John,
You see hundreds of articles of clothing every day -- in your closet, on advertisements and in display windows, on people walking down the street. But what you don't see are the millions of tons of clothing sitting in landfills.[1]
Some of these landfilled clothes were never even worn. Fast fashion retailers like Forever 21 are overproducing clothes by 30 to 40% each season -- clothing they know won't be sold.[2]
We're calling on Forever 21 to be a leader in the fashion industry and publicly commit to not trashing or burning unsold clothes. Will you join us?
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Globally, only 20% of all textiles are recycled or repurposed, leaving the other 92 million tons of clothing to be sent to landfills each year -- a major reason why clothing and textile waste is the fastest-growing waste stream in the United States.[3,4]
Our waste problem is growing rapidly: Every second, the equivalent of one dump truck filled with clothing is sent to a landfill or incinerator.[5]
And while these clothes are being dumped into landfills, brand-new clothing is on its way to take its place on the racks. This adds even more waste to the system, as manufacturing clothing is highly resource-intensive and generates a lot of climate-warming pollution.
Producing just one cotton t-shirt requires more than 700 gallons of water and releases the same greenhouse gas emissions as driving a car for about 10 miles.[6] These are not resources we should be throwing away without a second thought.
PIRG is working to stop this endless cycle of overproduction and waste. Add your name.
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The fast fashion business model of constantly producing more cheap clothing than can possibly be sold relies on wasteful manufacturing processes and carbon-intensive shipping. The clothing itself is often made from synthetic materials like polyester, nylon and acrylic, which are nearly impossible to recycle and release microplastics into our environment.[7]
The industry needs to start moving in a sustainable direction, and getting one of the largest fast fashion companies in the U.S. to commit to sustainable practices would give it a big push.
But we need all hands on deck if we are going to convince Forever 21 to take action.
Will you sign our petition calling on Forever 21 to publicly commit to not trashing their overstock?
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Thank you,
Faye Park
President
1. Gad Allon, "The fashion industry's dirtiest secret," Business Insider, December 23, 2022.
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2. Aslaug Magnusdottir, "How Fashion Manufacturing Will Change After The Coronavirus," May 13, 2020.
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3. Abigail Beall, "Why clothes are so hard to recycle," BBC, July 12, 2020.
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4. "White Paper: Textile Recovery in the U.S.," Resource Recycling Systems, last accessed August 22, 2023.
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5. "Putting the brakes on fast fashion," United Nations Environment Programme, June 28, 2021
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6. "Textiles," CalRecycle, last accessed August 22, 2023.
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7. Brian Resnick, "More than ever, our clothes are made of plastic. Just washing them can pollute the oceans.," Vox, January 11, 2019.
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