4% of the drinking water available on the planet. This is what the textile industry, one of the most polluting in the world, uses. Between manufacturing and transport, it generates a total of more than a thousand tonnes of greenhouse gases… For clothes that are ultimately worn very little. According to the Oxfam association, a French person buys an average of 9 kilos of clothing per year to ultimately get rid of 3 kilos. Faced with the waste of clothing, a market is developing: that of clothing rental.
For 49 to 69 euros per month, the French company Le Closet has since 2014 offered a wide choice of clothing to its 30,000 subscribers whom it rents, for a limited period. Customers must then return their package to Le Closet, pending receipt of their next box. It is in its 3,000 m2 warehouse in Moissy-Cramayel (Seine-et-Marne) that the company receives the clothes returned by subscribers. They are then inspected, washed, touched up or repaired if necessary and sorted in the automated hangar. On average, 10,000 items of clothing pass through the warehouse every day, or nearly 2 million per year.
The life of the clothes is thus extended and 24 hours after entering the warehouse, the textiles are ready to go to the next customer. They are worn about nineteen times each and therefore pass twenty times through the hands of the agents of the Closet. Then, some are bought at a lower cost by subscribers or upgraded by an upcycling company, explains Ralph Mansour, co-founder of Closet. He opened the doors of his warehouse to us where we were able to follow the journey of a dress between two customers. A report to see in the video at the top of the article.