Salvation Army

EXCURSION TO THE SALVATION ARMY.

The warehouse was neatly congested with boxes upon boxes, bags upon bags and mattresses against mountains of toilet paper. This is where it became apparent to me that the fashion industry produces trend after trend for each season of each year and as the new season is released, last years season is no longer loved, but pre- loved and buried within a bag in a warehouse like this, hoping for a second chance, or treated as waste, dumped in landfills. With companies producing mass replicas of high end fashion, at a lesser quality and cheaper price point the era of disposable fashion is born, the fast fashion garments are what filled these crates and industrial hessian bags before me that day.

Referring back to the week 2: Reuse Recycle ppt. Clothing and textile waste in the UK is 2.3 million tonnes- 40kg per person with 1/4 recovered (13% material recovery and 13% incinerated to recover energy) (Feltcher 2008) The remaining 3/4 (30kg) per person goes to landfill and as they break down produce methane emissions among other pollutants that are emitted to air and also make their way into groundwater (Fletcher 2008).

When i stood before the mass of clothing that filled this warehouse these statistics became real to me. Sub- conciously i began bickering to myself, if we did not have such a fast pasted industry the masses of clothing before me could be halved. Therefore halving the material and energy used initially, and then waste that goes to landfill. If companies weren't ripping off high end fashion, using fabrics that did not keep their shape and selling high end designs/ trends at a low price point these garments would not be so easily disposed of.

As a designer this experience was an eye opener, i have since been into op shops where i have been collecting garment after garment, envisaging the potential to up- cycle the material, to hopefully result in a more successful second life. I believe that by producing a one of piece, the garment will be appreciated, loved and admired to the point where the buyer could never part with it.Therefore the garment would never add to the textile waste statistics. As a consumer, only yesterday I was walking threw Endeavour in Paddington thinking to myself, if i don't buy these garments, who will save/ stop them from being treated as waste and adding to the masses dumped into landfill yearly. I was fretting to the point that I must have had SUCH a distressed look on my face, for the volunteer behind the desk to notice and ask, "Are you okay... You look overwhelmed". It is quite clear that I have been impacted and inspired by this excursion and this semesters theme of sustainability already. In the future i hope to incorporate the second hand clothes by up- cycling and creating 'one of pieces' that will be LOVED, no longer pre- loved.

SALVATION ARMY WAREHOUSE REDHILL

The Salvation Army provide a service to help the homeless, the poverty stricken families and the elderly, supplying shelter, clothing and household items at a far less then reasonable price. Please donate your unwanted clothing, mattresses and furniture to the Salvation Army, to help the charity and stop waste being dumped into landfill. The red bins that were once available to secure donations have been taken off the streets of Brisbane. Once a charge was enforced to dump trash at the tip, the red Salvation Army bins became a dumping grounds for human waste, dead pets and grass clippings, the bins have been removed for the health and safety of those volunteers who sought threw such 'donation' bags. Make your donations to your local Salvation Army store.