Each year, over 100 billion pieces of clothing are produced—enough clothing to last six entire generations. However, despite this surplus, 85% of all clothes end up in landfills. To put that into perspective, one garbage truck full of clothes gets sent to a landfill every second.
Statistically, the ratio of clothing Americans buy in 2025 versus 2000 is 4:1, courtesy of the growing fashion industry. Additionally, adults often only wear around 20% of their purchased clothes, leaving the rest unused. According to a recent survey at Loyola, students, on average, purchase ten new pieces of clothing a year, and among those, roughly 30% of them go unworn.
Levi Langen ‘28 said, “Most of the clothes that I buy for school, I end up wearing them for the rest of the year, but if it is for the outside world, it would take a lot for me to continue wearing it for a super long time.”
Additionally, as the LA wildfires have impacted communities, thousands of Angelenos have been rushing to donate clothing to help those who lost everything from the fires. Although this is an amazing effort, many of the clothes received by the clothing drives and wildfire victims are cheap and low quality. These donation drives have simply become a chance for Angelenos to offload their overflowing closets, but much of the clothing is discarded and thrown into landfills.
To combat this issue, local lawmakers here in California have passed the Responsible Textile Recovery Act. The act requires producers of apparel, towels, bedding, and upholstery to implement and fund a statewide reuse, repair, and recycling program for their products.
For Californians, this act will allow them to bring unwanted and even damaged clothes and textiles to thrift stores, charities, and other local collection sites throughout the state for sorting and recycling. This will significantly reduce the amount of clothes going to landfills and allow local communities access to high-quality yet affordable second-hand clothing and goods, including students here at Loyola.
Colin Karasek ‘28 is one of the many students already taking advantage of this act. Karasek said, “I think thrifting for clothes is a more viable option than buying clothes new because it is cheaper and more sustainable.”
Textile consumption is a large part of the pollution California is combating, as each person averages a carbon footprint of about 270 kg, equivalent to the impact of driving a gas car for roughly 500 miles. These impacts can be reversed if policymakers, legislators, and the next generation work to preserve our planet.
The next generation is Loyola students, who hold the power to initiate change to restore and preserve the Earth. As Loyola students are Men for and with Others, we must all do our part to help save the Earth.
