Love clothes but love the planet more? There's an app for that

The fashion sector is the third biggest polluter globally, accounting for up to 6-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and isn’t looking to slow production any time soon. We need to take responsibility for what happens to “last season’s” outfit through shifting away from the ‘buy, wear, bin’ attitude of the fast fashion industry. Through access to apps and technology, we can learn about the future transition of the industry, circular fashion. This term refers to designing sustainably sourced, long-lasting products with inbuilt repair or increased remanufacturing and reuse possibilities. The total transition to this state requires action from many stakeholders, but as the industry is consumer facing, behavioural change can play an important role in the transition and be the catalyst for change. 

Procurement (purchasing)

To promote a behavioural change towards more eco-conscious consumerism, we should rethink our purchasing habits. One way we can start to do this is by using apps such as ‘Good on You’ and ‘Buycott’. “Good On You” critiques popular clothing brands under categories covering environmental, ethical and worker policies. It then rates brands from ‘Great’ to ‘We Avoid’ on their level of transparency and commitment to sustainability. “Buycott” allows app users to scan items to see if the brand aligns with their values. It also offers consumers ease of access to petitions to demand better action from brand owners. Although these apps don’t include all retailers, they can help you identify bad practices that are driving fast fashion, such as cheap and low-quality material and unethical labour practices within the industry. These apps can facilitate conscious consumerism, through minimising the information gap between us and the company behind the clothes. Apps such as these encourage brands to shift towards circular practices, through increased transparency and subsequent customer pressure.

In-life (use)

Before moving ahead with a new purchase, it would be prudent to consider repairing an existing item of clothing. This option is often cheaper than buying new and has the added benefits of a lower carbon impact and being an enabler to allow us to keep hold of our beloved items of clothing. Apps such as ‘Save Your Wardrobe’ offer repairing tutorials and contacts for local eco-friendly repair and restoration services. The app also promotes accountability by including an option to upload images of all the user clothing, which enables a ‘tracking your wears’ feature, allowing individuals to be conscious of their use as well as their consumption. As an added bonus, it frequently publishes blog posts about best practices for taking care of clothes. 

End of use

To complete the transition to conscious consumerism, prominent apps including ‘Depop’ and ‘Vinted’ offer options for clothing at their end of use. These apps are already causing waves in the industry, with masses of younger people looking to ditch new high street purchases for vintage and second-hand buys from these apps. This is extending the lifetime (and value) of the pieces they buy, as the end of a product’s useful life for one person is the beginning of a second life for someone else. Furthermore, this will retain more value than if a product was sent off to be converted into rags or to incineration or landfill. It is important to note that despite these ‘car boot sale’-esque apps offering a crucial alternative to disposal, they also continue to bear resemblance to fast fashion; in reality many pre-owned clothes are still being bought on the cheap, worn out quickly and later discarded in the ‘fast fashion’ way. Ideally, these apps should be used to invest in durable second-hand clothing. Until then, the inevitable destination of these items is still incineration or landfill.

Key takeaways

There is no “one size fits all” solution to combat fast fashion, due to the limited information available to consumers and other factors influencing the industry transition. It is important to remember that all options are better than landfilling, and reducing consumption is the best practice to slow down fast fashion for the transition to circular economy. By considering any item we buy and the product's overall lifecycle impact (through the help of these apps and other informative pieces such as The Lean Consumer), anyone can positively invoke change within the industry and become a modern consumer. 

Deciding on a sustainability strategy in the textiles sector, or any sector for that matter, is complex and must consider multiple factors. Oakdene Hollins continues to support businesses by simplifying the approach to an effective sustainability strategy and collaboratively working through the value-added steps; from competitor analysis to define positioning in the market, to alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).