How to stop your sportswear from going to landfill

In the UK alone nearly 10,000 items of clothing are sent to landfills every five minutes.

There has never been a better time to consider our purchasing habits due to the disturbingly high statistics concerning apparel in landfills (which appear to be increasing every year). Here, we want to examine how we might alter our purchasing behaviour and take care of the clothing we already own.

Buy accordingly. Style, Purpose, Sustainability.

A sustainable move in the right direction is to spend money on high-quality, functional items that may be worn to create a dependable wardrobe. We've all succumbed to the temptation to buy a new for a night out, but with £2 billion spent on garments that people only wear once, there must be a better and more efficient way to shop, without endangering the environment.

The best way to offset the "wear it once" mentality is to be cautious of overconsumption and, whenever possible, invest in second-hand and upcycled clothing. Going to your local charity shop or vintage store may get you access to a vast world of buried treasure that you and, more importantly, no one else will have. Fashion trends are changing more quickly than ever and fast fashion trends are mimicking vintage styles every season.

Garment Care 

Taking care of our sportswear can significantly minimise waste. The lack of an innate desire to maintain fast fashion items leads to a never-ending cycle of buying, breaking, and buying new items—a mentality that is bad for the environment as well as one's bank account. Knowing how to care for your high-quality purchases will ensure that they endure as long as possible. Here are some helpful suggestions on what you can do to make sure you are doing the best for your clothing.

• We recommend washing all activewear and clothing on cool or 30 degrees settings and avoid using a high spin setting because, over time, it can harm clothing.
• If pieces require dry cleaning, use eco-friendly dry cleaners.
• Plan your washes around the weather forecast and line dry as often as possible. According to the Energy Saving Trust, the average tumble dryer uses roughly 5 kWh per cycle. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) estimated that in 2020, the average cost for electricity in the UK was 17.2p per kWh. With rising energy costs, 2022’s figure will be vastly inflated.

End of Life Clothing

It's not only the occasional stain or missing button that can cause us to lose interest in our clothing; occasionally, the sheer number of items we own makes it difficult to choose what to wear and inspires the desire to spend, spend, spend.

Understand proper clothing disposal, with landfills as the last resort. Before discarding any clothing, a variety of factors should be taken into account, including...

• Could you donate your unused workwear to specific charity initiatives in your area? Look for clothing banks at your local waste centre or large supermarkets.
• Could your old T-shirt be made into cleaning rags?
• Can your clothes be easily recycled? 
• Is the quality of the clothing good enough to be given to charity or resold? 
• Could an item you have outgrown be passed down to a family member? 

All of the items at Squareco are made from recycled, post-consumer waste materials. These materials vary brand by brand, but our main goal is to stock items that have been made using materials that would have otherwise been sent to landfill, or our oceans. Girlfriend Collective and Wolven both create fashionable women’s activewear and leggings from plastic waste. Buying items which are made using existing waste is a great way to stop the flow of waste heading for disposal. Billy Rainwear have saved thousands of meters of Nylon tents from entering landfill by turning them into stylish cagoules.