With so many clothing options and fast moving lifestyles these days, it is difficult to keep track of what your clothes are made of or where they come from. Most consumers are going through the paradox of having to choose between locally grown food and exported food, carrying wholesale reusable bags for shopping and also choosing the carious eco-friendly promotional items.
Even though people are turning eco-minded, it isn’t extending to their closets. It is found that most people still continue to buy trendy, non-recyclable clothes. Fashion today has a very short-lived mentality, wherein the latest look; hottest designer and the costliest price are paramount. Quantity is somehow valued more than quality. Clothes are being consumed as disposable goods. And whatever is bought is just worn for a few times before being thrown away.
The present day changing attitudes in fashion are causing a lot of harm to the environment as people are investing in a lot of disposable and one-time-wear clothes. However, a very small part of the US population is slowly turning towards clothes made out of recycled and organic materials as well.
Consumption and environmental footprint of clothing has increased
The rate at which people are buying, utilizing and disposing clothes i rising at alarming levels, which is also mushrooming the environmental footprint of the country. While the American textile factories are going in for a loss, citizens are opting for foreign and imported clothing. Almost 80 billion clothes are produced all over the world of late and almost 70 million tones of waste are being generated from this process. Resources such as petroleum and water are being exhausted and causing an alarm to the environment.
Organic clothing lines part of eco-friendly promotional items
Major fashion brands around the world have started reducing the amount of energy and water they usually use in manufacturing these clothes, as an obligation to protect the environment. The brands have started using eco-friendly and recycled materials to make more stylish and fashionable cloth products, which the country is readily embracing.
For instance, Nike is making athletic uniforms that are made out of recycled PET bottles. Apart from this Nike has also recycled almost thirty million pairs of athlete shoes through a program called, Reuse-a-Shoe. Just like Nike, clothing designers are also rethinking the materials they have been using to make the products.
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/11/living/high-cost-of-fashion/index.html
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