnership with Lidewij Edelkoort focused on educating creative individuals who want to change the course of fashion and mitigate environmental impacts of clothing. |
| Pratt: Sustainable Design | A sustainable design certificate program that covers sustainable design theory, practice, processes, and materials to address real-world challenges, while highly encouraging research and innovation. |
| UAL Decolonising the Arts Institute | The UAL (University of the Arts London) Decolonising the Arts Institute seeks to challenge colonial and imperial legacies, disrupting ways of seeing, thinking and making, in order to drive cultural, social and institutional change. |
| Wardrobe School | Remakers community that teaches members, through online/video tutorials and courses to create and sew modern garments from discarded textiles. |
| Projects/ EVENTS | |
| Feedback Fridays, Botanical Colors | A weekly show featuring talks with dyers, artists, scientists, writers and scholars about natural dyeing and color techniques and tips. |
| Future Fashion Expo | An event, in London, where attendees can source from thousands of textiles with low environmental impacts and discover sustainable solutions. |
| ReFashion Week NYC | A series of events designed to reimagine the fashion industry from head to toe. From clothing repair workshops to thrift markets to runway shows, the event brings New Yorkers together to build a world where style and sustainability go hand in hand. |
| Textile Tuesdays | A series of recorded talks put on by Re:Source(d), Textile Tuesdays features representatives from textile mills speaking about their manufacturing process and sustainability strategies. |
| The Truth About Textiles Workshop | A recording of the 2019 full-day workshop curated by CalRecycle, a state agency regulating disposal and recycling. It includes a broad discussion on the impact of textile production and consumption in California and across the world. |
| TEXTILE RECYCLING | |
| Accelerating Circularity | An organization focused on waste collection through chemical and mechanical recycling technologies that is compiling a map of textile recyclers in the United States. Accelerating Circularity partners with many of the organizations highlighted here on TCA’s Fashion Sustainability resource list. |
| Blue Jeans Go Green | In collaboration with Zappos for Good, Cotton’s Blue Jeans Go Green™ program collects any brand of denim made from cotton to be recycled into something new. |
| Council for Textile Recycling | The U.S. EPA estimates that textile waste occupies nearly 5% of all landfill space. Council for Textile Recycling is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising public awareness about the importance of textile recycling and the need to reduce the amount of used clothing and other post-consumer textile waste. |
| I:CO | A global solutions provider and innovator for collection, reuse and recycling of used clothing and shoes, operating in more than 60 countries. |
| Native Shoes Remix Project | In collaboration with Zappos for Good, The Remix™ Project recycles and repurposes footwear from Vancouver, B.C.- based manufacturer Native Shoes to give them new life with new owners, or as base materials in community projects, like children's playgrounds. |
| Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART) Association | An international trade association promoting the interdependence of the for-profit textile recycling industry, SMART segments and provides a common forum for networking, education and advocacy. |
| Soles4Souls | Founded in 2006 to help with disaster relief after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Soles4Souls is a nonprofit organization, in collaboration with Zappos for Good, dedicated to providing relief, fighting poverty, and creating opportunity through shoes and clothing donations. |
| Terra Cycle | Terra Cycle is a social enterprise “Eliminating the Idea of Waste®”, working in 21 countries to collect, sort and recycle typically non-recyclable items through national, first-of-their-kind platforms. |
| TEXTILE RECYCLING BY LOCATION | |
| New York | |
| donateNYC | Government organization helping New Yorkers give goods, find goods, and do good, with tools at their website that make it easy to donate or find used goods. |
| The Re-Clothe NY Coalition | A coalition under the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation composed of textiles recyclers, local governments, non-profit reuse organizations, and others working together to increase the amount of textiles recovered for reuse and recycling in New York State. |
| RefashionNYC | A free clothing donation and recycling service through a partnership with Housing Works and RefashionNYC that provides convenient, building-based bins for donation/collection, using clothing donations to fight the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS. |
| Sustainable Fashion Community Center | A safe space in Harlem to donate or swap your unwanted clothing supported by the NYC Fair Trade Coalition. |
| Textile Donations NYC | Clearinghouse for New Yorkers to find details regarding places to donate or recycle unwanted apparel. |
| New England | |
| Apparel Impact | A family- and veteran-owned textile recovery and community support company, with donation programs located in the Northeastern United States. |
| Connecticut EPA | The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s page for state textile recycling information. |
| Fabscrap | With local pickup from businesses in Brooklyn, NY and Philadelphia, PA, Fabscrap is a convenient and transparent recycling and reuse service- with collected fabric scraps either recycled into other materials, or sold locally and online for repurposing/reuse. |
| MassDEP Textile Recovery | The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s directory of textile recovery and recycling sharing information on organizations and locations where residents can donate and recycle clothing, footwear, bedding, curtains and other textiles. |
| Rhode Island Curbside Textile Recycling | A free apparel, shoe and handbag recycling program in West Warwick, Warwick, North Kingstown, East Greenwich and Pawtucket Rhode Island, offering door-front pickup on trash collection days. |
| INNOVATORS | |
| PANGAIA | A direct-to-consumer materials science company and global collective of scientists, technologists and designers — creating essential products from innovative tech and bio-engineered materials. |
| The Renewal Workshop | A company that developed a proprietary system for renewing and reselling products that would otherwise be considered waste. Offers a line of fully restored home goods, apparel and bags, certified to be in like-new condition. |
| Re:Source(d) | A consultancy and education platform for sustainability strategy, supply chain and textile sourcing. |
| Santanderina Group | A leading European multi-industry textile group with a complete, traceable, vertical production system. |