Some people might call me a shopaholic – I think my love for buying clothes can be better described as an addiction to newness. After so much as a whisper of an event or a night out, I can convince myself that I need to head to the shops and get something new to wear. To give myself some credit, I do try to get the most out of my purchases but with a couple of years of this routine now under my belt.
I have accumulated a lot of clothes – and I am not alone in this. According to statistics , we now own 60% more clothes than we did 15 years ago, but wear them only 50% as often as we used to. Between 80 and 100 billion new clothing garments are produced globally every year and it is estimated that by 2050, global clothing sales could reach 160 million tonnes if the current rate continues.
* Check out our Sustainability and Climate Change Hub where you will find the latest news, features, opinions and analysis on this topic from across the various Irish Examiner topic desks and their team of specialist writers and columnists. I realised it was time for change while packing for a holiday. I had managed to create a Jenga-style clothing pile on the top shelf of my wardrobe and one wrong move led to an avalanche.
That’s when it hit me – literally – I have too much, often poor quality, clothing that I will likely never wear again. After taking some bags of unwanted garments to a charity shop, I decided to shift my focus to high-quality items, and started to investigate more s.
