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Wearing Clothes From H&M, Garage, Forever 21, Etc.? Here's Why They're Terrible for the Environment

Activism
by Morgane Croissant Mar 2, 2016


I volunteer at a Women’s Centre where there is a free clothing store for women in need. We receive clothing donations, put the ones that we deem good enough on our shelves, and recycle what we can’t use.

The town I live in has a population of about 10 thousand people, yet, we are almost unable to manage the amount of clothing donations we receive — we get garbage bags after garbage bags filled clothes, most of which are in perfect conditions.

These clothing items almost always bear the same labels: H&M, George (the Walmart clothing brand), Garage, Forever 21, Joe Fresh, J.C. Penney, etc.

Everyone who’s been to any of these stores know that you can get a top for $5, 10 baby onesies for less than $10, and pants for about $20; all of which seem like good deals, but on the long run these items prove to be a waste of your money and terribly bad for the planet.

Not only will you probably not keep these clothes for very long, but many of you won’t get rid of them in an ecological manner. According to Grist, “Every year, Americans buy 20 billion new items of clothing and send 10 million tons of clothing to the dump”.

In this video, Grist sums up our shopping problems and will make you think twice before buying clothes just because they are affordable. Give it a watch and change your shopping habits.

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