Refashion: Extending the Life Cycle of Clothing and Revaluing Waste

The global apparel industry’s energy intensive manufacturing and distribution of clothing uses vast amounts of water, toxic chemicals and fossil fuels through socially unjust practices while creating dangerous emissions and enormous amounts of textile waste. These negative impacts are intensified by the accelerated consumptive and disposal rates of countries in the Global North. Various solutions under the umbrella of eco-fashion are growing in an effort to address the problems created by conventional clothing, such as ecological sourcing of raw materials and creating clothing out of post-consumer textile waste. Growing consumer awareness is positively influencing textile recycling as well as collaborative efforts to set and enforce industry standards through accurate and informative labeling. Positive changes need to be practiced on a large scale in order to reduce the environmental impact of the global clothing industry