Sunbear makes technical academic research fun and easy to understand…

Sunbear Addresses Fast Fashion…

Meet Sunbear! She is going to change the world!

She has long tongue for eating honey, fruit and insects.

Sunbear applies science to fashion to make the industry more sustainable.

Sunbear addresses fast fashion.

Sunbear learned about all the terrible things that the fashion industry is doing to the planet.

The fashion industry fills the air with toxins and carbon dioxide.

The fashion industry pollutes the water with dyes, chemical residue and pesticides.

The fashion industry fills the seas with plastics.

Washing your clothing fills the water with microscopic microfibers.

Fashion uses lots of water and pesticides to grow cotton which often makes farmers sick.

The fast fashion industry pays workers very little to make their clothing and treats them really badly.

Sunbear found that after wearing their clothing a few times the humans would throw them away, even if there was nothing wrong with them.

The fashion industry produced so much clothing that they didn't even know what to do with it?

Governments and fast fashion companies made promises to be “sustainable” in the future, but never do anything because they are controlled by lobbyists and shareholders.

It was all so overwhelming for one sun bear! How can the average person make a difference?

Unfortunately, clothing recycling technology is in its infancy and the vast infrastructure to make recycling commercially viable does not exist. Many materials made from recycled material are blended with polyester or elastane to make materials that cannot be recycled again. Someone must pay for this research, but fast fashion companies are reluctant.

Sunbear learned that in Australia charity stores spend over $13 million a year to dispose of 60,000 tonnes of unused donations every year. She realized that if people returned their old clothes to fast fashion stores they could save charities millions of dollars, make fast fashion companies pay for their waste and fuel vital fashion recycling research.

Fast fashion companies have boxes where you can return clothing and a fast fashion company will “recycle” it. They don’t actually have the technology and infrastructure to recycle most of it, but they would have to store the clothing and some companies would even donate 3c for every 1kg/ 2.2lbs of clothing returned.

Sunbear let all her friends know that by returning their old clothes to fast fashion companies instead of charity stores they could save charities millions, make fast fashion companies pay to store their waste and raise money for sustainable research.

In a small country like Australia 6000 kilograms/13227 pounds of fast fashion is dumped in landfill every 10 minutes. So if this clothing was taken back to a fast fashion company at 3c per 1kg/2.2 lbs they could raise up to $180 every 10 minutes and $25,900 every 24 hours. Imagine the potential of re-directing the 300,000 tonnes of waste dumped in the UK each year and the 16 million tonnes in the US.

All the sun bears started to bring their old clothes back to the fast fashion stores.

They buried the stores until the new products were indistinguishable from landfill.

There was so much clothing that the fast fashion store became a garbage dump.

Turning a company’s product into literal garbage was bad press on social media which damaged the value of the brand.

Returning clothing is a way of sending a clear signal to shareholders in a way that affects the profits of the company. It nudges employees within fast fashion companies to justify to their superiors and shareholders the need to move towards more sustainable practices.

It is time to make corporations pay for their waste, fund research and change their business models. If they continue to disregard their environmental responsibilities, citizens have the power to bury their stores in their own waste.

We can return our old clothes to fast fashion companies and change the industry, one garment at a time.

Sunbears Unite! Help us build a more sustainable fashion industry for a brighter future.

Around the world, sun bears brought their clothes back to fast fashion stores.

There was clothing everywhere and no one could tell the difference between old and new clothing.

There was no difference between clothing and landfill.