Do I really need that new piece of clothing?
In the grand scheme of things, with rising expenses for everything else, clothing often does not seem like a thing to consider or bother about. Although the days of Tk80 t-shirts seem like a thing of the past, the cost of clothes isn't a burning issue for us. There are always options for different buyers, from broke students to the handful luxury item purchasers.
Let's go through the life of a t-shirt. For a typical Bangalee, the t-shirt will stay with its owner for a few years, with maybe around a hundred or so washes, and then it will eventually end up as a rag to clean the house. And one day, it will be too torn up and washed up to even use as a cleaning rag. And when it is thrown away, someone else will use it in some other way.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. While the life-cycle for a single t-shirt seems nice, imagine the mounds of thrown-away t-shirts when every single person owns not one but an increasing number of t-shirts, oblivious to the true cost of clothing. The true cost might not come from our pockets directly, but the price is paid by our rivers and our environment that have been polluted through the entire clothing-making cycle. The cost of clothing is always hidden in its lifecycle, something we never really think about much.
The average person today buys 60 percent more clothing items than they did 15 years ago, while keeping each garment for half as long, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Textile matters because it is an integral part of human life. Responsible use of textiles is something that each person in this world should be accountable for, be it from a consumer's perspective or from a producer's perspective.
March 30, 2025, will be observed as the International Day of Zero Waste with the theme "Towards zero waste in fashion and textiles." The global fashion industry significantly contributes to resource consumption and carbon emissions, requiring 79 billion cubic meters of water annually (about 20 percent of the world's total water consumption), generating 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide (almost 10 percent of the world's total carbon dioxide emissions), and producing 92 million tons of textile waste (equivalent to a truckload of clothing being incinerated or sent to landfills every second).
When big celebrations like Eid come up, we purchase a lot for our loved ones, limiting our behaviour only through a monetary lens. When was the last time you asked yourself if your favourite designer/ brand had thought about the sustainability and durability of the clothing, reducing waste in the production process, using sustainable and non-toxic materials and providing fair wages to their suppliers? I, myself, seldom think about these perspectives while purchasing that really cool kameez set, or when I am swayed by that gorgeous piece of saree, or when that influencer is swaying my decision to purchase something needlessly. It's just a piece of clothing, and for some reason, I really "need" it. I do not think about its life with me.
The model of fast fashion is the leading cause of clothing waste. Remember how I said that I really "need" that piece of clothing? Our surroundings have been propagating this cycle of overconsumption, making us purchase the next thing and the next and then the next. By simply saying no to fast fashion, we can make the biggest impact! Question whether you truly need this purchase and if you will wear this at least 30 times. This "30 wears" test helps break the habit of impulse purchasing.
When you cannot wear the item 30 times (it happens; who is going to wear that poofy lehenga 30 times?), invest in higher quality, durable items that last longer. When possible, explore secondhand options first, without stigma! The habit of swapping clothes in your networks is also an excellent one. The environmental impact of a second-hand purchase is dramatically lower than buying new, as it requires no additional manufacturing resources.
Material selection is also very important when we do customise our own clothing. When we choose dark coloured clothing, especially black, it can hide stains and requires less washing, whereas lighter colours show stains more, eventually leading to higher washing and faster replacement. Light coloured clothes typically require more intensive bleaching and chemical processing during their manufacturing to achieve this bright colour, which means more chemicals are leached into the environment while they are produced.
Choose natural fibres like linen, which requires less water than cotton and can thrive without intensive pesticides or fertilisers, alongside other not-so-common options like hemp, which requires fewer chemicals to produce. Avoid synthetic materials like polyester in your fabric which shed microplastics on washing.
And for the eventuality of disposal, never discount how helpful repurposing your textiles is. Turn it into a kantha or quilt; remake that old saree into a dress!
Consumers are not the only group with a responsibility to do better, it is also on the producers to rethink the way they produce clothing. For designers and clothing producers, sustainable thinking can enhance their creativity. Reducing waste starts at the beginning, with every scrap of clothing saved, when materials are selected sustainably and with innovation focus. Even fabric scraps can be reincorporated into new products through techniques like fibre recycling, among others.
Achieving zero waste in fashion requires collaboration between producers and consumers. This symbiotic process can only start when we start thinking about the "real" cost of our textiles.
Let's ask ourselves the next time we make bulk purchases, "Do we really need that extra piece of clothing?"
Raida A. K. Reza is doctoral researcher at United Nations University's Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER), and Technische Universität Dresden and the founder of Zero Waste Bangladesh (ZWBD).
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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