The City of New York's Department of Sanitation is addressing the issue of fashion waste through the city-wide social media campaign #WearNext. By guiding people to places where they can sell or recycle old garments, it's helping eco-conscious consumers live up to their values. We explore the insights behind this and why New York City is helping people dispose of their clothes sustainably.
Globally, 73% of materials used to make clothes are sent to landfills or burned when they're no longer wanted, with less than 1% recycled. In NYC alone, 200 million pounds of clothing – the equivalent of 440 Statues of Liberty – gets binned each year. To address this wastefulness, the Department of Sanitation and the NYC Economic Development Corp. have joined forces with retailers and Make Fashion Circular, an initiative from The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to encourage ethical consumerism. A comprehensive online map of more than 1,100 drop-off locations shows New Yorkers where they can resell and recycle old clothing, and people are invited to share their stories online using the #WearNext hashtag.
"Customers alone cannot fix the fashion industry’s waste and pollution problems," notes Francois Souchet, the leader of Make Fashion Circular. Indeed, for a circular economy to be successful, it's necessary for industries and government bodies to support consumer action, as the #WearNext campaign is doing. With 78% of Americans feeling better when they buy products that have been sustainably made and sustainability at the forefront of young people’s minds, eco-friendly brands like Allbirds are thriving. Yet the disposal of old apparel is often an afterthought, though the resale and rental market for fashion offers one way to address this issue.
Mira Kopolovic is a behavioural analyst at Canvas8. She has a Master’s degree that focused on visual culture and artist-brand collaborations, and spends her spare time poring over dystopian literature.
