# Slides 05.14: Fast Fashion and Where Clothes Go, and the Consumer Comparison Task Lesson 5.14, two days (days 134 and 135). Slides 1 to 13 are Day 1. Slides 14 to 20 are Day 2. Every number on the fact slides prints its source and year on the slide. * * * ## Slide 1: Day 1. Do now - You put a shirt in a donation bin. - Write what you think happens to it next. - One or two sentences. Notes: two minutes. Take four answers and write them on the board with no corrections. Most classes say "someone poor gets it." Leave it there; Step 2 complicates it. Hook: hold up the shirt with the cracked graphic. This cost eight dollars and was worn four times. Somebody designed it to do exactly that. ## Slide 2: Day 1. Fast fashion, feature 1: speed - A style can go from a drawing to a store shelf in a few weeks. - The old cycle was two seasons a year. - So a store can put out new styles constantly. ## Slide 3: Day 1. Feature 2: volume - Many small batches of many styles. - Instead of a few large batches of a few styles. - More styles means more total garments made. ## Slide 4: Day 1. Feature 3: price - Low labor cost - Cheap synthetic fiber - Thin fabric - Single-needle seams - No reinforcement at stress points - **You can now recognize four of those five by holding the garment.** Notes: this is the payoff of Lesson 5.13. Pass the two garments here. ## Slide 5: Day 1. Feature 4: thin construction - Built to survive a handful of washes. - Not two hundred. - The cracked graphic and the hole at the pocket corner are not accidents. Image: a printed graphic with cracks across it, close up. ## Slide 6: Day 1. Three costs that are not on the price tag - **Labor.** Long hours and low wages. Factory safety problems have been documented in several producing countries. - **Water.** Growing cotton and dyeing and finishing fabric use large amounts of water and can pollute rivers where treatment is weak. - **Waste.** Unsold and discarded garments, plus synthetic microfibers shed in the wash. - **And the other side, out loud:** cheap clothing is real help to a family with little money, and garment work is a real job in places with few of them. - **I am not telling you where to shop. I am telling you how it works so you can decide.** Notes: two sentences each, stated as fact, no lecture. The last line is the one that keeps the class listening. Say it. ## Slide 7: Day 1. The journey of one sweatshirt - Seven cards. Put them in the order a sweatshirt could travel. - Then mark which cards are the end of the road. - WORN - DONATION BIN OR THRIFT SHOP - SORTING CENTER - SOLD ON THE THRIFT SHOP FLOOR - BALED AND SOLD TO A DEALER - CUT INTO WIPING RAGS - SHREDDED INTO FIBER - LANDFILL OR BURNED Notes: ask one station: which card does a shirt with a cracked graphic and a hole in it reach first? Debrief on chart paper and correct the do now predictions on the board. Image: eight icons: a person wearing a sweatshirt, a donation bin, a sorting table, a thrift rack, a bale of clothing, a stack of rags, a roll of insulation, a landfill. ## Slide 8: Day 1. How to read a number 1. Who published it? 2. What year is the data from? 3. What exactly does it count? 4. What does it not tell you? Notes: say the reason for the whole step: you will see these numbers on a poster with no source. Now you know what to ask. ## Slide 9: Day 1. Number 1: textile waste in the United States - About **17 million tons** of textiles entered the US municipal solid waste stream. - About **11.3 million tons** of that was landfilled. - About **2.5 million tons** was recycled, a rate of about **15 percent**. - **Source:** US Environmental Protection Agency, Facts and Figures about Materials, Waste and Recycling. - **Year of the data: 2018** (published 2020). **[check for a newer year]** Notes: model the four questions aloud on this one. It counts one country, one year, all textiles including sheets and towels and footwear. It does not count clothing still in closets, and it does not say how much of the landfilled share was still wearable. ## Slide 10: Day 1. Number 2: the water in one pair of jeans - A commonly cited estimate: roughly **1,800 to 2,000 gallons** of water to produce one pair of cotton jeans. - **Source:** widely repeated; versions appear in United Nations Environment Programme materials and in many news articles. - **Year and method: varies. [check the original source and the year.]** - This number changes a lot depending on who counts what. Notes: this is the honest one. Ask the class which of the four questions this number fails, and why that matters when somebody quotes it at you. ## Slide 11: Day 1. Numbers 3 and 4 - **Number 3:** one study reported the average number of times a garment is worn before it stops being used fell by about **36 percent over fifteen years**. - **Source:** Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A New Textiles Economy, **2017**. **[check]** - **Number 4:** where a donated garment goes: sold locally, baled and exported, cut into rags, shredded into fiber, or landfilled. - **The share going to each path is different for every charity, every sorting center, and every year. There is no reliable single national percentage.** - If you see one on a poster with no source, that is the point of this exercise. ## Slide 12: Day 1. Four things a person can actually do 1. **Buy less and better.** One sweatshirt that survives two winters instead of three that do not. 2. **Care for what you have.** Wash cold, wash less, air dry, close zippers. 3. **Repair.** The hem, the seam, the patch, the button. You can already do all four. 4. **Pass it on.** Resell, hand down, donate, or upcycle. That project starts tomorrow. - No one of these fixes the system. All four are inside your control this week. Notes: have every student write one move and the day they will do it on the commitment line. ## Slide 13: Day 1. Exit card - 3 features of fast fashion - 2 places a donated sweatshirt can end up - 1 move from the four that you will make this month, and when ## Slide 14: Day 2. Do now - Cost per wear, one problem: - A $36 jacket [update] worn 90 times. - Show the division. Write the unit. Notes: answer is $0.40 per wear. If Lesson 5.13's exit cards said cost per wear was shaky, run a second problem instead of the hook. Hook: in twenty minutes you make a real clothing decision on paper and hand it in. First I will show you one. ## Slide 15: Day 2. The model decision - **I need sneakers for gym class.** - Option 1: a $30 discount pair [update] - Option 2: a $75 brand pair [update] - Option 3: an $18 secondhand pair [update] - Watch me fill the row. ## Slide 16: Day 2. The model, filled in | | Option 1 | Option 2 | Option 3 | |---|---|---|---| | Where from | discount store | mall brand | secondhand | | Price | $30 | $75 | $18 | | Times worn | 150 | 400 | 120 | | Cost per wear | $0.20 | $0.19 | $0.15 | | Quality check | single-needle upper stitching, thin sole | double stitching, replaceable insole | check the sole tread and the heel wear before buying | | Sustainability | new, made and shipped | new, but lasts longest | nothing new was made | Notes: all figures [update]. The interesting result is that all three are close on cost per wear, which forces the recommendation to turn on something else, and that is the lesson. ## Slide 17: Day 2. The recommendation - I recommend option ___ , which is ___ . - My reason names **the buyer and the use**: ___ . - The option that came second, and why it lost: ___ . - A recommendation with a price and no person is not finished. ## Slide 18: Day 2. The scoring checklist, all six lines 1. Three options named, each with the kind of place it comes from. **2 points** 2. A price for each, with any extra cost added into a total. **1 point** 3. Cost per wear for all three, division shown, unit written. **2 points** 4. One quality check per option, with what a good result looks like. **2 points** 5. One sustainability consideration, and it is specific. **1 point** 6. A recommendation with a reason naming the buyer and the use, plus the runner-up and why it lost. **2 points** - **Total 10 points.** Notes: read all six out loud. Nothing on this is a surprise. The checklist is printed on the same page as the task. ## Slide 19: Day 2. One season, one budget - A comparison picks one item. A budget decides how much money there is first. - $75 for one season. The list: sneakers $30, two t-shirts $16, a hoodie $25, jeans $28. - Total $99. Over by $24. Something comes off. - The amount first. The list second. The last line is what got cut. Notes: build the list on the board with the class, then ask which line comes off and make them say why that one and not another. Keep the total over the amount on purpose; a budget that already fits teaches nothing. Ninety seconds on the board, then send them to the box on the task page. This is the only clothing budget in the unit, so it does not get skipped. Image: a sticky note with "$75" circled at the top and a four-line shopping list under it, one line crossed out. ## Slide 20: Day 2. The task. 20 minutes. - Work alone. - Three options. Price. Cost per wear with the division shown. One quality check each. One sustainability consideration. A recommendation with a reason. - Self-check against the six lines, then hand it in. - Five default decisions if you cannot think of one: a winter coat, sneakers, jeans, a school sweatshirt, a shirt for a family event. Notes: clock calls at minute 10 ("if you have no cost per wear yet, do that next") and minute 17 ("three minutes; make sure your recommendation has a reason"). Protect all 20 minutes.