Our Commitment to Recycling

• Fast Fashion is an industry where clothes get designed and manufactured very quickly and then sold to consumers at very low prices.  Fast Fashion is considered to be one of the worst-polluting industries in the world.  (Passionate Eye)

• Approximately 7,000 liters of water are needed to produce one pair of jeans (the amount of water one individual drinks in 5-6 years) (Passionate Eye)

• 85% of the plastic pollution in the ocean is due to microfibers from synthetic material used to make fast fashion (Passionate Eye)

• Canadians purchase 400 percent more clothing per year compared to two decades ago.  Eventually most of that fast fashion ends up in the trash rather than being recycled.  (Passionate Eye)

• Ontario landfills are nearing a critical crisis point.  95% of all textiles are recyclable yet well over 75% still ends up in landfills! (textilewastediversion.com)

• 83% of the world’s drinking water is contaminated with micro fibers from synthetic clothes that are not bio-degradable.  (Passionate Eye) 

• Products have historically been designed for convenience but with no consideration of the waste left behind.  The solution is in the circular economy where we design products so resources can be reused and reinvented in new products again and again.  (Recycling Council of Ontario)

• If we continue to use as much clothing as we do now, fashion waste will continue to erode our environment and what we leave behind for our kids, grandkids and future generations. 

• Five Star Rags wants to be part of the circular economy and keep as many items out of landfills as much as possible to minimize our carbon imprint on the environment for our future generations to come.  As a result we collect, sort and grade tons of pounds of used clothing and accessories and in turn we re-sell to our customers, both here in North America and in other parts of the world.  This in turn helps divert tons of used clothes and textiles from contaminating our landfills and into the hands of those who can re-use these items.  

• We strive to bale our clothing to almost 100% of container utilization and for any destroyed items we do our best to ensure these items are recycled in one form of another so they can be re-furbished for other uses as opposed to ending up in a landfill.