The Shirt Off Your Back

[digitaldiscipline]

"Fashion Victim" details a cycle of manufacturing and eventual waste that's escalating year by year to feed our constant demand for new things to put on our backs. (Lee reports that each year 4 million tons of clothing and other textile waste are dumped into U.S. landfills; the average American contributes almost 68 pounds to that total.) *

I think we all agree that I'm not normal. You know how much clothing I got rid of last year? A dozen pairs of socks & underwear and three towels, because they were worn out, and two t-shirts that K shrunk and now wears.

Seventy fucking pounds of clothing? I might be able to do that, once, if I realized I'd never move back north and got rid of all my heavy stuff, anything that doesn't get worn but is held onto for sentimental reasons, and most of my "nice" clothing.

[from salon.com - put up with a tree-hugger commercial to view the entire article]

Comments

[katyakoshka.livejournal.com]

What tree-hugger commercial?

Kidding. I thought the book looked interesting for more than just noting how wasteful we Americans are (on average); it was refreshing to see someone actually commenting on the blandness of fashion in this country, even in the higher price ranges.

Though the comment about black pants... heh, I actually only have one pair. It's all about the wash-n-wear skirts.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

I agree that that seems a bit much; however, you might be surprised how little that really is. a stuffed larger suitcase can weigh about 70 pounds pretty easily. I imagine they've also included manufacturing waste in there too.