You probably even pat yourself on the back for actingsustainably.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but thats not exactly how it works.
I think consumers in the US don’t think about the end, says entrepreneur Kristy Caylor.
We think that if we drop it off at Goodwill, it’s all good….
But there are different ways of handling most consumer waste.
Some are good, some are not good.
It’s just a very opaque process for the most part.
Caylor is on a mission to change that.
But she also knew that real change on a systemic level would happen slowly.
The more acute issue facing clothing waste?
People dont know what to do with the stuff they dont want.
Somebody asked me the other day, what are you disrupting?
I’m like, the trash.
And so Trashie, Caylors clothing recycling start-up, was born.
Launched last year,Trashieaims to provide an alternative to the Goodwill or Salvation Army routine.
Your shirt may be donated to be worn again, or recycled to become a cleaning rag.
The most important part, according to Caylor?
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How did you decide on this approach?
For consumers and businesses, it has to solve a pain point.
It has to create value.
And I was like, we can solve that problem.
How did that change the way you view fashion and sustainability?
The quantity of products that we make at any given time is just so massive.
So that’s step one, we have to do that better and more responsibly.
Do you think we take our clothing, for lack of a better word, for granted?
Theres a human component of manufacturing I think is really important to remember.
Every time I buy a garment it takes three, four, five people to make it.
Why am I not respecting them?
Or the raw materials, the cotton that went into it?
That’s the disconnection.
Theres value there that I think we lost connection to.
And so we toss it.
Whats the disconnect there?
Weve done some focus groups, and the conversation that comes out of those is really fascinating.
It’s like,oh, its cool and its hard.Look what I found.
Theres also a lot of skepticism about greenwashing, people thinking,oh, its all fake.
How do you and Trashie go about solving this disconnect?
The way I think about it and what we work toward is real sticky systemic change.
You have to think about how, again, how am I solving a pain point?
How am I providing a great experience?
How am I putting money back into the consumers pocket?
The reality is Goodwill doesnt need all of our trash.
There will be things in there like dirty diapers or coffee bags, people are not responsible that way.
So that’s happening.
People I think feel like they’re donating to a cause.
Lets donate clothes to Ukraine.
Ukraine does not need your heels, your bar tops are not really servicing that at this point.
Its a filtration system to venture to generate revenue.
Its just a really old model.
What is Trashies model for dealing with clothing waste?
Where we see our role is creating a better system.
Lets create a better sorting and grading system.
Lets create a better internet of recyclers and resellers.
I mean theres an interesting statistic, which is 70% of the worlds population wear used clothing.
We could find a need for a lot of this stuff…. We have a big collection facility in Texas.
Everything that comes in ends up at one of 250 buckets, that many grades.
Then those have different uses.
Some are reused if you might find the market.
Some is recycled, and turned into things like carpet, padding, installation.
Heres some things they brought in.
Where will they go?
A used thin cotton sweater from Zara: This will likely go toward cotton fiber recycling in the US.
We all pay for garbage collection.
I think it was important for us to communicate that….
I think there’s a lot of commitment and pride in opting in and being part of it.
It feels like a very community driven, community led thing.
The products are really fun, thats intentional.
The colors are really bright.
I think it is that relationship that we’ve built that works really well for people.
Your products have a very bright, playful aesthetic.
How did you develop it?
I think the assumption is that if we want to be sustainable, we have to be really serious.
I dont think sustainability has to be packaged and a green box with a natural ribbon.
Is it resonating with consumers?
Stephanie McNeal is a senior editor atGlamourand the authorofSwipe Up for More!
Inside the Unfiltered Lives of Influencers.
