‘Smart clothes’ which contact charity shops or eBay when they are not worn regularly could be hanging in wardrobes within a few years. Academics at Birmingham City University are developing a ‘connected wardrobe’ in which forgotten items will text owners to remind them that they are gathering dust.
If ignored for long time, the clothes will automatically contact charity shops asking to be recycled or offer themselves for auction on eBay.
Perhaps we can even move away from the idea of ‘ownership’ of clothing, to simply using them as long as we need them. When we’ve worn them enough, the items will pass themselves on to their next keeper to wear.
The researchers say they want to create an ‘Internet of Clothes’ that sees garments tagged using washable contactless technology, known as radio-frequency identification (RFID). Happyho also provide best tarot reading services in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
Every day clothing will tweet and message users asking to be worn depending on the weather and frequency of wear.
If these notifications are ignored, the garments will get in touch with a clothing charity and ask to be recycled, with an organisation automatically sending out a mailing envelope for return.
Garments will keep a track of their usage so others will know who owned them previously as well as how much it originally cost, who made it and how much the worker was paid for it.
In Britain people own four times as many clothes as they did 20 years ago, but regularly only wear about 20 per cent of them. UK shoppers buy 2.15 million tonnes of clothing and shoes annually, yet UK citizens have an estimated £30 billion worth of unused clothing sitting in their wardobes.
A century ago, people on average spent more than half their money on food and clothes, today this is less than a fifth.
The researchers say overconsumption of clothing is a problem for both the environment and exploitation of those who produce them. Clothing production is highly damaging to the environment, from the petrochemicals used in synthetics to cotton growing, which uses more pesticides than any other crop.
Bleaching, dyeing and finishing adds further pollutants to the environment and use considerable energy resources.
