Fast fashion dominates the clothing industry, producing cheap, disposable garments with enormous environmental costs.
At Humane Thrift, however, owner Minal Shah is working to slow this cycle.
The newly opened shop redistributes donated clothing, proving, says Shah, that sustainability can be built from what already exists.
Video: Calgary Journal reporter Gabriella Lindland reports on Calgary’s pushback against fast fashion
After six years of managing other thrift stores, Shah was struck by the sheer volume of clothing coming through their doors.
“Something that someone considers useless is literally what gets someone through the winter,” Shah said.
The global problem of fast fashion
The fast cycle of clothes moving from runways to stores is part of a much larger issue.
According to Earth.org, the fashion industry produces 100 billion garments each year, and 92 million tonnes are discarded in landfills.
Despite efforts to donate and redistribute, much of this clothing ends up in waste streams.
When unwanted clothing fails to sell at thrift stores, it often ends up in the same place — packed into bales, exported overseas, or eventually sent to local landfills.
“In the two months that we’ve been open, we’ve been trying to put every item that we can’t sell towards a shelter or maybe even hospitals where people need clothing,” Shah said.
“Our biggest mission is not to waste a single thing that comes into the store,” she added.
Fast fashion and its affordability
A 2023 research study found that more than half of Canada’s textile waste could be reused, and almost a quarter could be recycled.
These findings suggest that with the right systems in place, much of what ends up in landfills could be diverted back into circulation.
Part of what makes the clothing waste cycle difficult to halt is the affordability of fast fashion itself.
Low-cost garments allow shoppers to replace clothing quickly, an option that can be hard to ignore during periods of economic strain.
Giving garments a second chance
To counter this, Shah keeps 80 to 85 per cent of items under $20, while reserving only a small section for higher-end or vintage finds.
Near the back of the shop, a $3 bin filled with clothing that might be missing a button or has a small stain, encouraging DIY projects for those willing to rework them.
“I think you should try and give the clothing more life if you can,” Shah said.
There’s a growing community of people who do precisely that: repair what others leave behind.
Matthew Pawlak is one advocate who repairs leather found at thrift stores and supports DIY projects in Calgary.
For him, every jacket that he restores and every piece of clothing he thrifts represents a small step in a much larger picture.
“We just got to go back to the three R’s: reduce, reuse, recycle. Because you have container ships floating billions of pounds of just clothing waste onto third world countries to the point where even they can’t deal with it,” said Pawlak.
UNEP reports that the number of times a garment is worn has declined by 36 per cent in 15 years.
This contributes to the prediction that fast-fashion waste will rise significantly by the end of the decade.
Pawlak adds years to garments that might otherwise be discarded by restoring old leather.
“There’s also a certain pride to like knowing that you’ve done something yourself,” said Pawlak.
“You can invent new trends. You can do so many things with old textiles. I think it’s always a great idea to take an unloved, unwanted piece and to turn it into something that someone wants. Something loved, a new project or a new style.”
Although Shah and Pawlak resist fast fashion in their own ways, they share the same goal of keeping clothing in circulation for as long as possible.
As fast fashion continues to fuel global waste, their work shows that extending the life of a single garment can still make a difference.