Metrics

Around 1.8 million tonnes of clothing - 28 kg per person - enter and leave the national UK wardrobe each year. This includes .35Mt of clothing going to landfill each year, the equivalent of 33 t-shirts per person in the UK [1]. An increased re-use of clothes would reduce this waste, as well as provide environmental benefits by displacing the need for new clothing. For example, a recent study found that every tonne of re-used UK clothing and household textiles provides an average net carbon saving of four tonnes (CO₂eq) [2].

^1. WRAP, 2012, Valuing Our Clothes
^2. McGill M, Thomas B, Voulvoulis N, Gronow J, 2010, Streamlined carbon footprint analysis of post-consumer clothing and household textile re-use and recycling

Image credit: WRAP - Valuing our Clothes