Make do and mend: As landfills grow, people opt for needle and thread
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Sara Lang Staff writer
| Boston
A giant brown table in the center of a room that smells faintly of paint and worn pine is strewn with colorful yarn. Students ranging from recent college graduates to retired professionals are perched on stools around it, needles poised, eyes fastened on their instructor dressed in bright red.聽
鈥淐an you do that again?鈥� one asks.聽
Jessamy Kilcollins teaches darning at the Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts in the Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. She holds up a snip of denim and a needle threaded with yarn to demonstrate her stitch. Mending, a way of repairing clothing and other textiles that was once the realm of seamstresses and Depression-era grandmas, is back in vogue. The students on this recent evening have brought items they want to not only breathe new life into but also keep out of landfills 鈥� sweaters with holes in the elbows, a thrifted pillow, a favorite pair of leggings worn from too many hours on the pickleball court.聽
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onCould darning 鈥� or knitting 鈥� socks be more satisfying than buying new? More people are picking up needle and thread, rather than a credit card, to keep clothing out of landfills.
鈥淲here have you been all my life?鈥� asks overall-clad Jen Zehler, laughing as she threads her needle, ready to fortify a hole in her leggings.聽
The evening classroom provides a glimpse into a 鈥渟low fashion鈥� trend that is catching on across the United States. Fixing your favorite clothes isn鈥檛 just practical and sustainable, its adherents say. It鈥檚 also enjoyable and an antidote to tech-laden and sped-up lives. And in Massachusetts, it鈥檚 become a necessity. In the fall of 2021, the Bay State released its final 2030 Solid Waste Master Plan with a goal of reducing waste statewide by 30%. On Nov. 1, 2022, Massachusetts issued on throwing textiles in the trash, in what officials is the first time a state has implemented such a measure.
Toni Columbo, a professional weaver in Boston, has witnessed an influx of customers wanting their clothes mended in the past few years especially as environmental awareness grows. Ms. Columbo, who has been mending for over four decades, started in 1981 with her mother and sisters.
鈥淔ast fashion is made out of plastics. It鈥檚 easy and cheap to manufacture. But when it comes time to dispose of those materials, it鈥檚 difficult. It doesn鈥檛 degenerate into the soil. It鈥檚 like a trash bag,鈥� says Ms. Columbo, who mainly works on repairing natural fibers such as wool. She had not heard of the Massachusetts ban until the Monitor asked her about it. 鈥淣atural fibers are better for the environment, but they are more expensive,鈥� she adds. But the investment is worth it, she says.
鈥淲ith slow fashion, these are pieces that people can have their whole lives. Unlike fast fashion where you wear it and throw it away, slow fashion are timeless pieces,鈥� says Ms. Columbo. She says she 鈥渨ould hope鈥� the ban makes a difference.
鈥淪atisfaction鈥� from repair聽
In the U.S., only are recycled. A number of states and cities have launched initiatives to change that figure. In New York, Re-Clothe NY and Green Tree Textiles work to inform consumers about the locations of textile recycle bins and what can be recycled there. California recently enacted a law piloting a new system for industrial textile recycling, which includes educating the community about the impacts of fast fashion and establishing accessible recycling sites. Companies like Patagonia and Madewell encourage customers to send in their worn clothes to receive store credit or cash when they are resold.聽
鈥淭he speed of the fashion cycle is very closely aligned to the really key question in fashion and sustainability, which is around volume,鈥� says Kate Fletcher, a professor at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen who coined the term 鈥渟low fashion鈥� in 2007. 鈥淎t the moment we鈥檙e engaging in a cycle of gross overconsumption and gross overproduction. If you can slow the speed down, you can begin to reduce the overall volume and this sense of churn.鈥�
Every year, around 100 billion pieces of clothing are produced, and an estimated 92 million tons end up in landfills (11.3 million tons in the U.S. alone ). The World Economic Forum in 2021 fashion as the world鈥檚 third-largest polluter, with global research suggesting the industry鈥檚 annual greenhouse gas emissions range from to and are growing.
At first, 鈥渢hrifting,鈥� shopping for secondhand clothes, became a trendy answer to fast fashion, especially among environmentally aware Generation Z and millennial shoppers who had an eye for unique and well-made clothing of previous decades. But as the popularity of thrifting has grown, so have its prices. Enter mending. Instead of throwing textiles away, slow-fashionistas aim to extend the life of clothing and transform perceptions around textiles in the process.
鈥淪tudies have shown that people get the same sense of satisfaction or engagement from shopping for new things, as you do when you鈥檙e maintaining and repairing the things you already have,鈥� says Dr. Fletcher.
In Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Angie Hoffman, a project manager for Ford Motor Company, says it was her experience working in retail 鈥� observing the constant consumer desire for more new clothes 鈥� that turned her away from shopping toward the creative pursuits of knitting, sewing, and mending.聽
When her sister first taught her to knit, Ms. Hoffman thought it was ridiculous to buy聽yarn to make socks when you could easily purchase a dozen tube socks for $6. But now she finds a lot of satisfaction in knitting while watching TV, or mending a hole in a sock or sewing patches on her favorite sweaters on an evening in.聽
鈥淚鈥檝e made 23 pairs of socks by hand. It truly is the joy of making something beautiful and having that come from your two hands,鈥� says Ms. Hoffman. 鈥淭hat joy of conquering something new is really satisfying to me.鈥澛�
A practice tech 鈥渃an鈥檛 replace鈥�
Ms. Kilcollins, who started teaching at the Eliot School in 2022, first became aware of the environmental impact of textiles while attending school to earn her certificate in fashion design. She took a sustainable fashion course, which inspired her to start mending and making her own clothes. She co-owns a vintage shop with her husband in Somerville, Massachusetts.聽
鈥淓specially right now, there is a lot of eco-anxiety and a lot of people [are] becoming more aware of the impacts that our choices have on the environment,鈥� says the textile artist. 鈥淧eople are interested in learning skills to help counteract that.鈥�
Others are interested in 鈥渁cquiring these skills that they saw their mothers and grandmothers have but that they didn鈥檛 pass on to them,鈥� she adds.
Mending student Ms. Zehler says she is enjoying learning an old practice in addition to having an opportunity to bring her together with other people in her community, a nice balance after several years of Zoom meetings and remote work.
鈥淭here鈥檚 something I鈥檓 really enjoying about revitalizing clothes and a practice that ... my ancestors did,鈥� says Ms. Zehler. 鈥淭here鈥檚 also something about sitting together in a circle and learning together. I feel like it鈥檚 a sacred ritual, something to be a part of that feels very ancient and old that modern technology can鈥檛 replace.鈥�
