Page 13 - SGG_220316_Teachers_Handbook_Module_4

When it comes to holism, recycling is of course also important. In the textile industry, this does not
look very promising. Recycling in the sense of a closed material cycle does not de facto take place.
Worldwide, A very surprisingly low number of less than one percent (!) of the material used for textile
production is reused to make clothing. Around eighty percent of the used clothing produced worldwide
is incinerated or ends up in landfills. About twenty percent goes through a process known as "downcy-
14
cling," which is the production of rags or insulation material from used clothing.
It's not that consumers don't care about where their product comes from, the environmental impact
of its production, and the working conditions of the workers involved. More and more people are try-
ing to include these aspects in their purchasing decisions. But In comparison to food products, where
already a large part of the European population is concerned about sustainable aspects, the purchase
of clothes is merely connected to a low price. According to the special Eurobarometer 501 from 2019
“around half of respondents (49%) say that clothes should be available at the lowest possible price,
15
regardless of the environmentor the working conditions under which they were made.”
Consuming sustainable fashion does not exclusively refer to buying clothes with certain la-
bels. It may be that no new product is needed at all, because there are already enough
similar items in one's own closet. So the first thing that counts is questioning one's own
needs:
Do I really need this item? If it is then the case that the product is needed, then one can consider: does
the product have to be bought (new) or is there perhaps a clothing swap party in one's own environ-
ment (very modern and popular in German cities) or does someone offer the desired item of clothing
13 second-hand so that I don't have to order it?

14 https://www.bmuv.de/themen/nachhaltigkeit-digitalisierung/konsum-und-produkte/produktbereiche/mode-und-texti-
lien#c38787
15 https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/ebsm/api/public/deliverable/download?doc=true&deliverableId=72423, page 2