Figures on textile waste

Short answer: The figures vary greatly between countries and reports, and they are hard to compare. What you can measure at home is how many garments you discard yourself in a year.

Why the figures are hard to read

Some reports count all textiles, others only clothing. Some count what is collected, others what is sold. Two figures from two sources therefore cannot be added together. That is the main reason the figures look so different, and why you should be careful about comparing them directly.

What is counted

Textiles include more than clothing. Bed linen, curtains, towels and blankets may be included in some reports and left out of others. When you read a figure, find out what was counted before you use it for anything. Without that definition the number can say almost anything.

Collected or sold

What is sold is not the same as what is discarded, and what is collected is not the same as what becomes waste. Weight and number of garments are also two different ways of counting. A figure in kilos and a figure in pieces cannot be compared without more information.

What you can measure yourself

Count how many garments you discard in a year, and how many times you had worn each of them. Those two figures say more about your own wardrobe than any national statistic. See bamboo loungewear for women if loungewear is where you want to begin.

How to count

Use a list on your phone or a piece of paper in the wardrobe. Each time you sort out a garment, write down what it was and why it was discarded. After a year you have a figure you can trust and a pattern showing what you most often wear out or give up on.

Wear per garment

Also count how many times the garment was worn, as best you can. You need not be exact, a rough estimate will do. A garment worn only a few times tells a different story from one worn to the end. That is the difference that overall figures hide.

What the figure is good for

Seeing whether something is discarded too early. If the same kinds of garments keep returning, you can change what you buy or how you care for it. See bamboo training clothes for women and offers if you need to replace something worn out.

What to watch out for

Do not draw large conclusions from one year or one garment. A year with a move or a new job can give a misleading picture. Add it as a note, so the figure does not stand alone and pretend to say more than it does.

From figures to habits

A figure changes nothing by itself. It gains value when you use it to ask a better question next time you hold something in your hand, namely how long you wore the last one. Small questions asked early do more than large ones asked too late.