Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
The average American throws away approximately 81.5 pounds of clothes every year
Global clothing production has doubled in the past 15 years while clothing utilization has decreased by 36%
The fashion industry produces 100 billion garments annually for a population of 8 billion people
The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions
It takes about 2,700 liters of water to make just one cotton shirt
Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of water globally
The global secondhand apparel market will grow 3X faster than the global apparel market overall by 2027
The resale market is expected to reach $77 billion by 2025
Goodwill industries generated more than $6 billion in revenue largely from donated goods in 2019
Consumers today wear items 36% fewer times than they did 15 years ago
Women in the UK hoard $22 billion worth of unworn clothes in their closets
20% of the average wardrobe is not worn
85% of all textiles thrown away in the US are dumped into landfills or burned
Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing (fiber-to-fiber recycling)
45% of donated clothes received by charities are exported to developing nations
Consumer Behavior
- Consumers today wear items 36% fewer times than they did 15 years ago
- Women in the UK hoard $22 billion worth of unworn clothes in their closets
- 20% of the average wardrobe is not worn
- 60% of people say they have more clothes than they need
- 1 in 3 young women consider clothes "old" after wearing them once or twice
- The top reason for donating clothes is "to declutter" (72%), rather than "to help a charity"
- 41% of consumers feel guilty about throwing away clothes, stimulating donation turnover
- 59% of consumers expect brands to help them dispose of old products ethically
- Social media "haul" culture increases clothing consumption by encouraging one-time wear for photos
- 33% of women wear clothing they consider their "favorites" less than 5 times a year due to having too many clothes
- pipeline
- 80% of unwanted clothes are thrown away by consumers directly rather than donated
- 54% of consumers said they would buy more used clothing if the shopping experience was improved
- Consumers keep clothing items for about half as long as they did in 2000
- Only 15% of consumers responsibly recycle their old clothes
- 25% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainably produced clothing
- 9 out of 10 people possess at least one item of clothing they have never worn
- The average person buys 60% more items of clothing every year compared to 15 years ago
- 46% of consumers donated clothes specifically to make room for new purchases
- Impulse buying accounts for nearly 20% of clothing purchases that end up donated or discarded
Interpretation
Fashion has become a binge-and-burn habit: buying about 60% more clothes than 15 years ago and wearing items half as long—often only once for a photo—so consumers now hoard $22 billion of unworn garments, throw away 80% of unwanted pieces with only 15% recycled, mainly donate to declutter rather than to help charity, and expect brands to fix a system where impulse buys, social-media haul culture and rising guilt fuel mountains of waste.
Environmental Impact
- The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions
- It takes about 2,700 liters of water to make just one cotton shirt
- Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of water globally
- Washing clothes releases half a million tonnes of microfibers into the ocean every year
- Extending the life of a garment by 9 months reduces its carbon, water, and waste footprint by 20-30%
- One pair of jeans requires approximately 7,500 liters of water to produce
- The apparel industry accounts for 20% of global wastewater
- Making a pair of jeans produces as much greenhouse gases as driving a car for more than 80 miles
- 35% of all microplastics in the ocean come from the laundering of synthetic textiles
- Cotton farming is responsible for 24% of insecticides and 11% of pesticides used globally
- Buying one used item reduces its carbon footprint by 82%
- If everyone bought one used item this year instead of new, it would save 5.7 lbs of CO2 emissions per person
- Polyester production for textiles released about 706 billion kg of greenhouse gases in 2015
- Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned
- Fashion produces more CO2 emissions than international flights and maritime shipping combined
- Recycling 2 million tons of clothing per year is the equivalent of removing 1 million cars from US roads
- Viscose production is linked to the logging of 150 million trees annually
- The carbon footprint of a garment largely depends on fiber type; wool has a higher impact per kg than cotton due to methane from sheep
- Conventional cotton requires more water than almost any other agricultural crop
- Incinerating clothes releases toxic substances and large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere
Interpretation
Fashion is quietly outpolluting flights, draining thousands of liters of water per garment, and dumping a garbage truck of clothes every second, which means buying used and wearing things longer is not thriftiness but climate strategy.
Markets & Resale
- The global secondhand apparel market will grow 3X faster than the global apparel market overall by 2027
- The resale market is expected to reach $77 billion by 2025
- Goodwill industries generated more than $6 billion in revenue largely from donated goods in 2019
- 62% of Gen Z and Millennials say they look for an item secondhand before purchasing it new
- 16-18% of Americans shop at thrift stores each year
- Donated clothing provides the primary inventory for over 25,000 resale/consignment shops in the US
- The average resale value of a luxury handbag can be up to 80% of its original retail price
- 70% of the world's population uses secondhand clothing
- The US export market for worn clothing was valued at over $660 million in 2018
- Charity shops in the UK raise around £270 million for good causes annually
- Online second-hand marketplaces are growing 21 times faster than the wider retail market
- 40% of standard thrift store donations are resold in the store, while the rest are sold to textile recyclers
- Depop has over 30 million registered users, 90% of whom are under the age of 26
- 53% of Americans have purchased secondhand clothing in the last 12 months
- The Salvation Army operates over 7,000 centers in the US largely funded by thrift store sales
- Used clothing exports from the EU increased by over 75% between 2000 and 2019
- The African continent imports approximately 22% of the world’s used clothing
- Pakistan is the top importer of used clothing from the United States with over $160 million in value
- 33 million consumers bought secondhand apparel for the first time in 2020
- Resale is projected to be 2X the size of fast fashion by 2030
Interpretation
Secondhand clothing has gone from backroom bargain to front row business, as Gen Z and millennials, fast growing online marketplaces, charity funded thrift stores, and a vast global trade in used garments propel a multibillion dollar resale industry that is set to outgrow fast fashion, fund nonprofits, and clothe a large swath of the planet.
Recycling & End-of-Life
- 85% of all textiles thrown away in the US are dumped into landfills or burned
- Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing (fiber-to-fiber recycling)
- 45% of donated clothes received by charities are exported to developing nations
- Approximately 30% of donated clothing is cut into wiping rags for industrial use
- 20% of donated textiles are processed into fiber for home insulation, carpet padding, and raw material
- Synthetic fibers like polyester can take up to 200 years to decompose in a landfill
- About 40% of used clothes imported to Ghana immediately become waste due to poor quality
- The Kantamanto market in Ghana processes 15 million garments a week, many from Western donations, of which 40% are discarded
- Textiles make up 7.7% of municipal solid waste in US landfills
- Most "recycled" clothing is actually "downcycled" into lower value products like insulation, not new clothes
- Biodegradable natural fibers like wool cannot decompose properly in anaerobic landfill conditions and release methane
- Only 12% of the material used for clothing globally ends up being recycled in any form
- 5% of donations to thrift stores are eventually discarded as trash by the store itself due to mildew or damage
- Over 700,000 tons of used clothing are exported from the US annually, effectively offshore waste management
- The EU has mandated separate collection of textile waste by 2025 to curb landfilling
- Chemical recycling of polyester (depolymerization) accounts for less than 0.1% of global textile recycling
- 150 billion garments are delivered out of factories annually, but nearly 30% are never sold and often destroyed/landfilled
- It costs New York City $63 million per year to dispose of textile waste in landfills
- Landfills in Chile's Atacama desert contain an estimated 39,000 tons of discarded unsold clothing
- Mixed-fiber textiles (like cotton-poly blends) are currently chemically impossible to recycle at commercial scale
Interpretation
Donating clothes feels virtuous, but with 85% of US textiles burned or landfilled, less than 1% turned into new garments, and most so‑called recycling just downcycling or exporting the problem overseas, we’re politely shipping our wardrobe’s environmental debt to someone else while pretending we’ve solved anything.
Volume & Production
- The average American throws away approximately 81.5 pounds of clothes every year
- Global clothing production has doubled in the past 15 years while clothing utilization has decreased by 36%
- The fashion industry produces 100 billion garments annually for a population of 8 billion people
- Between 2000 and 2015, clothing sales doubled from 50 million tons to more than 100 million tons annually
- The volume of textile waste generated in the United States rose from 12.6 million tons in 2010 to 17 million tons in 2018
- China produces heavily, yet receives relatively few imports of used clothing compared to other nations
- For every 1 kilogram of cloth produced, 0.6 kilograms of oil equivalent is consumed in distinct energy manufacturing
- In the UK, an estimated £140 million worth of clothing goes to landfill each year
- The sheer volume of fashion waste is projected to increase by 60% between 2015 and 2030
- Pre-consumer waste (production scraps) accounts for 15% of all fabric used in garment manufacturing
- NYC residents throw away 200,000 tons of clothing and textiles annually
- The average European discards 11kg of textiles every year
- Global production of polyester fibres increased from 5.27 million tonnes in 1980 to 53.7 million tonnes in 2017
- 92 million tons of textile waste is created annually globally
- Canada produces approximately 1 billion pounds of textile waste each year
- In Hong Kong, 343 tonnes of textile waste are dumped into landfills every day
- Fast fashion brands release up to 52 micro-seasons per year, driving volume
- Australia is the second highest consumer of textiles per person in the world after the US
- The amount of clothing in the EU household consumption has increased by 40% in just a few decades
- 60% of all clothing produced is made from synthetics like polyester, driving fossil fuel extraction volume
Interpretation
We have effectively manufactured a global wardrobe we barely wear; production and polyester use have ballooned while utilization and durability plummet, micro seasons churn out ever more garments, and the result is roughly 92 million tons of textile waste a year that buries cities, drives fossil fuel extraction, and turns closets into relics bound for landfills.
References
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