What’s in your closet?

We British like keeping things in our closets (chiefly skeletons, if you believe our popular media). But we also use them to store unused clothes – an incredible $45 billion worth, according to a comprehensive study listed this week by the government waste watchdog Wrap. If it’s to be believed, of the $6,000 of clothes the average Brit owns, 30% are never worn, chiefly due to size changes, and instead of being productively moved along (either sold, recycled or donated) they linger, uselessly cluttering up our storage spaces.

Are we typical? Not compared to the United States. According to Tebea Kay at GOOD, Americans now keep just a fifth of the clothes they buy every year and throw out a whopping 68 pounds of clothing & textiles per person. It’s arguably the price of remaining fashionable, but what happens to the 80% of America’s clothes that head out its door? Valuable items get resold, damaged ones get turned into scrap material for recycling, and between them is the booming worldwide trade in used clothing.

So who do you go to when you move your clothes along? If you regularly take advantage of an inundation of charities leaving plastic sacks for you to fill and them to collect, beware. For the last decade Britons have been battled what has been termed the “great charity collection scam,” a set of bogus companies collecting donated clothes in order to sell them overseas for an entirely uncharitable profit. Nobody knows how much money has been ripped off the unsuspecting public in this way, but it’s sure to be in the millions.

The best advice is simple: make sure you clearly identify who you’re donating your clothes to. The best place for that? A high street charity shop or thrift store, where you’ll know exactly what happens next.

Image: M Car

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In Britain, the amount of yearly food waste can fill London’s Wembley Stadium.

Here’s something humiliating.

I’m a Brit. (That’s not the humiliating bit. Bear with me). We’re so careless with our groceries that we throw away around a third of them each year – at a total cost of $20 billion. Appalling, dreadful and…unreal. Yes, that’s the word. Look at that figure: $20 billion. Try to imagine it for a second, there in the room with you. Bet you can’t. I’ll bet even the Donald would struggle with it. It’s an abstraction that means nothing except to economists and…well, that’s about it.

What’s so may-the-ground-swallow-me-up humilating is this: the people of WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign just made that number real. In a number of events across the north of England over the last six months, they’ve  taken the amount of food the average British household tosses away in one year, cooked it up, and fed it to 1,000 hungry students. Of course, even students would draw the line at eating that banana I threw away in January, so this food was donated by regional food distribution charities like Food Aware and Real Aid, and the chosen menu focused on big, hearty dishes like vegetable curry and rhubarb crumble. Think Jamie’s School Dinners and you’d also bag the educational side of it – each event featured demonstrations on ways to turn limp leftovers into full-flavored feasts.

Back to $20 billion. How much food is that? Well, you can’t fit it into one room. In fact, you’ll need to fill London’s Wembley Stadium.

…8 times.

That’s a lot of food.

Images: Cushdy, mhaller1979.

The post What Does $20 Billion In Wasted Food Look Like? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Better hope the lease isn’t up on the crystal stemware when your mother-in-law comes over for dinner.

Is encouraging citizens to rent, rather than own, household possessions the “secret weapon” countries need in order to meet their climate change targets?

Yes, according to WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), the British Government’s waste watchdog. The recently released WRAP report has found that if households shifted a fifth of their spending from purchasing to renting, there would be a 2 percent (or 13 million tonnes) reduction in CO2 emissions each year. We smell a micro-trend.

WRAP has identified these five categories of household items that should really, for the sake of the planet, be rented rather than purchased.

High-end clothing and accessories. Celebrities do it so why shouldn’t we? Renting from sites such as Bag Borrow or Steal, From Bags to Riches, Borrowed Bling, and Rent the Runway instead of buying not only saves you cash and clutter. It also lets you keep up with quickly changing trends.

Glassware and tableware. Keep the everyday glassware and tableware, but forget about stashing away a special occasions set of china. These can be rented as needed from local party and catering rental companies.

Tools and equipment for house and garden. A garage full of tools and machinery might look impressive but they are only taking up space if you only use them once or twice a year. Better to locate the nearest tool lending library and rent what you need when you need it.

Vehicles. For many of us (myself included), it’s hard to imagine not owning a vehicle. But not having one could be the answer to cash and space problems. Alternative options include car sharing, renting, and leasing.

Telephone, audio and recreational equipment. The problem with the continuing advancements in technology is that everyone rushes out to buy the latest gadgets as soon as they hit the market, regardless of whether or not they need it. As a result, people often throw out old phones and electronic equipment that still works, creating e-waste disposal problems.

Renting instead of buying makes senses really. After all, how many times have you bought something, only to use it briefly and then pack it away in a cupboard and drawer? If, instead, you were to rent it, use it and then return it, the item would soon be available for someone else to use.

As a result, less items would need to be produced and there would be less waste. Just don’t bounce the rent check, or it’s repossession of the china for you.

Images: tiffa130, quinn.anya, huzzahvintage

The post Renting Is the New Buying: From Cars to Clothes, Bags to Bling, Leasing Cuts the Cash and Carbon appeared first on EcoSalon.