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Refresh your wardrobe this year while minimizing your impact on the environment. The EPA estimates that the average person throws away 81 pounds of clothing every year. Most of these items are in good shape and can be used again, but end up in a landfill. Instead of throwing away clothing you no longer wear, consider a clothing swap with your friends or finding an event in your area to exchange clothes.

Last Saturday, we partnered with JeLisa “JL” Marshall from the Stylist Way and Remake – a non-profit  organization that focuses on turning fashion into a  force for good – to do just that. We hosted a winter clothing swap where guests brought their gently used cold-weather clothing, shoes and accessories and exchanged items while enjoying locally-made snacks and learning about the slow fashion movement.

According to Study New York, slow fashion is “the movement of designing, creating, and buying garments for quality and longevity. It encourages slower production schedules, fair wages, lower carbon footprints, and (ideally) zero waste.”

Goodwill supports sustainable fashion by reselling items and recycling or repurposing textiles that cannot be sold in store. During the event we spoke to guests about the importance of keeping items out of landfills and offered some staggering statistics about the impact of clothing.

Did you know…?

• It takes 2720 liters of water to make a single t-shirt. (That’s how much we drink in 3 years.)
• 13 million tons of “stuff” gets sent to landfills every year (roughly 80 pounds per person).
• Most garment makers are paid far below a living wage from $97 per month in Bangladesh to $5 an hour in the United States.

What can you do to help?

• Donate and shop at Goodwill. Every year, we save millions of pounds of “stuff” from being sent to landfills.
• Be mindful when purchasing new clothes.  Look for garments that you will only wear once and seek out higher quality materials.
• Challenge yourself not to buy the majority of you clothing new this year. Refresh your closet by donating or exchanging pieces you no longer wear.

All of the remaining items from the clothing swap were donated to Goodwill to give them second life. Buying clothing secondhand helps you saves money, but it also creates less waste. It’s a small act that has a big impact on the environment. Read more about our commitment to sustainability on our website.