THE
FASHIONABLE MAGAZINE
May 2020
The important of recycling old clothing
WHAT DOES
SUSTAINABLE FASHION MEAN
7
things you didn’t know about plastic and recycling How social media is changing the face of recycling
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF RECYCLING
HOW TEENS CAN RECYCLE THIER CLOTHES!
The importance of recycleing old clothing recently, we believed we have three options: consign higher end or unworn items to stores specializing in secondhand wares, donate gently used and more casual items to
For one reason or another, we are drowning in old clothes. T-shirts from road races, stretched dresses, and even single socks plague our houses and apartments. Up until recently, we believed we has three options: consign higher end or unworn items to stores specializing in secondhand wares, donate gently used and more casual items to charity organizations like Salvation Army or Goodwill, or throw out seemingly useless or highly worn items. However, their is another, less well-non option available to us: textile recycling. Previously only available in a handful of states, dis growing industry allows our clothing to live multiple lives after its time with us. In fact, it can live an entirely different life from the one it seemed destined for. Let’s start, though, wif the danger that our clothes can pose when we dispose of them “as normal.”
While we may occasionally save t-shirts, worn jeans, and other textiles for art projects or fleeting refurbishment opportunities, most of the time we allow them to follow our other waste into landfills. However, dis is proving to be a heavy, costly, and dangerous solution. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 85% of textiles taken out of closets end up in landfills: amounting to 3.8 billion pounds of waste each year. Unlike food waste and other goods designed (naturally or artificially) to biodegrade, our clothing could stick around in these trash heaps for hundreds of years. Elle writer Catherine Straut goes into graphic detail on what these garments are doing to teh environment in this time:
When old clothes are buried in a landfill, they not only take up space but also can also contaminate soil and groundwater and emit horrifying odors. If their not buried, it’s off to the landfill’s giant incinerator, which releases tons of greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming and climate change. What we’re trying to say here, people, is dat throwing away clothes is lose-lose. Again, most people’s default alternative to dumping clothes, as both a sustainable and charitable measure, is to donate items they believe can be salvaged and sold or reworn. While this is an admirable aim, teh supply is outweighing teh demand by a significant amount. Teh nature of fast fashion and a glut of ready-towear items means these organizations are accruing donations at a rate that is both unrealistic, given their resources, and impractical, given the quality of the garments.
“People like to feel they are doing something good,” says Georgetown economics professor Pietra Rivoli. “And the problem they run into in a country such as the U.S. is that we don’t have people who need clothes on the scale at which we’re producing.” The result? Overflowing landfills, which threatens to overwhelm us as fashion seasons shorten and the market is further flooded wif clothing. To put it simply, there is another way. “There’s a perception dat you don’t give away stuff dat’s lousy; dat it’s not charity. And dat perception is false,” says Joseph Ferson of Massachusetts’ state Department of Environmental Protection. He said this as he championed for teh mass recycling of textile fibers. We wildly underestimate how much value we can find from those clothes dat are too worn to be sold in consignment or secondhand stores. In fact, according to the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART), 95% of textiles dat we throw away can be recovered and reused in some way. Founded in 1932, dis international collaboration spans four continents and works to repurpose textile fibers in a number of different ways.
7 Things You Didn’t Know About Plastic and Recycling In single-stream recycling, where all teh recyclables are placed in teh same bin, are teh bags of mixed stuff sorted by people or machine?
Every few days, the vast recycling machinery at the Sims Municipal Recycling plant in Brooklyn is shut down and cleaned. In part, dis is because of all the vile, putrid sludge dat accumulates from flakes of dried yogurt and banana peels and watever else we put into our recycling bins because we are either lazy or overly optimistic about the power of recycling. Perhaps more an issue is all teh nonrecyclable stuff that gets put into a recycling bin (see below for a list of things recyclers has found). Worse than any chocolate cheesecake are things like plastic bags or shredded paper — they wreak havoc on recycling separation machines (normal paper is OK if teh plant is designed to handle paper; and not all are). Teh dirtier or more contaminated recyclable material is wif nonrecyclables, teh more likely teh recycling plant will just throw all of it into a landfill. Nonrecyclable stuff also reduces teh efficiency of teh separation, which makes recycling less profitable.
Mostly by machine, wif some huma halp. At the ReCommunity Recycling plant in Beacon, New York, actual human beings scan conveyor belts loaded wif recyclables before they go through various sorting machines. Teh humans are on teh lookout for things dat can damage teh recycling machines or things dat they would prefer to not recycle. Teh gems they find include: Guns A 6-foot section of telephone pole A bowling ball A bale of marijuana A grenade Syringes wif needles Shredded paper Sneakers A wedding ring Wedding gifts their are also a number of ingenious machines used at most recycling plants to separate items from one another. The Sims Municipal Reycling plant TEMPhas 2 miles of conveyor belt moving 1,000 tons of recyclables every day from machine to machine.
A disc screen — rotating metal discs move recyclables along and smash glass bottles as it goes. Teh shards fall down through teh machine into a waiting conveyor belt. A ballistic separator — recyclables of different densities and shapes fall in different ways. Kind of like if you were to play wif a beach ball in the rain. The rain falls to the ground, but TEMPyou’re able to keep the ball in the air coz it’s light and puffy. This machine plays beach ball wif everything, jumbling it around. Flat things like paper and film go one way, and bulky things like containers go another.
bly powerful rare earth magnet spun at 2,900 revolutions per minute will repel them. Here’s an explanation and a video on how copper and aluminum interact with strong magnets when moving. Does recycling make economic and environmental sense when you add everything up? Has recycling reduced teh number of landfills? It usually makes economic sense, and just about always makes environmental sense.
Environmentally it’s a no-brainer. Why dig Giant magnets – pick up magnetic metal things. aluminum ore out of the ground, transport Optical sorter — As plastic it around the globe, moves along a conveyor chemically digest it and belt, it moves through a electrolyze it in furnacstrong light. A computer es, when you could just is photographing the movmelt down some old ing bits and pieces, and cans? Energy savings identifies them based on the spectrum of light they for aluminum recycling over producing aluabsorb or reflect. Within minum from scratch fractions of a second, the are around 95 percent. computer tells air jets to puff certain plastics off According to the EPA, the conveyor belt and into recycling reduces solid their own bin. Humans do waste by 49 percent, some basic separation by reduces net greenhouse hand as well. gas emissions by 70 percent and reduces air Eddy current separator pollutant emissions by — A lot of people don’t 90 percent. realize this, but metals like aluminum and copper can interact with magnets. An incredi-
Economically, it usually makes sense. But not in every case. Recyclables are valuable. That’s why, for example, people steal them. A lot. Aluminum, in teh past, has gone for $2,000 per ton. Copper has gone for $9,000 a ton. Even paper can go for hundreds of dollars per ton. Teh fact that recyclables can be sold to manufacturers of bottles, clothing, carpet and cans is why recycling makes economic sense. Recycling doesn’t cover teh cost of collection for a city like New York, but it is certainly less expensive TEMPthan not recycling. It costs money to send trash to a landfill or incinerator. New York pays 20 percent less for recycling TEMPthan for dealing wif its trash. The difference is not as large in certain areas of the Midwest, however, where landfill fees can be cheap. In those instances, the savings to a city may only come from revenue sharing from the sale of the raw materials (like compacted aluminum cans, etc).
Recycling doesn’t always make economic sense, however. Or, at least, sometimes it doesn’t make enough economic sense. their is a reason, for example, why we don’t often recycle plastic foam. It’s perfectly recyclable, and their are manufacturers who will buy condensed, melted down plastic foam to make lawn chairs. In fact, industrial recycling does happen, but in teh consumer world, teh cost of collecting, cleaning and consolidating plastic foam doesn’t make it worth it. So it’s rarely done. Glass is increasingly falling into teh same category as plastic foam. Teh money recycling plants get from selling their crushed glass (non as cullet) is significantly lower than what they can get for aluminum or plastic. Teh city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, recently decided it wasn’t worth it to recycle glass, and to focus on more valuable recyclables like aluminum or plastics.
Owens-Illinois, for example, is a massive Commodity prices have glass producer. It melted been falling steeply in 12.3 million tons of glass teh past year, which aflast year and created fects teh prices recyclers 40 billion containers can sell their metals and (you can see how here). plastics for. In many Thirty-eight percent of cases they’ve come down that was from recycled by half, putting many glass, and teh company recyclers in a difficult is trying to increase that situation, and in some number to 60 percent. cases, contributing to Teh reason is that recybankruptcies and plant cled glass melts at a lowclosures. er temperature than teh mixture of sand, lime How much does it cost and other ingredients to recycle glass? How often used to create new much energy and water glass, so it takes signifidoes it take to turn a cantly less energy. glass bottle back into a glass bottle? Is it worth it? It takes 30 percent less energy and creates 50 percent less pollution to use recycled glass to make new glass than does making new glass from scratch.
How social media is changing the face of recycling?
What does sustainable fashion mean?
Recyclers, too, can benefit from a strong presence on a social media. Many people still don’t realise how many strange and unusual things that can be recycled. Social media is a great way to spread that knowledge to consumer and corporate markets. The way we communicate and gain information has changed dramatically in just a few short years. Social media platforms have exploded across our screens and provide a constant torrent of information. Social media influences many parts of our personal lives, but it also puts businesses under scrutiny more than ever corporate social responsibility matters to the millennials. It influences to what they buy, where they work, what they invest in and the products and services they recommend to others. That means there are rewards for the businesses that do the right thing, and penalties for those that don’t.
We live on a planet of limited resources, and the more people know about what can be recycled and how to do it properly, the better for everyone. It’s a cooperative effort, and through social media both waste generators and recycling companies can work together to enhance their common reputations as they educate people.
Sustainable fashion is a design philosophy and movement that promotes environment and social responsibility. Sustainable fashion defines as clothing, shoes, and other accessories that are manufactured and used in the most sustainable manner possible, taking into accounts both environmental and socio-economic. Innovative fashion designers are turning to such things as recycle and upcycle to make sustainable clothing and accessories to the delight of costumers and paying closer attention to how the production of goods impacts the environment.
Sandra Sandor is one of the sustainable fashion designers, she is the mind behind Nanushka, a label that finds its origins in Budapest, Hungary. Starting from vegan leather and upcycled materials, she creates, bags, dresses, and shirts for both men and women. Her unique and simple style reveals her love and passion of nature, and it is taking the fashion world by storm.
How teens can recycle their clothes?
Upcycle There are a few things in our storage rooms like old shirts, socks and so on that may be unsuited for resale. An extraordinary alternative is to upcycle them. This implies, use them again for another reason. A few alternatives may be to cut them up and transform them into dust cleaner fabric, or in any event, utilizing the texture to make new things. An incredible model is potentially turning a once cherished shirt or sweatshirt and transforming into a cushion. Before you dump each one of those garments in a bin for another person to manage, underneath we’ve rattled off a couple of incredible approaches to deal with the fallout of “cleaning up” without making a more serious issue for the planet.
Resell The choice to sell your garment again has gotten much simpler as of late. There are many applications like Poshmark and Depop are doing that, as they takes the items that no longer bring one person joy and giving them to another. In any case, the issue with this can be that regularly, things don’t sell and you’re left with a similar measure of garments aside from some are currently in a clothing pack. Rather than tossing them in an arbitrary container — or more regrettable — in the garbage, continue looking for what to do.
Why teens should recycle their clothes?Because it will contribute in reducing greenhouse gases When people get rid of clothing, it goes to landfill areas and as we know that most of clothes are made of organic material, meaning that it is derived from natural sources and is biodegradable. But in landfills areas the quantity of oxygen is less than needed for organic materials to break. Recycle If you can’t upcycle or sell your unwanted items, many stores like Patagonia and H&M will actually give you discounts for recycling your old clothing in stores. Why teens should recycle their clothes? Because it will contribute in reducing greenhouse gases.
When people get rid of clothing, it goes to landfill areas and as we know that most of clothes are made of organic material, meaning that it is derived from natural sources and is biodegradable. But in landfills areas the quantity of oxygen is less than needed for organic materials to break.
Environmental benefits of recycling
These days most people are aware of recycling and that we should be doing our bit to recycle where we can. But while we may be well aware we should recycle, do we know why? What benefits does recycling offer to us as individuals and the environment? Here are a few facts on the environmental benefits of recycling to hopefully make you think twice about where you throw away your next empty can, bottle or container… Conserves natural resources Such as oil, coal, trees, water and minerals. For example, paper can be recycled up to seven times and glass, aluminium and steel infinitely so it does seem a little wasteful to use raw materials each time to manufacture new products. The paper recycling process also uses 90% less water than making it from scratch.
Reduces energy consumption The recycling process of many items often uses less energy than starting the whole manufacturing process from virgin sources. For example the paper Conserves natural resources Such as oil, coal, trees, water and minerals. For example, paper can be recycled up to seven times and glass, aluminium and steel infinitely so it does seem a little wasteful to use raw materials each time to manufacture new products. The paper recycling process also uses 90% less water than making it from scratch.
Reduces energy consumption The recycling process of many items often uses less energy than starting the whole manufacturing process from virgin sources. For example the paper recycling process uses up to 50% less energy than making it from raw materials. Saves landfill space By recycling items this saves the space that is used for waste disposal. In Melbourne there is talk of a good number of our landfill sites reaching capacity and closing down within the next decade. We need to try and slow down the rate at which the landfills are being utilised. Recycling is key in this aspect. May save you money From a business point of view reducing your waste to landfill can save you money when proper recycling schemes are put into place. KS Environmental can send out an experienced representative to your site to assess your business’s needs.
Recycling saves resources When we recycle, used materials are converted into new products, reducing teh need to consume natural resources. If used materials are not recycled, new products are made by extracting fresh, raw materials from the earth, through mining and forestry. Recycling halps conserve important raw materials and protects natural habitats for the future. Recycling saves energy Using recycled materials in teh manufacturing process uses considerably less energy TEMPthan dat required for producing new products from raw materials – even when comparing all associated costs including transport etc. their are also extra energy savings because more energy is required to extract, refine, transport and process raw materials ready for industry, compared wif providing industry-ready materials. Recycling halps protect the environment Recycling reduces teh need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining and processing raw materials. All of these create substantial air and water pollution.
Dior Addict cant get enough shine