H&M had a fabric recycling service, offering a 15% discount on purchases, that I used for a while. They shut it down at the beginning of the pandemic, then the local shop closed soon after. Then, they cut services to the bone, it took two months or more to get an order, it’s not like I live in Tierra del Fuego, but in San Francisco. Then, they started shipping the wrong items, I ordered a green dress, but got a chunky red sweater instead, as just one example. So, I was getting irritated, and watching their “Conscious” line for a year, it’s all recycled polyester, which I won’t buy, new or used. I’m moving away from this brand, the quality has been really bad this year.
Plus, buy natural fiber fabrics, and viscose-family fabrics (mad from plant fibers, not petrochemicals like polyester and acrylic are). At least they are biodegradable and wearable in the hot climates where most of our unwanted items end up (if not in landfills).
I look at the price of an item, their $10 jeans a few years ago, for example. There no way the seamstress got a “sustainable wage” to make those. By the time the company bought the materials and shipped it, she couldn’t have made more a than one or two pennies, if that. That’s why I don’t buy silk scarves with hand-rolled and stitched hems, either, why should some poor women slave so that I can have a higher-status item. They probably have to do ten scarves for a penny, why the designer rakes in the dough. It’s just not right, many of these workers are young girls, too! There is too much inequality in the world already, not everyone had the good fortune to be born in a rich country, or be male.
Major charity shops, like the Goodwill, here in the US, don’t even look into the donation bags, they throw them into either landfill dumpsters, or huge sea containers that are shipped to, mostly, Africa for resale at pennies for the pound/kg. Some do get sold, and this can benefit small street vendors, but I don’t like to donate anything that can’t be worn there, either because of its condition or the climate. Polyester can’t be worn where it’s routinely 40C and humid. Many people say they’re donating “to help people”, but it’s obvious they just got too fat for their clothes, or bought really cheap things that they got tired of fast. They also donate things that are broken, stained, damaged, etc. that should be repaired or go into the trash, these agencies can’t do it, they’re drowning in garbage and have to pay to have it all removed. If you want to help, donate cash! You can resell, then donate the money.
Want to be a conscientious consumer? Wear what’s already in your closet.
H&M had a fabric recycling service, offering a 15% discount on purchases, that I used for a while. They shut it down at the beginning of the pandemic, then the local shop closed soon after. Then, they cut services to the bone, it took two months or more to get an order, it’s not like I live in Tierra del Fuego, but in San Francisco. Then, they started shipping the wrong items, I ordered a green dress, but got a chunky red sweater instead, as just one example. So, I was getting irritated, and watching their “Conscious” line for a year, it’s all recycled polyester, which I won’t buy, new or used. I’m moving away from this brand, the quality has been really bad this year.
Plus, buy natural fiber fabrics, and viscose-family fabrics (mad from plant fibers, not petrochemicals like polyester and acrylic are). At least they are biodegradable and wearable in the hot climates where most of our unwanted items end up (if not in landfills).
I look at the price of an item, their $10 jeans a few years ago, for example. There no way the seamstress got a “sustainable wage” to make those. By the time the company bought the materials and shipped it, she couldn’t have made more a than one or two pennies, if that. That’s why I don’t buy silk scarves with hand-rolled and stitched hems, either, why should some poor women slave so that I can have a higher-status item. They probably have to do ten scarves for a penny, why the designer rakes in the dough. It’s just not right, many of these workers are young girls, too! There is too much inequality in the world already, not everyone had the good fortune to be born in a rich country, or be male.
Major charity shops, like the Goodwill, here in the US, don’t even look into the donation bags, they throw them into either landfill dumpsters, or huge sea containers that are shipped to, mostly, Africa for resale at pennies for the pound/kg. Some do get sold, and this can benefit small street vendors, but I don’t like to donate anything that can’t be worn there, either because of its condition or the climate. Polyester can’t be worn where it’s routinely 40C and humid. Many people say they’re donating “to help people”, but it’s obvious they just got too fat for their clothes, or bought really cheap things that they got tired of fast. They also donate things that are broken, stained, damaged, etc. that should be repaired or go into the trash, these agencies can’t do it, they’re drowning in garbage and have to pay to have it all removed. If you want to help, donate cash! You can resell, then donate the money.