What happens to the clothing that doesn't sell at the thrift stores? With the rise in popularity of thrifting and reselling, there are definitely more garments making their way to a second home. But what about the less exciting, plain-janes of the store? The boring white tee shirts and simple black tank tops?
You may have heard about textile recycling. A lot of fast fashion brands make big claims about their textile recycling programs. According to a 2023 article from the BBC, only 1% of all post-consumer textiles are recycled into new clothing. 12% is downcycled into something of lesser value and 87% of textile waste is pure loss.
So the bulk of garments that aren't resold or recycled end up being burned, sent to landfills, or shipped to developing countries for them to deal with (that's a whole other issue that I won't get started on).
As the saying goes - reduce, reuse, recycle. They're in that order for a reason. Our first course of action is to reduce the amount of clothing we buy. Second, we should reuse what already exists (here's where dabl comes in!)
TLDR; My newest collection of graphic apparel is printed exclusively on garments purchased second hand. I see it as a second chance for "boring" pieces that are less likely to get bought than that trendy y2k dress or those classic striped overalls.
xx. Dimi
