ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Hey, I’m Isabella! I enjoy living in Lüneburg and being a part of sustainable development and progress right here at Leuphana.
Fun fact: If I don’t sell my used clothes online, I just give them to my mum. 9 out of 10 times, she loves them!
Hey, I’m Madalina! I’m also a student at Leuphana and focus on sustainability transformations in my studies.
Fun fact: I bought half of the clothes I currently own when I was in 7th grade.
Last Monday, worn out by the post-New Year’s Eve exhaustion, I resolved my first New Year’s resolution: I wanted to declutter my life. Armed with coffee in my left, and a trash bag in my right hand, I bravely faced my messy closet. After I opened the door, a red shirt landed in the yellow trash bag. As I continued looking through my wardrobe, a realization occurred: Half of my tossed-out clothes meant nothing to me. Skirts, dresses, and blouses accompanied the red shirt in the trash bag. Am I a victim of consumerism?
I shook my head to push away that (kind of scary) thought, but the cognitive dissonance set in. I’m a good, environmentally-aware person. Panic set in as I thought about all the money I wasted on my clothes. What would my neighbors say? The thought of having to do a walk of shame down our driveway, being watched by a judgy grandma, made me want to crawl back into my bed and abandon all my resolutions immediately. As my previous motivation turned into regret, I threw the bag on the floor and marched to my laptop. There must be another way to handle this. A way that a good and responsible person – like you and me – would choose.
BACKGROUND: THE ROOTS OF OVERCONSUMPTION
Overconsumption is a fundamental sustainability problem because it is intrinsically connected to the overuse of resources and the production of a lot of waste, but also to values, norms, and (consumer) behaviors in different societies and cultures. Fast Fashion is what you might call the poster child of this phenomenon. It is defined as “clothes that are made and sold cheaply so that people can buy new clothes often” (“Fast Fashion,” n.d.).
Consequently, out of the up to 100 billion new garments made globally each year, 92 million tons are thrown away (Igini, 2023). Let that sink in. At the same time, clothes or fashion are so much more than just fabric making up for our lack of fur – they are a means of expressing identity, belonging, culture, values… the list goes on (Mode Und Textilien, 2022).
It might seem like you cannot do much to solve this problem – and that isn’t entirely wrong. Still, there are local and relatively simple solutions where you can help make a difference – one of them being sharing your clothes. So having a closet filled with clothes you rarely wear doesn’t make you a bad (or at least unsustainable) person, it is your actions that matter. In this blog, we want to show you what that can look like in different places and cultures with different circumstances.
Take a second to think about your current hometown. Do you know what options there are when it comes to the reuse of clothing? Are there any sharing opportunities that you’re aware of? Most of the time, people are unaware of the local solutions available to them. This is why in the following paragraphs we’ll look at two locations: Lüneburg, Germany and Gainesville, US. As you will see in the following, these solutions and their differences illustrate the link between sustainability and culture. But don’t fear, this isn’t going to be a theoretical essay about concepts, definitions, and nomenclature. This is a blog that focuses on solutions and how they can help YOU actually make a big difference and contribute to sustainability.
PEEL BACK THE LAYERS: INSIDE ‚DIE ZWIEBEL‘ LÜNEBURG’S ONION OF CLOTHING SHARING!
Let’s start off by looking at Lüneburg. Lüneburg is a medieval town in the north of Germany that’s historically wealthy and future-oriented (it’s funded by the government and houses a university focusing on sustainability). This is important to keep in mind when looking at local solutions and comparing them to other places (within and beyond Germany). In Lüneburg, there are several secondhand shops – many of which use a donation model and needs-based pricing. However, these are not free of exchange or monetary logic and thus not of interest to us since we are focusing on sharing as a means of reusing clothing. Sharing is also quite common in Lüneburg: there is a gift shelf quite literally in my backyard and there are little wooden houses called “Fairteiler” (a wordplay on the word “verteilen”, which means to distribute and is pronounced the same as this neologism combining “fair” and “distribution”) that are set up for the sharing of food especially. Thus, there are different sharing practices and infrastructures at play: Some are informal (e.g., organized by members of the community in their own front yard), some formal (e.g., provided and maintained by the city), but also virtual (e.g., WhatsApp or Telegram groups). Since we are interested in sharing infrastructures for clothing, our options quickly narrow down.
There is only one clothing-specific sharing institution in Lüneburg: Die Zwiebel (in English: The Onion). Seems kind of utopian and almost impossible in our capitalistic society. Don’t they have to make money to pay their bills? Even if they’re run by volunteers, there are still maintenance fees and other mumbo jumbo to consider, right? In the following paragraph, we’ll address these questions and take a closer look at how this solution works.
One of the main answers is that Die Zwiebel is run by a University initiative and located in a room at Leuphana University. Thus, their modelis supported by the university. This could potentially be a barrier for non-academics who might feel out of place there. Furthermore, it is based on a communal approach and trust basis: People sort the clothes themselvesand everybody is expected to leave the place in an organized and usable state.
Today, I decided to take a look at Die Zwiebel. Entering the room, the first thing I notice is the sheet posted on the door with a code of conduct indicating how the system works. The room is spacious and there are shelves filled to the brim with clothes, some quite organized, others rather messily thrown together. There are labels for organizing the clothes, but not all items are well sorted. Opposite an infographic about fast fashion and sustainability impacts is a small dressing room with a stool and mirror. I’m kind of overwhelmed by the amount of clothes. Some items actually look quite cute! But I’m not here to shop. The room certainly doesn’t look like a well-maintained and sorted secondhand shop, but if you’re willing to do some rummaging and change up your shopping routine, this solution works quite nicely.
GAINESVILLE’S CLOTHING CONUNDRUM: EXPLORING THE UPS AND DOWNS OF CLOTHING DRIVES AND FREE STORES!
My visit to Die Zwiebel gives me a good feeling. I leave with a sense ofhope, knowing that there are organizations that actually care about thesustainable reuse of clothing pieces and do something about it. On my wayback home, my phone rings. It’s George, my old American friend fromGainesville, Florida. After we talk about recent life and news, I share with him today’s dilemma. He is right on board: Buying used clothes belongs to the top three growing categories in the US market landscape,as it fulfills consumers’ requests for uniqueness, variety, and sustainability(World Economic Forum, 2019).
“Have you tried donating your clothes to Clothing Drives?” George asks. Donate. That sounds good – no time and effort involved, but a good feeling about myself included. Is that egoistic? He tells me that Clothing Drives are organized events, where people can drop off used clothing. They may take place in schools, offices, or local communities. The collected clothes are usually donated or sold to people in need, depending on the organization. This is not really a sharing institution, since Clothing Drives only organize the collection and used clothes have to be purchased, even if the price is lower. George tells me that this is the most popular form of getting rid of old clothes in the US. But… Wait! What happens to the clothes that are not sold? In fact, only 10-30% of the clothes given to charity are resold in stores (Franklin-Wallis, 2023). They are more likely to be sent overseas, just as Textile Recyclers like SMART (short for “Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles”) do: This association sends about 45% of their received unwanted clothes to be re-sold in either the US or overseas (Strutner, 2021). Even though this may sound humble to you, think a bit further. Is it really responsible to send clothes through the whole cycle again? Sending clothes to other countries can really hurt the businesses that make clothes. This means people in those countries might lose their jobs and money. This is especially harmful to developing economies, and it just pushes the problem onto someone else!
“Aren’t there any local options?”, I ask George. As I just came back from my visit to Die Zwiebel, I’m interested in his perspective. He tells me about a free store down the street. Once every three months, they organize a free pop-up store. They not only take clothes but also toys or CDs. “How do they finance that? Is it fully voluntary?”, I’m wondering.
“The store has had some problems. I know they sometimes receive donations from the Civic Center, but they really need financial donations (Facebook, n.d.)”, George sounds disappointed. “It’s such a shame that local options are mostly not financially supported and not well known. Most places are maintained by the state. This is helpful because institutions are well-known and have a credible reputation. It makes it easier for people in need to locate. Moreover, it offers job opportunities”. He is right, organizations are more spread in the country and they probably receive more clothes. More clothes means more help for people in need. But for me, it also means that all clothes that don’t get sold might end up in the trash. Is this really a better solution?
PASSING THE THREADS: EMBRACING THE POWER OF CLOTHING SHARING FOR A SUSTAINABLE TOMORROW!
Let’s take a moment and go back to where we started: our journey took us from New Year’s resolutions and sorting out closets, to looking at pervasive overconsumption and the environmental impact of fast fashion, to exploring local solutions like the student initiative run DieZwiebel in Lüneburg, Germany and clothing drives and a free store in Gainesville, US. We saw that the intrinsic connection of these issues and solutions to deeply ingrained values and ideas highlights the complex relationship between sustainability and culture. However, the focus should not be on merely acknowledging this problem but on actively seeking and participating in sustainable solutions. Reuse based on a sharing model offers one of the most sustainable and practicable ways how you can make a difference (Sandin & Peters, 2018). But it’s a solution thatisn’t used by many people. How many of your clothes are used ones? Although – as you’re probably well aware – vintage clothes are in fashion, most of the time when we need clothes we opt for new. This is partly due to misconceptions and prejudice, such as concerns about hygiene which are simply false because, just like new clothes, used ones just have to be washed to be hygienic (Paço et al., 2020). This varies in different cultures. So the next time you’re sorting out your closet or need clothes, try to question your habits and see if you can make use of a more sustainable solution. Then you can actually make a big difference!
LIST OF FIGURES
