Activist calls on fashion brands to take address industry's harmful impacts: 'I would really love to hear what you decide to do'

Fed up with fast fashion waste, sustainable fashion advocate Wendy Ward launched a #TakeItBack campaign, urging people to send their old, worn-out clothes back to major retail brands, the Guardian reported.

What's happening?

Fast fashion has created a massive buildup of clothing waste. Cheaply made garments end up in landfills faster than they can be reused or recycled. Seeing the lack of proper disposal options, Wendy Ward took action.

She mailed a decade-old polycotton bed sheet back to Sainsbury's with a pointed letter asking the company to take responsibility. "I would really love to hear what you decide to do," she wrote.

Equally frustrated, Ward's Instagram followers are joining in. They have returned worn-out clothes to brands that sold them, like H&M and Marks & Spencer. #TakeItBack demands that brands take full responsibility for their products' life cycles, rather than offloading the problem onto poorer nations.

This mirrors the stance of new Extended Producer Responsibility policies, which have been adopted in countries like France, Hungary, and the Netherlands, and the approach is expanding across Europe. EPR rules will require fashion houses to handle their textile waste responsibly.

Why are brands' take-back programs failing?

Many brands now run programs to collect old clothes, promising to recycle or repurpose them. However, critics argue that these efforts are often more about greenwashing than real change.

Watch now: How bad is a gas stove for your home's indoor air quality?

Instead of being reused, much of the collected clothing is burned or shipped to poorer countries, piling onto their waste problems. Wendy Ward calls this practice waste colonialism, where discarded garments are sent to regions that lack the resources to handle them properly.

What's being done about it?

More people are turning to secondhand shopping and eco-friendly choices as a way to push back against fast fashion's wasteful habits.

On a larger scale, global projects are stepping up, like the UN Environment Programme. This initiative encourages circular fashion through upcycling and better textile design. Cetia Robotics and like-minded companies are also finding new ways to make textile recycling more efficient.

For Ward, genuine change means fashion brands will be responsible for their products from start to end.