The focus on sustainability has gradually become one of the top priorities of the fashion industry. From small to (especially) large brands and corporate groups, initiatives to rethink the production chain, as well as the disposal of clothes, are multiplying every day. However, the amount of waste produced annually by the fashion system is still of enormous impact on the environment: to combat its effects, there are brands that have turned to new technologies on the use of natural and biodegradable materials, but in recent years there has been it was also a real one boom in fashion rental services, to avoid buying unnecessary new clothing items.
The latter appears to be a winning solution in reducing demand but, apparently, it would not be as “green” as it is imagined.
A new study published by Environmental Research Letters in fact suggests that renting clothes is actually even worse than throwing them away, from an environmental point of view: after studying different scenarios for clothing, including recycling, resale and rental, the team behind the study found that the latter would be the least sustainable option for the environment, due to transport to and from the various customers and dry cleaning after each service. Many fashion rental companies, according to the researchers, would therefore abuse the term “circular economy” – the system in which clothes are passed from one person to another before being recycled – putting in place a form of greenwashing.
In itself, the concept of “sharing” of clothes is therefore a partial solution, which should be reviewed and, above all, reclassified. In the book Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes, author Dana Thomas says, “We should think of renting as second-hand shopping. It is not something we always do (…) but when the need arises, as on the occasion of weddings ». Of all the options for minimizing the environmental impact of our clothes, the best seems to be by far the one of increase the number of times we wear them before throwing them away. A route that may seem simple, but which apparently is not at all.
A search for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in fact, it shows how while clothing production continues to increase, doubling over the last 15 years, the average number of times garments are worn decreased by 36%. However, there is not only bad news, especially for the rental of the clothes: the researchers of the study published in Environmental Research Letters they have in fact suggested some logistical changes to make these services more sustainable, from the use of modes of transport to low carbon emissions the possibility of wearing items in stock for a longer period of time. It is also important to remember, with a good deal of disillusionment, that “only regulation will solve this problem”, as Dana Thomas says, because “no company, in any sector, will volunteer to sustain a loss for the good of the planet. They will do it when the law comes ».
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