JOHN CRAWFORD
JOHN trained at Saltcoats Burgh in the late 60s. After a decade he moved to PD Beatwaste Ltd/ Wimpey Waste Management Ltd. He then joined the Civil Engineering Dept at Strathclyde University before posts at Renfrew, Hamilton, Inverness and
East Ayrshire Councils. A Fellow of CIWM, he served on their Scottish Centre Council from 1988-2009. He is a Fellow of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland and was their President between 1991-92.
Money for old clothes?
I readily admit I rely on my wife to guide me on what to wear as I am so often told ‘if you think I’m going out with you dressed like that, think again!’
The waste management bear that drives me can’t help being drawn to all the new ideas for reducing the environmental impact that modern living generates, the latest being proposals to make the fashion industry more accountable. I’m all for supporting anything that reduces waste, but got a bit agitated recently when I read about our ‘under-use of clothes.’ As usual, some ‘expert’ has estimated (but hasn’t provided us with any supporting calculations) that we’re ‘getting rid of over a million tonnes of clothes worth £140m to landfill every
Irrespective of market
niche, it relies on people buying new clobber on a regular basis.
54
year’ and we ‘should be extending the lifetime of our garments.’
The politician who chairs the research group that came up with this idea says ‘children should be taught the joy of making and mending clothes in school as an antidote to anxiety and the mental health in teenagers. Consumers must play their part by buying less, mending, renting and sharing more’.
Fair enough but as my allocated three score years and ten approaches me over the horizon, I recall a childhood when I was glad to wear hand-me-down clothes from older relatives, especially those whose parents had emigrated to the USA and Canada.
My late mother was adept at repairing, patching and darning my clothes when I’d damaged or worn them out. We children never thought anything of it but in hindsight she probably felt there were better things for her to be doing at the time. But eventually we were able to afford replacement clothes rather than continually having to repair our old ones and in our case these were then cut into rags to be used in my father’s workshop, so we didn’t throw all that much out.
But what about the fashion industry itself? Irrespective of market niche, it relies on people buying new clobber on a regular basis. Fashions also change: the
drainpipe trousers of the 60s gave way to the bell-bottoms of the 70s and that was only for men! So this idea that we should all stop buying new clothes might not be so wonderful if it then has an adverse impact on the rag trade economy. Our high streets are already under pressure from online shopping and really don’t need anything else that might jeopardise jobs in their industry.
It’s not clear if the promoters of this new ‘strategy’ have taken into account the amount of clothes that are donated to charity shops and recycled (arguably re-used - some possibly several times) when they made their calculations?
Anyway, how do you ‘value’ second hand clothes, apart from using the trusty adage ‘it’s only worth whatever anybody is prepared to pay for it’? But can you compare an unwanted coat that originally cost around £100 with a T-shirt made in some Asian sweatshop?
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
