Some Bad News + Good News

also some WTF

Let’s start with the bad…I think it’s fairly obvious but I’ll say it anyways, the bad news is who got elected for the next American president. Bad news is an understatement and in fact it is epically horrible in so many ways it’s difficult to count them all. For this particular substack focused on sustainability within fashion (for now), we can speak to how devastating this is environmentally. During his first term, 2017-2021, his administration rolled back more than 100 environmental rules. What that means for the next four years is something we have yet to see but it will be worse.

Now onwards to the good news because I think we need more of that, now more than ever. In autumn a bill in California passed that is the first step in taking accountability for textile waste. Once it becomes law “it will establish a new statewide program for collection, sorting, processing, repair, resale, reuse and recycling of used textiles and clothing, paid for by the producers of all textiles sold within California.” It can seem mundane at times but these small steps with legislation set a precedent not just for more laws like this but also for the rest of the country to follow. You can learn more about this bill, called SB 707: Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024, here. Two other law similar to this already exist in Europe and hopefully more to come. In France, manufacturers are accountable for the reclamation, recycling, and disposal of their textile products. In the Netherlands there’s a law that requires both domestic producers and foreign online retailers to finance a reliable system to gather, recycle, and reuse textiles. (source) These are great reminders that when we speak to sustainability in fashion, it really boils down to how the textiles are made and then what happens to those textiles later on, as scraps or as used clothing.