Ok so. This threw me into a spiral and wanted to do my own research. Sorry OP if this is too much of a diversion.
If you look into it the quote is accurate for 2018
More than a few publications have picked up on the statistic like this one
The implication here is that people are *personally* throwing away 81 lbs of clothes throughout the course of the year in their own homes. However if you click through to their source right there in the EPA estimates you get a study that was published in 2016 drawing from data collected in 2014 that analyses specifically solid waste in municipal landfills.
It’s a huge 30 year long study to get data on the different kinds of materials and how much has been thrown away in municipal landfills, how much has been recycled, greenhouse emissions etc. but I’m going to focus on this table which has the data for the material breakdown from 2014
Here we have the breakdown of millions of tons per category in that year in municipal waste. And here…
…is where they are getting that number.
11.95 millions of tons of non-durable good textile solid waste. Which if you do the numbers on it comes out to 75.16 lbs per person (using 2014 population statistics). That does indeed seem like a lot and if you follow the trend line established elsewhere in the paper you can easily conclude that means 81 lbs per person in 2018. However let’s tug at that thread a little
Other forms of textiles fall into this category, not just clothes. So rugs and mats and curtains may be included (which are a heavier weight of fabric in general) but also…
Commercial and institutional sources are included. The Old Navy down the block only sold half of last years inventory? That’s in the count. The hospital replacing bedsheets and scrubs? That’s in the count. All of the waste throughout the municipal area is being counted so it’s less of a measure of what clothing is being bought by individual consumers and much more a count of the collective production of clothing.
Yes, fast fashion is in fact the driver of a whole industry of waste but this number isn’t a calculation of that. In fact the deeper you try to dig in it’s very clear that fashion brands produce a lot of pollution and are very good at obscuring numerically how much. Is the figure closer to 60 lbs a person, 13 lbs a person? Literally it’s anyone’s guess.
When it comes to the personal impact of fashion consumption do your best to move away from buying several outfits a season and you’re far less of a problem than the statistics make you out to be. Mend what you want to keep, donate what you don’t, any repurpose into dust towels anything that’s falling apart.
And when it does finally fall apart on you I PROMISE you are doing your best to make that garment more than worth it’s weight in waste. That is what garments are designed to do for centuries. Work, and then wear out.
