“There is currently no local data on the amount of clothing being held in Australian households. Based on data from like countries, we estimate clothing in use to be 3.75 times annual sales, so a total of 1.44 million tonnes.” – ‘National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme’
In our previous article, we learned that I purchased 20 new pieces of clothing (or shoes) in 2021. Let’s dig a little deeper into my buying habits.
2021 What Did I Buy? Do I Still Wear it? And Where is it Now?
Jan
- 4x pairs of shoes (still have and wear 3 pairs, last pair used for garden work once worn out)
- Green dress (have and wear)
- Leggings (have and still wear)
- Pink top (have but don’t wear – should donate!)
- White singlet (have and wear)
April
- Jeans (lost? I am not sure where these jeans are!)
- Top (not sure what top this was!)
- Second pair of jeans (I just about need to get rid of these as I’ve worn them out!)
- Black t-shirt (have and still wear)
September
- Black vest top (wear a lot)
- Jumpsuit (don’t wear often, but do like)
- Dress (still wear)
November
- Navy top (wear a lot)
- Silver top (donated as didn’t like it so never worn it)
- Cardigan (donated as was too annoying to wash)
- Satin trousers (have hardly worn them but like them)
- Black top (not sure what this top was?)
Totals: 16 pieces of clothes and 4 pairs of shoes
The Australian Fashion Council has released the following research findings:
Australians bought 383,000 tonnes of new clothing in 2018–19 – about 56 items per person. 210,000 tonnes of clothing are donated or re-used annually. Very little recycled sourced fibre is used in clothing fabric production.
I didn’t seem to keep a good record in 2022, but so far in 2023…
- Green jumper
- Green trousers
- Second green t-shirt
- Blue jumpsuit
- Black jumpsuit
- Blue hood
6 new pieces of clothing. Considering we are already more than halfway through the year, pleasingly my buying habits are naturally trending downwards.
“The question of whether wardrobe inflow and outflow are matched is not known in Australia, but data from like countries indicates an annual 5-8% increase of owned clothing. This indicates that we are holding more of our clothes in our wardrobes each year. The reversal of this practice may flush more of our clothing into charity and other reuse opportunities.” – ‘National Clothing Product Stewardship Scheme’
If you’re interested look at my wardrobe audit and let’s see how much is in my wardrobe that I don’t actually wear. Otherwise, jump straight to doing your own wardrobe audit.