Is the renting of clothes really that sustainable?
Fast fashion is currently manifesting a linear economy. Unfortunately, fast fashion is easily accessible as there is an abundance of cheap products in the marketplace. This leaves the customer in a predicament. Unfortunately, buying long-lasting clothing items (slow fashion items) can be more difficult than buying fast fashion items.
The fashion industry is the cause of 10% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. It has been found that 87% of discarded textiles end up in landfills or incinerators, and less than 1% is being recycled into new clothing pieces. Currently, there is no pressure for the textile industry to implement more sustainable practices if there isn’t a growing demand for higher-quality products by consumers.
With these statistics, many companies are trying their best to create a circular economy and reduce the impact that the fashion industry has on the environment and climate change.
What about rental?
A recent study done at a university in Finland has found that the renting of clothes isn’t really that sustainable.
In the Finland study, the life cycle assessment was used. They compared the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of five ownership and end-of-life scenarios for creating as well as using a pair of jeans. These scenarios are:
Base (basic use with waste disposal)
Reduce (using the clothing item for a longer time)
Reuse (re-selling)
Recycle (industrial processing into new raw materials)
Share (using a rental service)
The results have shown that the lowest global warming impacts are achieved in the “reduce” scenario, where you use your clothing item for a longer period of time. They also found that the “share” scenario had the highest global warming impact.
The hidden costs which affect climate change were found to be the delivery and the packaging of the clothing items. Renting clothing pieces involves a big amount of transportation. The clothing pieces need to travel back and forth between the warehouse and the renter. The cleaning process of the clothes and the chemicals used in dry cleaning are also harmful to the environment.
The rental of clothing has been thought to be more sustainable and there are many big names in this industry. A report done by the World Economic Forum suggested that the renting of the clothing industry generates 5% of the global emissions.
The rental solution
Dana Thomas, author of Fashionapolis stated that the renting of clothing should be compared to second-hand shopping. The renting of clothing is not something that a person does all the time, it may only be for an occasion now and then, such as weddings, parties, etc.
The Finland study also found that many of the clothing rental companies misuse the term circular economy, as a form of greenwashing.
How does Kleiderly contribute?
At Kleiderly, we create a circular economy by using our patent-pending process. We recycle unwanted textiles into new material. This material replaces oil-based plastics and can be used to produce anything! We are currently producing our own eyewear range.
By doing this we save textiles from landfills and incinerators, and we replace the need for plastics at the same time.
Our clothing is sourced locally which reduces the amount of transportation, and our materials and products are made in Europe.
Sources:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abfac3/pdf