In the world every year more than 80,000 million pieces of clothing are sold, companies such as Zara and H & M by imposing the consumption of "Fast Fashion" has caused this waste to increase, since tons of "old" clothes are accumulating each time more and more and nobody knows what to do with them. This problem is already alarming the manufacturers themselves.

Every year and the seasonal rituals make everyone have to change their wardrobe, and many times we ask ourselves questions such as how many times will I put on that piece of clothing? What material will this shirt be that is not hard or two washed? is that I have so many clothes that I do not use, what do I do with it ?, ironically many times we suffer dilemmas with clothes. This is a global problem considering the textile industry as the second most polluting in the world and being responsible for 20% of toxins that are discharged into the water.

In countries like Spain for example, a citizen gets rid of about 7 kilos of clothes per year, and in the United States they get rid of about 35 kilos of clothes, this is too much cloth. All these clothes are direct to the landfill, there are options like reselling, recycling, donating but this has already gone out of hand in many countries, finishing 75% of our clothes in the garbage.

The big problem is limited to: Fast Fashion that implies an indiscriminate consumption of clothing imposed by large textile chains. Something that did not exist for example in the 90's because today we buy four times more than at that time.

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Why does this happen?

Clothing today is much cheaper, due to a relocation created by more than 250 thousand factories that are mostly in Asia. This fashion phenomenon is complicated and Zara was one of the first stores to introduce new designs twice a week, dynamiting the concept of "season" nowadays people want to be caught by the store and buy something. With this, clothing has become a product that expires, it does not last for years nor is it inherited between family; The idea now is that people have or feel the need to buy more and more.

The quality of the clothes and the price play a fundamental role being much cheaper nowadays and much more bad, before they made eternal clothes, nowadays the delay also comes into play, can you make a 3 euro shirt without keep a worker in bad conditions? this is one side of the problem and the other side is the impoverishment of the middle classes in the developed world (let's not talk about the underdeveloped world because we cry), at least they have the consolation that they can still go shopping?

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Activists responsible fashion as "Livia Firth" summarizes that we have sold a myth that buying a garment for less than 10 dollars is something democratic but how? every time we discard clothes faster. We are stuck in microtendencias purchases, this clothes could be said to be designed to last about 5 weeks to be thrown away, all this is an unsustainable model.

What can we do?

The main thing: do not throw the clothes to the dumpster, unlike food waste, clothing is not used to do things like composting, it even has chemical compounds that can break off and end up in the groundwater tributaries, the burning of the clothes either It is a good idea because toxins are released into the air, organizations like Greenpeace have up to 11 chemical substances of dangerous origin that can remain in the environment that can even affect our immune system and our fertility, in short, the discarded clothes should be treated as a waste dangerous, synthetic fibers are not even biodegradable and contribute to global warming since oil is needed to be manufactured, cotton represents levels of contamination at the crop level since 18% of the pesticides used in these crops are concentrated in the planet and 25% of the insecticides.

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What if I revend the clothes?

It is an excellent idea, but this lasts a short time in addition to the fact that the second hand market is quite tight, the supply exceeds the demand and it is predicted that this sector may end if the quality of the clothing is still so low.

What if I donate the clothes?

This would be great if you do it on your own, because many times the NGOs allocate those clothes from 20 to 40% to the needy, depending on their capacity, this is also something that happens, nowadays there are not so many people in need of clothing in developed countries, usually these donations go to second hand stores of them.

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And donate clothes to other countries?

A percentage of the used clothes goes to small cities of the half world, the intermediate quality to countries of South America, clothes for cold to Eastern Europe and what nobody wants (as it is read) to Africa. In the 80's many African countries abandoned their protectionist policies and began to receive used clothing, as this was cheaper they began to seize the market. In 2004, 80% of the clothes purchased in Uganda were second hand, resulting in the end of the textile industry in this country due to this saturation. Even today, countries such as Kenya, South Africa or Nigeria have prohibited the importation of this type of clothing, and although it sounds positive, a new trend has been created; that is the use of new clothes brought from China that is undoubtedly much cheaper, which translates into much more waste.

And what do you do with the clothes that you no longer use? Let's make this world, a more conscious world, share and comment!

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@raquel.ramirezv