Posted on 12/14/2024 5:26:49 AM PST by NewHampshireDuo
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, released findings from the federal government’s first-ever report on textile waste in the United States, Dec. 12.
The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) report, requested by Pingree and DeLauro in 2023, examines the environmental impact of textile waste, describes how the rate of textile waste has increased in recent decades, and identifies what actions the federal government can take to reduce textile waste and advance textile recycling.
The GAO is recommending Congress consider providing direction to a federal entity, or entities, to coordinate and take action to reduce textile waste and advance textile recycling. GAO also made seven recommendations to six federal entities, including that they collaborate through an interagency mechanism.
“Textile waste—driven by fast fashion—is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the United States, yet no federal entity is required to address this waste," said Pingree, in a news release. "The Government Accountability Office’s report confirms that fast fashion’s toll on our planet is undeniable. From contributing to greenhouse gas emissions to microplastic and forever chemical contamination, the environmental costs are staggering.
The Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus is developing policy to reduce natural resource consumption and promote reusing, repairing, and recycling textiles, and Pingree plans to introduce legislation next Congress to support and build on those recommendations.
"Together, we can transition from a linear, throwaway economy to a circular one that protects our environment and communities," she said.
Today, nearly two-thirds of all the fibers worn and used are made from fossil fuel products. The fashion industry is now responsible for more carbon emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined, the release said.
Fast fashion relies on cheap manufacturing, frequent consumption, and short-lived garment use. Over the last two decades, in line with the ascension of fast fashion, the rate of textile waste has increased. In 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated 17 million tons of textiles were generated in the U.S. Textile waste is now one of the fastest growing waste streams in the U.S., but only 15% of clothing in the U.S. is recycled or reused, with the rest either incinerated or sent to landfills for disposal, the release said.
Over the past several decades, hundreds of thousands of fiber and textile jobs that once sustained communities across America have shifted overseas, harming American farmers and communities in the process, the release said.
Pingree founded and launched the Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus in June 2024 to create climate-smart policies to reduce, repair, rewear, and recycle textiles.
DeLauro is Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee. Carper is Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and is Co-Chair of the Senate Recycling Caucus.
The Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus?
why? haven’t fashion trends already done that with regularity every time something “retro” comes back? my advice...save those old threads for a future day when they will back in style.
FWIW, I wear what I like and what I can find.
I don’t give a rat’s patootie about fashion.
I’ve got clothes that are 30 years old that I still wear.
I’d love to care about fashion.
But the vast majority of womens clothing retailers don’t cater to women my height and size.
And the few that do...well, the pickings are few.
Which is why I still have clothes I’ve worn for decades.
I could be way off here, but I think this is how it goes:
1) The US, in the early 1800s, adopts British textile methods and becomes a major textile producer, using our abundant cotton crop. This kickstarts our entire industrial revolution.
2) In the 20th century, government taxes and regulations results in much of US industry off-shoring our production, including textiles.
3) In the 21st century, most clothing you buy in the US is “manufactured in Vietnam” or “manufactured in Indonesia”.
4) Donald Trump pledges to Make America Great Again and plans to re-shore a great deal of manufacturing, giving industrial jobs of all kinds to American citizens.
5) Congress leaps into action and promote legislation to make the textile industry expensive, unprofitable and unwelcome here in the US so that all of those jobs can stay in Vietnam and Indonesia.
The ILGWU, or whatever they’re calling it these days, is also a big problem.
Humans in the US have allowed themselves to be priced out of the market.
I’m counting on my closet to come back into style! ;-)
“The Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus”
There’s such a thing???
They should bring me in to testify how I keep clothes for 20 years. I’d be a national hero. I’d happily travel to their hearing if they would pay my air fare, hotel and five star restaurant bill for a few nights.
Number two and five are pretty much it. Trump can pledge whatever he wants, but here is zero chance garment manufacturing - or any similar industry - will return to the USA under the current legal and regulatory regime.
Clothing waste shipped to Africa:
https://youtu.be/bB3kuuBPVys?si=C6SaYqTqe2Rhuj0c
We are a very wasteful world.
I went to dinner with a young lady about 45 years ago who was in the furniture industry. She explained (in all seriousness) that when you order your new furniture it’s the hot, new fashionable style, but when it’s delivered twelve weeks later it is passè and hopelessly out of fashion.
One dinner was all it took for me to know “stay away!”
Fast fashion are deliberately made shoddy. They won’t hold together long enough to be retro. It is kind of a bad trend, not just for pollution but also for being designed for maximum consumer expense. But, in the end, the consumer can always not participate. It’s not like the good stuff isn’t being made, it’s just not the fashion.
Read the article, and the only response that I can find is:
And?
So what?
If the intent is to justify government intrusion and malpractice in yet another aspect of private commerce and the private lives of citizens, then they need to STFU and go away.
I don’t understand what “fast fashion” is
“The Government Accountability Office’s report confirms that fast fashion’s toll on our planet is undeniable. From contributing to greenhouse gas emissions to microplastic and forever chemical contamination, the environmental costs are staggering.”
And we, in Congress, are going to find a way to make MONEY off of this ‘crisis.’
*SPIT*
Apparently this is a thing on the left these days. A liberal lady at work gave a mini lecture about the wastefulness of the fashion industry just this week.
So much for right of women to choose….. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
1.5 — After 1900, there was a major migration of textile manufacturing WITHIN the U.S. from the Northeast to the South … as manufacturers took advantage of lower costs and industrial modernization in that region of the country.
Rosa de Lauro ..... now there’s a fashion statement!
Got you both beat...I have items that are 50-60 years old...one a suit I bought in Paris in 1976...yep, still fits.
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