A common TikTok trend that shows people dancing along to a cheery tune to showcase their new outfits was repurposed in a clever — albeit disheartening — way to highlight the impact of textile waste.
Waste and slow fashion educator Chemitei (@chemiteijanet) posted the video on Instagram. "This trend, but I talk about textile waste in Kenya," she wrote, sharing a video of her dancing on heaping piles of discarded clothes, beside bundles of countless items, and on top of a landfill with several fires burning and smoking in the background.
"Where do you think clothes end up after you donate?" she explained.
Commenters were horrified at the stark reality. "I wish more people knew the dangers of fast fashion," one person wrote. "[Companies] like Temu, Shein, Amazon should be ashamed for large contributions of textile waste and poor labor conditions for humans."
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"This is why I am learning sewing so that I can mend clothes I have," another wrote. "In the past I assumed donated clothes are given to needy or to thrift stores. … I guess it's pretty clear that only thing we can do is buy less."
It's a sobering reality that's playing out around the world, not just in Kenya. Of the 16 million tons of textile waste produced in the United States each year, a shocking 10 million tons of it ends up in landfills, according to Green America, while an additional 3 million tons are incinerated.
And even in thrift shops — where many environmentally conscious consumers donate their old clothes in an attempt to keep them out of landfills — a vast majority of donations actually do end up going right to the trash in places such as Kenya, according to The Washington Post. These clothes end up leaching chemicals into surrounding ecosystems and water supplies; when they're burned, the chemicals escape even quicker, according to Earth Day and BBC Earth.
As knowledge of this reality grows, more people are encouraging others to abandon both fast fashion and thrift shops as much as possible. "Don't buy new clothes, fix or mend clothes you have," one person commented. "Even if you don't use it anymore, recycle them to become rags. If you really have to buy, buy from secondhand/thrift shops don't buy new like ever."
"Remember," one person concluded, "they only exist because we buy!"
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