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Textiles

The average person throws up to 80 pounds of textiles away every year. Many of these items can be reused or repurposed to bring new life to the materials. 85% of used textiles go to landfills instead of being repurposed, very few pieces get recycled into new material. Textile waste has increased over the past 20 years, and over 15 million tons of textiles are being thrown out each year. Donating or repurposing old textiles can cause a decrease in textile waste, and will benefit the environment because new textiles wont have to be made. Compared to 15 years ago, the average person buys 60% more clothing items per year. There are many stores that sell clothes that have been worn before but are still in good condition; the items are less expensive, as well as, the items are being recycled. Many inexpensive clothing items could be worn one to two times then thrown away and, synthetic materials can take hundreds of years to decompose completely. The inexpensive clothing could be turned into rags, other items to be reused in another form, or donated to organizations to reduce landfill build-up and pollution.The textiles that sit in a landfill puts chemicals into our atmosphere and pollutes it causing greenhouse gasses. Clothing brands will throw away items that have not been sold which causes more pollution. Textiles release CO2 and methane into the atmosphere, 3 to 4 pounds of CO2 is released into the atmosphere per pound of clothing. Resources See also

Sustainable fashion