The fashion industry has become a large polluter. Some critics point to excess water usage, as well as the chemicals used to dye and make clothing last longer. According to the New York Times, fashion brands bear a large responsibility for chemical runoff, landfill excess and carbon emissions.
Within a year of being produced, nearly three-fifths of clothing ends up in incinerators or landfills, according to the Times, which also reports that around eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the fashion and footwear industries alone.
Kaila Mears is the owner of a local vintage thrift store called Secondhand Goddess. She said that the fashion industry is part of a cycle of supply and demand, and that if we slowly stop buying from places that produce clothing in areas where production isn’t regulated, it might change the ways things are made.
People are being encouraged to thrift shop and even upcycle their clothing, where they can turn something old into something completely new!
Alice Gray Read, an FIU associate professor, said a way to make people aware of thrift shopping and upcycling is to “blog about it! It’s cool! Show off the things that you bought.”
