kefkat
Vital Football Legend
Interesting read this, I thought:
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Like many families across Britain, we have a box of clothes sitting by the front door almost permanently, ready to be sent to the local charity shop. But, once we've lugged them down the road, I always feel slightly offended on my daily walk past the shop, because my rather natty cast-offs never seem to make it into the window display.
Now I’ve discovered how unlikely it is that any of the shirts, suits, children’s T-shirts and jeans I donate actually end up being sold in that particular branch – or indeed in any of the charity’s outlets. They are, it turns out, just as likely to be sold on the side of the road in the tiny village of Gyen Gyen in Ghana as on the racks of Marie Curie in Islington.
The strange journey of Britain’s cast-offs is the subject of an arresting BBC documentary. It traces how the rise and rise of fast fashion in Britain has helped fuel a multi-billion pound second-hand clothing industry in Africa, providing countless people with a livelihood, but also – worryingly – damaging local textile manufacturers in these developing nations.
Figures vary, but one study suggests as many as eight in 10 garments are not actually sold in charity shops. Even the Charity Retail Association estimates that 41 per cent are sold on to commercial recyclers, and 4 per cent go to landfill.
Britain is, quite simply, addicted to cheap fashion. Consumers buy an estimated £1,700 of new clothes every year, according to one government agency, and women have four times as many clothes in their wardrobe as they did back in 1980. This means we have more to give away than ever before: more than 350,000 tons were donated to charity shops last year.
Cont: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10961849/The-secret-life-of-your-charity-shop-cast-offs.html
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Like many families across Britain, we have a box of clothes sitting by the front door almost permanently, ready to be sent to the local charity shop. But, once we've lugged them down the road, I always feel slightly offended on my daily walk past the shop, because my rather natty cast-offs never seem to make it into the window display.
Now I’ve discovered how unlikely it is that any of the shirts, suits, children’s T-shirts and jeans I donate actually end up being sold in that particular branch – or indeed in any of the charity’s outlets. They are, it turns out, just as likely to be sold on the side of the road in the tiny village of Gyen Gyen in Ghana as on the racks of Marie Curie in Islington.
The strange journey of Britain’s cast-offs is the subject of an arresting BBC documentary. It traces how the rise and rise of fast fashion in Britain has helped fuel a multi-billion pound second-hand clothing industry in Africa, providing countless people with a livelihood, but also – worryingly – damaging local textile manufacturers in these developing nations.
Figures vary, but one study suggests as many as eight in 10 garments are not actually sold in charity shops. Even the Charity Retail Association estimates that 41 per cent are sold on to commercial recyclers, and 4 per cent go to landfill.
Britain is, quite simply, addicted to cheap fashion. Consumers buy an estimated £1,700 of new clothes every year, according to one government agency, and women have four times as many clothes in their wardrobe as they did back in 1980. This means we have more to give away than ever before: more than 350,000 tons were donated to charity shops last year.
Cont: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10961849/The-secret-life-of-your-charity-shop-cast-offs.html
