Platzt aus allen Nähten: Irisches Problem mit Textilmüll

I used to think that those clothes recycling bins were for recycling of the materials, the same as for bottles, packaging etc. So I shouldn’t have put any of my old clothes in there, since I tend to wear clothes until they fall apart. I think they need a better word than “recycling” for clothes that are still wearable.

We need to cut down on consumption full stop. The capabilities of recycling have been massively overblown. People need to stop wasting material by buying an entire new wardrobe every season, and buying stuff wrapped in plastic. Less than 10% of plastic recycling actually gets recycled.

Out of the 4 Rs recycling is the LAST step on the list, but a lot of people seem to place it first and think it doesn’t matter if they waste plastic so long as they put it in the green bin after…

**1. Refuse:** don’t buy plastic in the 1st place.
**2. Reduce:** if you have to buy plastic buy as little as possible.
**3. Reuse:** use it as much as possible before throwing it away.
**4. Recycle:** if you have to get rid of it then try to recycle it as a last resort. Recycling still isn’t great, but it’s better than a landfill (or the middle of an ocean).