Treading (and Threading) Softer - Day 3

On clothes, mail, and friends.

"Every straw counts."

My friends and I made time yesterday evening to catch up and grab a drink. Upon arrival, I was greeted by a chorus of stories. "I declined a plastic bag today after I got my salad at lunch." "Leslie, I used my Nalgene all day today. No plastic bottles!" They also had my back when grabbing me a drink at the bar: no straws, no napkins, no fruit rinds. 

Today was incredibly gratifying. Not only did I officially achieve a zero-waste day, but I also saw the impact this experiment is already having on others. Between text messages from long-lost friends sharing their interest in going waste-free to emails with ideas containing more waste-free alternatives, I am more encouraged than ever.

Waking up, I knew it would be a typical Wednesday: go to work, run some errands, and grab a drink with some friends. Yet still, two unforeseen and thought-provoking challenges presented themselves.

On my way to work, a cute top in a store window caught my eye. So, I popped in. 

Like most orthodox shoppers, I browsed, deliberated, and took 5 items to the dressing room. 2 didn't fit quite right but the other 3 looked pretty good. Contently, I headed to the checkout. And then I realized: the tags.

With deeper thought, the tags were only a fraction of the problem. I was about to add more clothing to a packed arsenal of clothing at home. I was also on the verge of consuming brand new materials without truly considering the long-term waste consequences. After all, all clothes wind up with an expiration date in our closets. 

Trying to pack my closet circa 2010

Trying to pack my closet circa 2012

On clothes, the average American spends $1,100 per year on clothes while the average Manhattanite spends 4 times that amount: $4,400 per year or $362 per month. According to the Wall Street Journal, despite this accumulation of clothing and spending of money, only about 20% of the clothes in a person's closet are worn on a regular basis. And the most disappointing reality of it all? The exhilarating feeling of buying a new items on average lasts about 2 weeks. After that, your "new top" becomes "another top". 

The numbers behind the fate of clothing are staggering. In New York City, clothing accounts for just over 6% of all garbage. That's 386,000,000 pounds (!) of clothes tossed annually. On a whole, America consumes 25 billion pounds of new textiles.

For the purpose of going waste-free, let's assume we are clothing donators with the intention of recycling all purchases to a thrift shop or donating it to a good cause (i.e. Goodwill, Salvation Army) at some point in the future.

In New York City, the Salvation Army alone receives five tons of clothing per day, and they are struggling to keep up with the supply. The sheer volume of discarded yet still wearable fashion illustrates the way we view clothing in our day and age: totally disposable. 

According to the Atlantic, about 45% of donated clothes are worn again. 30% are cut down and used as industrial rags (yep, your Michael Kors dress has a 30% chance of becoming an industrial rag). 20% are ground down and reprocessed as carpeting or insulation. And the final 5% are deemed immediately unwearable and sent directly to the landfill. At the end of our clothes "second life" as a donated item, industrial rag, or carpet, nearly 100% ends up in the landfill.

What about clothes sent to developing countries? It is easy to conjure up an image of a less fortunate child receiving our old tee shirt or barely worn shoes. We contently place our clothes in a damp donation bin, feeling great about our decision to help those living in squalor. After researching what I too hoped would yield a rosy, humanitarian picture, I found a much grimmer, even greedier truth.

Clothing deemed "wearable enough" in the third world are hardly donated. Clothes are shipped in containers by the tons to countries like Ghana, Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Tanzania, and Rwanda. One hundred pound bales of clothes are sold to from the port recipients in country to local sellers. The cost of one bale is about the cost of feeding a family of five for a month in a country like Cameroon. The bales are not opened until after a purchase is made, meaning that the buyer in one of these countries is at the mercy of whatever snap decision was made at a recycling center in America. If a shirt has a hole or a zipper is missing on pants, the buyer in Africa pays for the oversight. 

Photo taken following a "bale sale" in Cameroon as a seller reviews her newly acquired inventory

If these downstream stats don't get you off the clothes buying gravy train, perhaps a quick look at the upstream stats will. China's textile industry accounts for 54% of the world's total. The industry as a whole generates 3 billion tons of soot per year. A single mill in China uses about 200 tons of water for each ton of fabric it dyes; as the global water crisis grows, many rivers in China are dyed "the color of the season" as untreated toxic dyes wash off from mills. 

So, next time you go shopping, first ask yourself if you truly need the item. Otherwise, consider having a clothing swap with friends or family (nothing warms my heart more than seeing my sisters wear one of my past purchases) to give your clothes a shot at a longer lifetime. 

Better yet, there are a number of places in New York like Buffalo Exchange and across America like Crossroads Trading that will buy your name brand clothing. Similar to a consignment shop, you can opt to get cash for your clothes or opt for store credit for even more value. Clothes are bought, sold, and traded locally. This system keeps clothes on the market for a longer period of time and in essence "upcycles" your clothes. 

As for me, the next time I walk past a store window, all I will be able to see are future industrially re-purposed rags on plastic mannequins. 

After work, I headed home and checked the mail. As I weeded through the advertisements, credit card offers, and magazines, I realized I was holding another pile of trash. 

On mail, mail is difficult because you don't have complete autonomy over what you receive. In fact, in America we receive an average of 41 pounds of unwanted junk mail or catalogs per year. That said, there are some practical and creative ways to avoid receiving paper in your inbox:

• For the serious junk mail collectors, CatalogChoice and 41pounds.org can stop 80-95% of unwanted catalogs and junk mail that comes to your doorstep
• Digitize your magazine selection; nearly every magazine has an electronic version that you can view on a computer, tablet, iPad, or even phone
• Credit card companies offer paperless options (great point, Abby!). Log into your accounts online and make sure you have checked paperless on all aspects of your account (bye bye credit card offers)
• For the artsy-type out there, make use of cards or postcards that you receive by hanging them up in quirky places or collaging them into a cooler art piece for your desk or home

While I am on the topic, email is a great alternative to snail mail despite the lack of romanticism associated with it. If you email inbox is clogged up and frustrates you too, check out this amazing start-up: unroll.me. It sifts through your inbox and allows you to unsubscribe to any and all listserves to which you are subscribes (yes, I found out I was subscribed to a defunct Daily Magic Trick listserve). In fact, I was subscribed to 216 listserves and didn't even realize it. Now I am down to 12.

Final thoughts:

Waste-free eating can be challenging as I am learning first hand. I strolled around Whole Foods in the evening and realized that the entire middle of the store and even parts of the perimeter were off-limits. Therefore, I wanted to share my favorite breakfast recipe today, dabble in some lunch recipes tomorrow, and share some dinner recipes over the weekend. Enjoy!

Waste-free "Ola Granola"

2 cups whole rolled oats
1/2 cup raw, whole almonds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2  teaspoon cardamom 
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup real vermont maple syrup
3 tablespoons light agave nectar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Stir together the oats, almonds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, spices and salt in  a large bowl.

2. Combine the maple syrup, agave, and vegetable oil in a small bowl and then mix with the dry ingredients.

3. Spread the granola out on a nonstick sheet pan or a regular sheet pan covered with parchment paper and coated with a little vegetable oil.

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until evenly browned. Let cool and add cranberries. 

Total daily waste: nada!

Tomorrow: how to go to a concert, waste-free.