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This is "Marketplace."
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Whoa.
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Pajamas, old dresses.
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Oh, my gosh!
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Where do all your old clothes
really end up?
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Ultimately, it is going
to end up in a landfill.
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We follow the trail around the world.
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♪ (music) ♪
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The high cost of fast fashion.
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This is your "Marketplace."
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I'm here checking out some of
the biggest fashion chains in the world,
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but I'm not shopping for new clothes.
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I'm actually trying to get rid
of some of my old ones.
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♪ (music) ♪
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So these are my all-time favorite
sweatpants from college.
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These, I washed them
and they totally shrunk.
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These were also super cheap.
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This is just like an old T-shirt.
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It was black at one point in its life.
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♪ (music) ♪
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Some retailers are on a mission.
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They want your unwanted clothes,
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and some are competing
with charities for it.
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♪ (music) ♪
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There's a new bin in town
and the message is clear:
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Don't throw old clothes in the garbage,
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dump them here.
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They'll take curtains, they'll take jeans.
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They'll even take your old underwear.
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♪ (music) ♪
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Drop off old clothes and get a coupon
to save money when you buy new ones.
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But before I part with my old clothes,
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I've got a few more questions.
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These bins sure make us all feel good.
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But are they doing as much good
as we think?
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Look at this!
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Look at these bags!
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Most of us are
like the Bretons and the Palmas
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in Markham, Ontario.
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Somehow, we end up with too many clothes.
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Emily, what's in here?
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Old clothes that are too small for me.
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They purge a few times a year,
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normally dropping
their haul in a charity bin.
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Whoa!
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Stuff like these have holes in them.
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This isn't just a pile of clothes.
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It's now a pile of textile waste.
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And we want to show the kids
just how big the problem really is.
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♪ (music) ♪
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Are you guys ready to go inside
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and see what happens to all
those clothes that you donate?
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- Yes.
- All right. Let's go inside.
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♪ (music) ♪
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Go on in, take a look.
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Whoa!
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♪ (music) ♪
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- Clothes! Clothes!
- That's clothes.
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- Clothes!
- Do you see that?
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- Oh, my gosh.
- Clothes!
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That's a crazy pile.
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And get this, all of this
is what's leftover,
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the stuff no one wants.
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The stuff that thrift stores can't sell.
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All those clothes you guys
piled up yesterday,
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this is where it can end up.
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It's a lot of clothes.
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It wasn't what I was expecting to see.
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One warehouse,
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more than 200,000 pounds
of textile waste each week.
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And that's just from
in and around Toronto.
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Across the country,
we've got nine other locations
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similar to this one.
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The last year or two years,
probably a 15 to 20% growth
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in the overall volume of textiles
that are coming in.
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Tonny Colyn is the head of donations
for Salvation Army Canada.
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So, how do you think fast
fashion has impacted... this?
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All of this.
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It's had a massive effect.
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And all of that stuff has to go somewhere.
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The dads of these two families,
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Michael Palma and Norman Breton.
can't believe it.
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Their coats or boots might be okay,
but they want something new.
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If they need or if they want,
it's a big question.
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A lot of times they want stuff
but they don't need it.
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♪ (music) ♪
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Still, we can't seem to get our hands
on fast fashion fast enough.
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Cheap, trendy, disposable clothes.
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And we're even bragging about it.
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And I ended up with a bag full of clothes.
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We're all buying too much,
400% more, since the 1980's.
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The quality isn't all that great,
but the prices are fantastic.
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But not all of our old clothes
make it to the donation bin.
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Most of it, 85%, ends up in landfill.
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In North America, it's estimated to be
at least 25 billion pounds a year.
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In Canada alone, imagine a mountain
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three times the size
of Toronto's Rogers Centre Stadium
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Where they don't biodegrade easily
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because many are made with fabrics
that can't be broken down,
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releasing chemicals and dyes
into our rivers, soil.
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♪ (music) ♪
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That's part of the reason why fashion
is one of the world's top polluters.
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♪ (rock music) ♪
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So in the last few years,
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some of the biggest names in the business,
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Levi's, Nike, Adidas, Zara,
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have started recycling programs.
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All retailers with donation bins in stores
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calling out for your old garments.
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But none go as far as H&M.
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They will take anything: jeans,
curtains, even underwear.
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Just check out their ads.
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The thing that you never wore.
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This and this and that.
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The thing with the color
that wasn't your color.
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Bring it on.
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This is one of H&M's latest ad campaigns.
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Cut your jeans into pieces
and make new jeans out of them.
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"Cut your jeans into pieces
and make new jeans out of them."
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With your help,we literally turn
your old clothes into new garments.
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"We literally turn your old clothes
into new garments."
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Garments in the worst condition
can be transformed
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into insulation material
or textile fibers woven into cloth,
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reborn as fashionable new clothes
of every conceivable kind.
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What do you think about recycling clothes?
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I think that's amazing.
That's a great plan.
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We're talking about recycling clothes.
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What does that make you
think is happening to the stuff?
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I think maybe it's, like,
refurbish the clothes
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and get them to look new again.
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What do you think happens to that stuff?
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Doesn't it get recycled to make
new clothes from the old clothes?
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Let's shred it into fibers
and stitch it into something new
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The only thing we will not do is waste it.
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Bold recycling claims.
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They sound great, but are they really?
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(Flight attendant over intercom)
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To try to find out,
we head to New York City,
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one of the fashion capitals
of the world...
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♪ (music) ♪
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With jackets, you always
have to check the lining.
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...To meet Elizabeth Cline,
an anti-fast fashion crusader.
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Because of what she knows,
she only wears used clothes.
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It's made her a pro
at assessing cast-offs.
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On a coat, the first thing you would do
is make sure the zippers work.
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Especially fast fashion, like,
a lot of the fasteners will just break
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and chip really quickly.
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We show her H&M's marketing
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and ask her what she thinks about
making new clothes out of your old ones.
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Shred it into fibers and stitch it
into something new.
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The reality is that currently, only about
1% of clothing is actually recycled
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in the very literal sense of the word.
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- 1%?
- 1%.
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1%... is recycled?
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If you're talking about recycling
in terms of taking fibers
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and breaking them down
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and turning them back
into new fibers, it's 1%.
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Why is it so hard
to just take my old shirt
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and turn it into a new one?
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Why can't you just do that?
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A lot of our clothes are made
out of blended fibers,
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so maybe this is acrylic and wool
and cotton mixed together,
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maybe my tights are cotton and elastane.
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That makes it very difficult to recycle.
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The other challenge is that
when you recycle cotton and wool,
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it diminishes the quality
of that material,
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so it weakens the cotton and wool strand
and gives you a lesser product.
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Bottom line, the technology
just isn't there yet.
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It's way too expensive
and too time consuming
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to make new clothes from old ones.
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There's also a more skeptical side of me
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that knows that the reason why
H&M is focusing on textile recycling
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is because it's an easy
sustainability win for them.
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It doesn't involve them changing
their production model at all
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to collect clothes and make sure
that they get a second life.
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It doesn't make the fast fashion
system any more sustainable.
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♪ (music) ♪
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Experts agree fast fashion needs to change
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if we really want to make a difference.
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Remember when fashion had four seasons,
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winter, spring, summer and fall?
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Now, the trends change almost every day.
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Here's how this Swedish clothing giant
CEO explains it.
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We have new garments coming
into the stores almost every day.
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So if you go to an H&M store today
and come back two days later,
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you will always find something new.
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H&M salespeople tell us
new clothes come in
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every Monday, Wednesday,
Friday, and Sunday.
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That works out to half
a billion products a year.
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And it's why H&M's recycling campaign
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makes Claudia Marsales so mad.
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It really is a form of greenwashing.
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She's the head of Markham,
Ontario's waste programs.
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One of the few Canadian cities
to actually ban textiles from landfills.
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In order for the fast fashion outlets
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to recycle what they make,
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it would take 12 years to recycle
what they sell in 48 hours.
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Like it's just...
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So that sort of tells me it's really
more about foot traffic, marketing,
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greenwashing, than about really
addressing the broken business model
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of fast fashion.
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We asked H&M to come on camera
and talk about their recycling program.
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They declined, assuring us
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they don't want
to encourage a throwaway attitude.
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Their clothes are good quality
and made to last.
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And they are working towards
a business model where,
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eventually, all their clothes
can be recycled.
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00:10:10,576 --> 00:10:12,478
At least they're trying?
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00:10:14,502 --> 00:10:17,237
Yes, well, but they're a cause
of the problem.
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So, fast fashion retailers,
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their business model is the problem.
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They're making too much,
they're selling it too cheap.
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It's disposable clothing.
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Doing a bit of back-end recycling
and a bit of commercials
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really doesn't address that issue.
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♪ (music) ♪
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And ask some customers one of the things
they love most about the program?
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It's the discount.
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That incentive to keep buying.
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I put it in the bin and then
they give me the discount.
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I saw it and it's like, oh, snap.
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You know, it's a way to, like,
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you know, help me
and help them at the same time.
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What do you mean when you say help you
and help someone else?
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Help me by, you know, saving money
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and help them
by providing free clothing for them.
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00:11:01,863 --> 00:11:05,741
We just chuck it in the bin
and they did offer, like, a $5 discount.
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00:11:06,232 --> 00:11:08,767
H&M might be collecting your old clothes.
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00:11:08,767 --> 00:11:11,942
More than 55,000 tonnes so far,
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but if they're barely making new clothes
from your donations,
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where do they all go?
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These shoppers have a theory.
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00:11:19,140 --> 00:11:20,140
♪ (music) ♪
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00:11:20,140 --> 00:11:22,848
Where do you think those clothes go
that you put in H&M?
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They probably go to people who need them,
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probably like shelters
237
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or other places that use the clothes.
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00:11:29,243 --> 00:11:33,225
Probably give it for free, or something,
to the people that need it.
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Where do you think that stuff goes?
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- What do you think happens to it?
- Hopefully to just some needy people.
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Who still want to be fashionable.
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Many of us think our old clothes
are given to the less fortunate.
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Wrong.
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00:11:45,448 --> 00:11:47,417
And maybe you're telling yourself that
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to feel better about buying more, too.
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Well, Cline coined a term for this.
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♪ (music) ♪
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00:11:54,860 --> 00:11:56,721
What's the clothing deficit myth?
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(chuckle) So, the clothing deficit myth
is the idea
250
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that when we give clothes to charity,
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they're going to go to someone locally
in our community in need.
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But in the era of fast fashion,
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there's far more unwanted clothes
than there are people in need.
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♪ (music) ♪
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The Salvation Army knows all about that.
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Remember, this is all the stuff
they can't sell at their stores.
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So what do they do
with all these leftovers?
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They sell it to a middle man.
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And the retailers do the same thing
with all your donations too.
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In Canada, H&M gives the money
it makes off your donations to UNICEF.
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Here's the thing.
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All textiles are worth money.
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The stuff that's in really rough shape
is shredded for painter's cloths
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or insulation, for example, then sold.
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But the majority of all donated clothes
are shipped overseas
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to developing countries
and they're sold there, too.
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Not donated or given to needy people.
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And if you think that means
it's not going to end up in landfills,
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think again.
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We follow the trail of your old T-shirts
around the world.
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The black stripes here are from Canada.
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You can't afford to miss this trip.
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This is your "Marketplace."
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The real deal on your "Marketplace."
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We love our clothes.
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Now so cheap, you can make
a different statement every day.
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These things are $3?
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$5.
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But they come with a huge cost.
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Part of the reason why
some fast fashion chains,
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like H&M, say they've got
recycling programs like this.
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The Earth simply cannot bear
so many clothes
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ending their lives as waste.
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H&M has a far better answer.
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But we learnt less than 1% of the world's
used clothes are turned into new ones.
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The majority of those donations
from retailer and charity bins
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are bailed and sold overseas.
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This is Nairobi, Kenya.
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The country at the top of the list
when it comes to buying your old clothes.
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Kenya is one of Canada's best customers.
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In a given year, they buy more
than $20 million worth of our old clothes
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All the rest with the black stripes here
are from Canada.
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These are a variety of kids clothing.
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This one is a jacket.
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Ladies T-shirts.
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Maina Andrew is a used clothing importer.
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People from Canada and America,
they are actually a bit huge.
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Scenes like this aren't isolated.
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You'll see them all over Africa,
South and Central America.
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A lot of this is stuff
Canadians donated for free,
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only for it to be sold here
for profit to vendors
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like Alice Nyansarora Anunda,
who brings it to her local market.
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They call the clothes, "Mitumba."
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No, that one, it's just
a nickname we gave it,
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"Mitumba" means, "Old" in our culture.
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Nearly 13,000 kilometres away.
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But take a closer look and there they are.
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The names you know.
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AEO, Zara, Adidas, H&M.
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The way we open bails, we know their plans
where there's new clothes,
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especially those which come from Canada.
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But Andrew notices many of the clothes
are low quality, tough to sell.
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We just dump them.
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If people don't buy them,
we just dump them.
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They do go in the piles of garbage,
very many of them.
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He says this happens regularly
right behind the market,
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discarding and burning clothes
Canadians don't want
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and neither do Kenyans.
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Sometimes they pack even very old items.
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You can even pack items
that are not even good,
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00:16:25,822 --> 00:16:29,487
and they end up dumping them
in Africa or in Kenya.
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Yeah, we burn them and it is a lost work
because we have already bought them.
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All those popular brands
in the crowded markets,
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Elizabeth Cline has seen them, too.
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She's been to Kenya.
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There are a lot of different companies
around the world
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that are working on textile recycling
in the truest sense of the word,
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but it's really in the very early stages.
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Whether it stays in the United States
or if it ends up in Africa,
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ultimately it is going to end up
in the landfill.
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We tell H&M about this Kenyan market
and all the fires.
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They say its middle man I:CO,
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which handles pickup
and distribution of their bins,
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has really high standards.
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But they are still working on building
a better tracking system
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so this doesn't keep happening.
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Dumping is always cheaper.
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It's always the cheaper option.
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There's only one solution.
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The producer of the clothing
is responsible cradle to grave.
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So they make the T-shirt,
they sell the T-shirt,
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the T-shirt comes back,
they have to recycle that T-shirt.
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00:17:37,455 --> 00:17:39,691
They can't put it in
a third world country.
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00:17:40,032 --> 00:17:43,198
As far as South Africa is concerned,
we banned secondhand clothing.
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When a country survives
on secondhand things,
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secondhand clothes,
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it means there's something wrong
with that system.
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Threatening the survival of
the local textiles industry.
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00:17:52,987 --> 00:17:55,821
And now many of those countries
are fighting back.
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East African countries sent
the world a message recently.
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They don't want our hand-me-downs
and tried to ban them.
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00:18:02,847 --> 00:18:06,255
Their government said it was destroying
their own textile market.
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Secondhand clothes are quite cheap
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and any manufactured textile
would not be able to compete with them.
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And despite everything you just watched,
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Cline says H&M group is a frontrunner
in sustainability efforts.
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Compared to other brands,
they are leaders.
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I don't know what that says about
the rest of the fashion industry,
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that a fast fashion chain
is at the top of that list.
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Just know that your textile waste
is an environmental issue.
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Textile waste in landfills is one
of the fastest growing categories of waste
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and it's such an easy thing
to do something about.
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So what should you do
with all your old clothes?
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00:18:46,224 --> 00:18:48,372
The answers, coming right up.
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Do you have a story
you want us to investigate?
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00:18:52,797 --> 00:18:56,507
Write to us: Marketplace@cbc.ca.
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00:18:59,804 --> 00:19:02,564
The high cost of fashion
on your "Marketplace."
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00:19:02,957 --> 00:19:04,939
Do you ever impulse buy?
Absolutely.
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00:19:04,939 --> 00:19:08,197
What was the last thing you bought
that now you see, and you're like:
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"What was I thinking?"
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Clothing always.
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On average, we buy almost
70 clothing items every year.
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That means we're buying
new clothes every week.
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00:19:18,058 --> 00:19:19,120
What did you buy?
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A lot of stuff.
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00:19:20,792 --> 00:19:21,960
Did you need anything?
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No.
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00:19:23,021 --> 00:19:25,321
Just looking around
and you bought a few things.
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00:19:25,321 --> 00:19:29,570
Yes, I bought lots of things:
leggings, shirts, socks, underwear.
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00:19:30,083 --> 00:19:33,339
Most of these styles will end up
trashed in landfills.
381
00:19:33,504 --> 00:19:38,486
Fast fashion is a big part of the problem,
but we don't have to buy in.
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00:19:38,676 --> 00:19:42,887
So this is 50% polyester, 50% cotton.
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00:19:42,887 --> 00:19:45,910
It's really hard to separate those fibers
and make new stuff.
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00:19:45,910 --> 00:19:46,995
You bet.
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00:19:46,995 --> 00:19:50,635
Do you know how many litres of water
goes into making a single pair of jeans?
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Almost 4,000 litres.
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00:19:51,939 --> 00:19:53,025
Wow.
Whoo.
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00:19:53,025 --> 00:19:54,325
That's crazy.
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00:19:57,162 --> 00:19:58,285
And sometimes,
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just seeing the waste
makes a difference.
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00:20:00,965 --> 00:20:03,802
These families swear
they'll change their ways.
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00:20:03,802 --> 00:20:06,619
They want to look at the cute things,
things that look good,
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00:20:06,619 --> 00:20:08,370
but not necessarily good quality.
394
00:20:08,370 --> 00:20:11,980
We have to... we try to teach them
to use their stuff until it's worn out.
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00:20:13,715 --> 00:20:15,478
Speaking of waste and consumption,
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00:20:15,595 --> 00:20:18,183
I've still got my bag of clothes
to get rid of.
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00:20:18,183 --> 00:20:22,909
I don't really know where
the best place is to go with my stuff.
398
00:20:23,108 --> 00:20:25,052
And I think people at home who see this
399
00:20:25,052 --> 00:20:27,138
are probably going to have
the same question
400
00:20:27,235 --> 00:20:31,663
Some people like to swap the clothes,
so that's the first line of defence.
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00:20:31,663 --> 00:20:33,352
If it's in really good condition,
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00:20:33,352 --> 00:20:35,412
you can take them to a consignment store.
403
00:20:35,412 --> 00:20:39,500
You can also donate to
a reputable charity.
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00:20:39,637 --> 00:20:44,448
Do your research on who
you're giving your clothing to.
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00:20:45,498 --> 00:20:46,871
Don't buy so much.
406
00:20:47,222 --> 00:20:50,321
So bottom line, when it comes
to your used clothing,
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00:20:50,321 --> 00:20:51,378
don't throw it away,
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00:20:51,378 --> 00:20:53,861
try and give it to somebody
who can actually use it.
409
00:20:53,861 --> 00:20:56,254
Hey, girls, does anybody need a T-shirt?
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00:20:56,512 --> 00:20:57,889
No, you sure?
411
00:20:57,889 --> 00:20:59,224
Black dress pants?
412
00:20:59,224 --> 00:21:00,726
Hardly ever wore them.
413
00:21:00,726 --> 00:21:01,793
This is cool, right?
414
00:21:01,793 --> 00:21:02,994
Zipper in the back.
415
00:21:02,994 --> 00:21:04,065
I think I'm okay.
416
00:21:04,065 --> 00:21:06,707
Any chance you want to return yours
and take these ones?
417
00:21:06,707 --> 00:21:07,728
No, thank you.
418
00:21:07,728 --> 00:21:09,939
They're a size small.
I wore them, like, twice.
419
00:21:09,939 --> 00:21:11,059
No, thank you.
No? No.
420
00:21:11,249 --> 00:21:13,350
Do any of you need a pair of pajama pants
421
00:21:13,350 --> 00:21:15,213
or know someone who might want these?
422
00:21:16,273 --> 00:21:17,388
I'll take them.
T-shirt?
423
00:21:17,388 --> 00:21:18,570
I'll take them.
424
00:21:18,570 --> 00:21:20,485
Any chance you want a pair of Levi's?
425
00:21:20,585 --> 00:21:22,531
Sure, size 6, me.
426
00:21:22,981 --> 00:21:24,155
Awesome! Awesome.
427
00:21:24,165 --> 00:21:26,697
There you go and they won't go
to a landfill this way.
428
00:21:26,697 --> 00:21:27,706
No.
429
00:21:28,196 --> 00:21:31,898
Maybe there is no perfect solution
to this complicated problem.
430
00:21:31,898 --> 00:21:34,818
But if there's something I've learned
throughout this process,
431
00:21:34,818 --> 00:21:36,861
it's that there is something I can do.
432
00:21:36,861 --> 00:21:39,784
And, for me, that will mean buying less.
433
00:21:43,834 --> 00:21:47,139
A special, year long
Marketplace investigation.
434
00:21:47,139 --> 00:21:50,316
We go undercover, inside nursing homes.
435
00:21:50,708 --> 00:21:53,311
I was shouting my head off
and they didn't come in.
436
00:21:53,311 --> 00:21:55,514
Families fighting for better care.
437
00:21:55,514 --> 00:21:58,683
Die, die you bitch. You need to die now.
438
00:21:58,683 --> 00:21:59,918
My poor mother.
439
00:21:59,918 --> 00:22:02,887
Has long term care reached a crisis point?
440
00:22:02,887 --> 00:22:04,789
Oh, we're way past that.
441
00:22:04,789 --> 00:22:07,125
I think we've been in crisis for years.
442
00:22:07,125 --> 00:22:09,194
If this happened in a day care,
443
00:22:09,194 --> 00:22:11,538
that day care would be
shut down in five minutes.
444
00:22:11,538 --> 00:22:13,419
How to fight for better care,
445
00:22:13,898 --> 00:22:15,360
On the next Marketplace.