I guess we’ve all heard the term “fast fashion”. Styles go in and out so rapidly it boggles the mind. Gone are the clothing shops and department stores of yesterday, where clothing was expected to last. During the last 50 to 60 years, the sales pace has picked up so much that many of the stores and chains have imploded on themselves. Shopping has become a national pastime. And what to do with yesterday’s threads? They are mostly discarded. 85% of all textiles end up in landfills, including items for resale, recycling and donations.

There is a company looking to turn around this onslaught of fashion throwaways. This company is called For Days. (https://fordays.com/pages/take-back-bag).

For Days offers a 3-step program to keep our textiles out of the landfill and turn them into reusable, stylish clothes and other items.

Step 1 – Order a Take Back Bag

Step 2 – Clean out your closet and fill your bag with all your clothing, any brand, any condition. Seriously, ugly holey underwear and socks are accepted, no questions asked.

Step 3 – Earn closet cash credit to spend on circular clothing.

Each Take Back Bag saves 27,000 gallons of water and saves 25 pounds of clothing from landfills and 197 pounds of CO2 emissions. A large Take Back Bag costs $20 and earns you $20 back in closet cash. They accept all textiles including socks, underwear, sheets, pillow cases, towels, linens, shoes and handbags. The large bag measures 24″x24″ and fits 15 pounds.

Take Back uses a circular process to recycle, reuse, and regenerate their clothing. The result is some very fashionable clothing. 50% of all Take Back Bags are recycled into shoddy, rags and insulation. 45% of Take Back are resold, and sadly, that last 5% is trash. But that sure is a lot better than 100%! Every second the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned and it takes 200 years for synthetic and chemically treated textiles to decompose, and, during that time, toxic chemicals are leached into the water and the earth.

Take Back has sold over 35,000 and diverted 170,000 garments from landfills. I’d say that is a pretty good return on my investment of $20. Saving our planet is a priceless goal. After all, there is no Plan B.

Thanks for stopping by,

Cindy

To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.

Wendell Berry