No, renting clothes will not solve fashion’s sustainability problems. Here’s why

We buy more than 80 billion items of clothing every year globally, which is 400% more than what we bought just two decades ago. And not surprisingly, we throw away most of it, creating mountains of textile waste that clogs up landfills.

As more and more people become aware of the environmental cost and impact of the fashion industry, many are trying to come up with sustainable solutions.

One of them has been the concept of renting clothes, as opposed to buying them. But is rental fashion actually a more eco-conscious alternative? A new study has answered this question with a resounding ‘no.’

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Published in the scientific journal Environmental Research Letters, the Finnish research compared five different ways of owning and discarding clothes, including rentals, resale and recycling. The team found that renting clothes had the highest adverse environmental impact of all, thanks to hidden costs like multiple deliveries between the warehouse and renter, packaging material costs and repeated rounds of dry cleaning.

Renting has recently gained a lot of popularity as the frugal and sustainable alternative to permanent ownership, thanks to the advent of companies like Rent the Runway, ThredUp and India’s Stage3. Even celebrities have adopted and promoted the practice. However, research suggests that the growing fashion rental sector, valued at US $1.86 million in 2021, needs to be regulated much better before we can look at it as a game-changer.

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The research suggests that rental companies will have to make their logistics more environment-friendly before jumping to tall sustainability claims.

As for the consumer who wants to be a better friend for planet Earth, the most eco-friendly option is to buy fewer things and wear them for as long as possible.