Reduce clothing waste by buying less, but better | Letters

Readers respond to an article on consumer frustrations with recycling used clothingRe your article (‘You sold it – now recycle it’: the protesters mailing worn-out clothes to the shops they bought them from, 29 April), a significant percentage of the used-clothing waste stream consists of plastic zips and buttons, nylon ribbons and mile upon mile of polyester sewing thread, which will still be plastic even when it breaks up into microfibre. This is all devastating to wildlife, on land or sea.Incineration plants are used to dispose of much of this modern clothing trash, but they come with a bad track record. Furthermore, the petrochemical industry saw disinvestment from fossil fuel on the horizon decades ago, so its promoters headed towards every other business that could use it, resulting in a huge move towards plastic packaging and manmade textiles, even though it would lead to industrial-scale pollution. Continue reading...

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