Where do our clothes go once we discard them from our closets?

The ‘cast-offs’ from our wardrobes meet an end that is neither pretty nor sustainable

Every few months I purge my closet off the clothes that are faded, torn or worn too many times. The purged pile that creates a mountain of my consumeristic and capitalistic habits make me feel guilty of making rash and emotional decisions when it comes to purchasing clothes. Most of these pieces are ones that I either saw an influencer wearing, or were trendy and cheap and so-not-suitable for my body type or even my style, for that matter. Websites with flash sales and discounts have made it enticing and easy to ‘Add to Cart’ without giving it much of a thought. So when I stand in front of my pile of discarded clothes, I can’t help but wonder: what do I do with it?

Stats don’t lie

To find the answer, I took a deep dive into the world wide web and was overwhelmed with the amount of information and data that glared back at me. According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme, a UK government—an EU-backed agency tasked with reducing waste, more than 80 per cent of our clothes either end up in landfills or are incinerated, and only 20 per cent are actually reusable. This is at a global level, but when it comes to India, we are dealing with our own waste management concerns. We are the third largest generator of garbage in the world, and by 2050, this waste is expected to rise to 436 million tonnes.

I did the math here; if I put 10 pieces of clothing in the trash, only two can actually be saved and reused in some manner. The other eight will either be burned or added on to the piles of waste in the city’s dumping grounds. Depending on the material, a piece of clothing can take anywhere from 20 to 40 years to decompose. This is alarming because the hours of effort and precious resources like water that go into making these pieces are completely wasted. We live in an age where ‘use-and-throw’ is the mantra most of us subconsciously follow. It’s no wonder that our landfills are overflowing–there is literally no space to accommodate the waste we throw out. Also, did you know that nearly 20 per cent of methane gas (which is 28 times more powerful at warming the earth than carbon dioxide is) emissions in India is caused by landfills?

Here’s another fact: to add to our pile of issues surrounding waste management, India is also one of the largest importers of second-hand clothing in the world, most of which ends up in Panipat in Haryana to be dismantled, re-used or sold. These clothes are stripped down and shredded into yarns to make linings for upholsteries, bedcovers, drapes and bathroom mats. Mumbai’s Colaba Causeway and New Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar groan under the weight of cheap clothing that are rejects imported from fast-fashion brands and second-hand shops from across the world. The ones that don’t get used and sold, end up in landfills. I looked at my own little pile of discarded clothes and realised that all the data and statistics combined makes it urgent for us to be mindful of the way we use and throw our clothes.

All’s not lost

Despite the mindless consumption patterns that we tend to indulge in, it seems like our ‘all is lost’ moment is not yet here. More and more people are now aware of the consequences that thoughtlessly discarding clothes can have on the environment, and are making attempts to educate consumers to be cognisant of the same. I spoke to some of these do-gooders working towards giving discarded clothes a long lifespan.

Donating

Non-profit organisations like Clothes For Help, Apang Manav Mandal and The Open House are where you can donate your clothes. Anushka Jain’s Bengaluru-based platform Share At Door Step (SADS), not only picks up old clothes from your house, but also accepts any old appliances, stationery and toys that you no longer need. “We live in a time where people discard their items way before they actually should. At SADS, the idea is to get these goods that you no longer need out of your houses and in the hands of someone who can reuse them and extend their lifespan,” says Jain. Other than donating, brands like H&M and Marks & Spencer have a drop-off programme, where you can give away a bag of old clothes for discount coupons.

Upcycling

Even the smallest elements, like zippers and buttons can be reused. But what about a stain or a tear that can’t be mended? Arushi Aggarwal of The Initiative has the answer to this. With the help of craftswomen in rural Maharashtra, she started making godhadis–a traditional Indian quilt–for friends and family, before expanding it to yoga mat covers, laptop sleeves and even tote bags made from old pieces of clothing. “I got into working with waste when I saw these women hand-quilting old shirts, pants and sarees into godhadis. It’s post-consumer waste, but it’s waste which is used to create something that you can use.” Indian labels like Doodlage are working with waste and are mindful of the material they use. Designer Amit Agarwal uses recycled plastic and industrial materials as fabric for his elaborate evening wear, while Divyam Mehta transforms agricultural waste into biodegradable and recyclable fabrics.

Re-selling

The concept of re-selling designer clothing and finding vintage treasures is something that Indians have warmed up to only recently. Brands like Summer Somewhere provide a platform to re-sell old pieces of clothing that you buy on their website. Scroll through the websites of Red Empress or No Borders and you’ll find pre-loved, high-end designer pieces sourced from all over the globe: a lace blouse by Valentino from the 1980s or a patterned trousers by Kenzo from the 1970s. Saritoria is another platform which promotes sustainability by giving heavy Indianwear a second life. “Buying pre-loved items means that you are saving an item from going to waste and giving it a new lease of life that would otherwise end up in landfills,” says Shehlina Soomro, co-founder of Saritoria.

Thrifting

When Sana Khan didn’t have an outlet to give away thousands of clothes that overflowed from her closet, she decided to have a garage sale at her house and sent out a WhatsApp invite to her friends and family. Over a hundred people turned up for the sale. That’s when she started Bombay Closet Cleanse, with the help of her sister, during the Covid-19 pandemic. “The pandemic was one of the key reasons why we started thriving online. Instagram thrift shops were like retail therapy for many who were just bored at home,” says Khan. With no online platforms making deliveries in the first few months of the lockdown, it made many of us rethink our purchasing habits, especially when it came to shopping from fast fashion brands. As a part of an anti-fast fashion ideology, Instagram thrift shops gained popularity, and accounts such as Lulu Thrift, Vintage Laundry, Luu Lui and Bombay Closet Cleanse saw a rapid increase in the number of followers and shoppers. Thanks to this popularity, Khan and her sister opened a brick-and-mortar thrift store in the heart of Bandra, one of the firsts in Mumbai, where you can walk in and buy pre-loved clothes, or sell yours.

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