This garment may one day return to soil.

At the end of your garment’s life will it become part of the landfill or part of the landscape?

Composting Your Clothes

In today’s fashion world, big brands are churning out more clothes than the planet can handle. Unfortunately, today’s trends have become tomorrow’s trash. It’s time to challenge the throwaway mentality, and invest in quality over quantity. So what can we do if we want to keep our clothes out of the landfill?

First and foremast, we need to make our clothes last! Mending and repairing that old pair of jeans and keeping clothes in circulation is the most sustainable practice you can adopt.

Secondly, begin investing in natural fibers. Natural fibers will eventually biodegrade when your garment reaches the end of it’s life. These are cellulose (plant) and protein (animal) fibers such as cotton, hemp, linen, silk, cashmere, alpaca, and wool. If clothing is blended at all with synthetic fabrics such as polyester, or if clothing is dyed with synthetic chemicals, it’s not suitable for the compost pile.

At Compost Clothes, we design our clothing in a way that it can return back to the soil to help regenerate and repair the carbon cycle. Everything from the fibers in our clothing, thread, dyes, and even tags are 100% natural and eco-friendly. Our clothing is either undyed or dyed naturally with plants. We sew our garments with pure 100% organic cotton thread that is free from synthetic finishes. We use eco-friendly coconut buttons, no zippers, and biodegradable GOTS certified organic cotton natural rubber elastic.

When you’re done with your garment, simply return it back to the Earth.

Here are some simple steps on how to compost your clothes:

  1. Cut and shred the textiles into finer pieces.

  2. Mix evenly into your compost pile.

  3. Balance your pile with a healthy mix of browns and greens. Browns include dried leaves, paper, and cardboard. These materials are rich in carbon. Greens include your fruit and vegetable food scraps. These are rich in nitrogen.

  4. Water the pile and turn every so often to aerate.

  5. Watch your garment biodegrade in about six months!

Whether it’s food or fiber, by composting we close the loop. The valuable nutrients are then used to regenerate the soil to grow more food, fiber and dyes. The cycle continues!

  • "There are more microbes in one pinch of soil than there are people on Earth."

    Soil Science Society of America