TED演讲：如何解决时尚背后环境污染问题？

我想问问，大家每年都会买多少件衣服？买完之后又会处理多少旧衣服？在这个过程中，你是否也曾想过，那些被处理或者积压卖不出去的衣服，最后都会流向哪里呢？

也许很多人都觉得过季的那些大衣，长裤，高领毛衣都会被重新使用，但是它们之中的绝大多数（在美国每年几乎有1300万吨）都以填埋的方式结尾。时尚一直以来都被冠有浪费的名号，而Amit 想要解决这个问题。

演讲者：Amit Kalra

演说题目：如何解决时尚背后环境污染问题？

TED视频TED演讲稿

A few years ago, I found myself looking for the most cost-effective way to be stylish. So naturally, I wound up at my local thrift store, a wonderland of other people's trash that was ripe to be plucked to become my treasure. Now, I wasn't just looking for your average off-the-secondhand-rack vintage T-shirt to wear. For me, real style lives at the intersection of design and individuality. 
就在几年前，我开始寻找让自己变得时髦的最经济有效的方式。很自然的，我去了当地的二手店，那个堆满了别人的垃圾，有待我去发现宝藏的王国。 要知道，我找的不是普通的二手复古T恤，对我而言，真正的风格是设计和个性的交叉。
So to make sure that I was getting the most out of the things I was finding, I bought a sewing machine so I could tailor the 90's-style garments that I was finding, to fit a more contemporary aesthetic. I've been tailoring and making my own clothes from scratch ever since, so everything in my closet is uniquely my own. 所以为了确保我能够最大化地利用我找到的东西，我买了一台缝纫机，那样我就可以剪裁那些我所找到的九零年代风格的服装，使之更符合现代的审美观。从那时起，我就一直自己缝制衣服，所以我衣柜里的所有东西都是独一无二属于我自己的。 But as I was sorting through the endless racks of clothes at these thrift stores, I started to ask myself, what happens to all the clothes that I don't buy? The stuff that isn't really cool or trendy but kind of just sits there and rots away at these secondhand stores. 但是当我淘着这些无穷无尽的摆在二手店架子上的衣服时，我开始问我自己：那些我不买的衣服会有什么下场？那些不酷也不潮的衣服就那样在二手店的一角慢慢烂掉。I work in the fashion industry on the wholesale side, and I started to see some of the products that we sell end up on the racks of these thrift stores. So the question started to work its way into my work life, as well. I did some research and I pretty quickly found a very scary supply chain that led me to some pretty troubling realities.  我在时尚产业的批发领域工作，我开始看到一些我们卖过的产品最后也出现在了二手店衣架上。所以这个问题也开始影响我的工作。我做了一些调查，并且很快发现了一个非常恐怖的产业链，看到了一些非常残酷的现实。 It turned out that the clothes I was sorting though at these thrift stores represented only a small fraction of the total amount of garments that we dispose of each year. In the US, only 15 percent of the total textile and garment waste that's generated each year ends up being donated or recycled in some way, which means that the other 85 percent of textile and garment waste end up in landfills every year. 我发现那些我在二手店淘的衣服，仅仅代表了我们每年扔掉的全部衣物的冰山一角。在美国，每年产生的所有纺织和服装垃圾，只有15%以捐赠或回收之类的方式结尾。这就意味着每年那剩下的85%的纺织和服饰垃圾最终都会被填埋。 Now, I want to put this into perspective, because I don't quite think that the 85 percent does the problem justice. This means that almost 13 million tons of clothing and textile waste end up in landfills every year in just the United States alone. This averages out to be roughly 200 T-shirts per person ending up in the garbage. 我想要更直观地看一下这个问题。因为我觉得大家对85%这个数字可能没概念。换句话说，这意味着几乎1300万吨的衣服和纺织垃圾，每年都以填埋的方式被处理，这还仅仅只是美国，平均下来这相当于每个人都扔了大约200件T恤。In Canada, we throw away enough clothing to fill the largest stadium in my home town of Toronto, one that seats 60,000 people, with a mountain of clothes three times the size of that stadium. Now, even with this, I still think that Canadians are the more polite North Americans, so don't hold it against us. 在加拿大，我们扔掉的衣服足够填满我的家乡多伦多那边，最大的可以容纳六万人的露天体育场，并且足足可以填满三个这样的体育场。当然即便这样，我依然认为加拿大人是更加有礼貌的北美人，所以不要拿这件事来抨击我们。 What was even more surprising was seeing that the fashion industry is the second-largest polluter in the world behind the oil and gas industry. This is an important comparison to make. I don't want to defend the oil and gas industry but I'd be lying if I said I was surprised to hear they were the number one polluter. 更令人难以置信的是，时装产业是世界第二大污染业，仅次于石油和燃气产业。这是一个重要的对比。我不想为石油和燃气产业辩护，但是我不惊讶于它们是世界第一污染业，
I just assumed, fairly or not, that that's an industry that doesn't really mind sticking to the status quo. One where the technology doesn't really change and the focus is more so on driving profitability at the expense of a sustainable future. But I was really surprised to see that the fashion industry was number two. Because maintaining that status quo is the opposite of what the fashion industry stands for. 因为我个人觉得（无论公平与否）石油和燃气产业都是不怎么关心我们的社会现状的，并且开采技术几乎没有多大的改变，这个行业更关注如何获得利润，哪怕那是以可持续发展为代价。但是当我得知时尚产业竟是第二大污染业的时候，我真的很惊讶，因为维持现状跟时尚产业是背道而驰的。The unfortunate reality is, not only do we waste a lot of the things we do consume, but we also use a lot to produce the clothes that we buy each year. On average, a household's purchase of clothing per year requires 1,000 bathtubs of water to produce. A thousand bathtubs of water per household, per year. 而现实可悲的的地方在于，我们不仅浪费掉了很多可以使用的东西，而且每年都会使用很多资源来制造我们购买的衣服。平均而言，每年每个家庭购买的衣服需要足足可装满1000个浴缸的水来制造。1000个浴缸的水，一家人，每年。 
That's a lot of water. It seems that the industry that always has been and probably always will be on the forefront of design, creates products that are designed to be comfortable, designed to be trendy and designed to be expressive but aren't really designed to be sustainable or recyclable for that matter. But I think that can change. 这可不是个小数目。 看起来总是站在或将永远站在时尚设计最前沿的服装产业制造出了穿着舒适，紧跟潮流的产品，并且设计得极具表现力，但却不是可持续的，或可重复使用的设计。 但我认为这种现状会改变，
I think the fashion industry's aptitude for change is the exact thing that should make it patient zero for sustainable business practices. And I think to get started, all we have to do is start to design clothes to be recyclable at the end of their life. 我认为时尚产业改变的本性，正是它应该成为追求可持续发展的企业先驱的原因。首先我们需要做的就是开始设计能够在寿命结束时可回收的服装。Now, designing recyclable clothing is definitely something to leave to the professionals. But as a 24-year-old thrift store aficionado armed with a sewing machine, if I were to very humbly posit one perspective, it would be to approach clothing design kind of like building with Lego. When we put together a brick of Lego, it's very strong but very easily manipulated. It's modular in its nature. Clothing design as it stands today is very rarely modular. 设计可回收的衣服毫无疑问应该留给专业人士去做，但是作为一位二十四岁的有着一台缝纫机的二手店狂热爱好者，如果我可以非常谦虚地提出一个建议，那么就是用打造乐高的方式来设计服装。当我们把乐高积木拼在一起，这些结构会非常结实，但是也非常容易被操控。在乐高的世界里，这些都是可组装的、模块化的。 如今的服装设计却很少是模块化的。 Take this motorcycle jacket as an example. It's a pretty standard jacket with its buttons, zippers and trim. But in order for us to efficiently recycle a jacket like this, we need to be able to easily remove these items and quickly get down to just the fabric. 就拿这件机车夹克来说，这是一件有着扣子、拉链、小配件的非常标准化的夹克，但是如果想要有效地重复利用这件夹克，我们必须要能够很轻易地去除这些小物件，并且能够迅速地得到这件衣服的面料部分。
Once we have just the fabric, we're able to break it down by shredding it and getting back to thread level, make new thread that then gets made into new fabric and ultimately new clothing, whether it be a new jacket or new T-shirts, for example. 一旦我们有了纯面料，我们就可以用碎片化的方式将其拆分，然后在拼接缝合层面重新组装，用出新的拼接方式把它们变成新的面料，最后变为新的衣服，例如一件新夹克或是一件新T恤。 
But the complexity lies with all of these extra items, the buttons, the zippers and the trim. Because in reality, these items are actually quite difficult to remove. 然而所有这些多余的小物件都会使整个过程变得复杂，像这些纽扣、拉链、小配饰。因为在现实操作过程中，这些小东西很难去除。
So in many cases it requires more time or more money to disassemble a jacket like this. In some cases, it's just more cost-effective to throw it away rather than recycle it. But I think this can change if we design clothes in a modular way to be easily disassembled at the end of their lives. 所以在很多情况下，这需要更多时间和更多金钱去拆解一件像这样的夹克。在一些情况下，扔掉它比回收它更省钱。但我认为如果我们能对服装进行模块化设计，这种情况将可以改变。模块化会使衣服在寿命尽头更易拆解。
We could redesign this jacket to have a hidden wireframe, kind of like the skeleton of a fish, that holds all important items together. This invisible fish-bone structure can have all of these extra items, the zippers and the buttons and the trim, sewn into it and then attached to the fabric. So at the end of the jacket's life, all you have to do is remove its fish bone and the fabric comes with it a lot quicker and a lot easier than before. 我们可以重新设计这件夹克，让它有一个隐蔽的线框，就像一条鱼的骨架一样，它带着所有重要的小物件。这种隐秘的鱼骨形状的结构可以装戴着所有额外的配饰、拉链、扣子和小物件被缝进去然后与面料连接在一起。所以在这件夹克寿终正寝时，你所需要做的只是去除这条“鱼骨”，然后面料就出来了—— 比之前要更快更便捷。 Now, recycling clothing is definitely one piece of the puzzle. But if we want to take fixing the environmental impact that the fashion industry has more seriously, then we need to take this to the next step and start to design clothes to also be compostable at the end of their lives. For most of the types of clothes we have in our closet the average lifespan is about three years. 不过，回收衣物只是这个问题的一个方面，如果我们想要真正去修复这些时尚产业 带来的严重的环境影响，那么我们就需要更进一步并开始设计在寿命终结时可降解的衣物。我们衣橱里的绝大多数衣服平均寿命一般都在三年左右。 
Now, I'm sure there's many of us that have gems in our drawers that are much older than that, which is great. Because being able to extend the life of a garment by even only nine months reduces the waste and water impact that that garment has by 20 to 30 percent. But fashion is fashion. Which means that styles are always going to change and you're probably going to be wearing something different than you were today eight seasons from now, no matter how environmentally friendly you want to be. 我确定有些人拥有比这更有年头的宝石，这很好。哪怕只是将衣服的寿命延长九个月，所带来的垃圾和水污染就会减少20%到30%。但是潮流就是潮流，这意味着风格 永远都在不断变化之中。几年后，你很可能会穿跟今天不一样的衣服，不管你多么想要保护环境。 But lucky for us, there are some items that never go out of style. I'm talking about your basics -- your socks, underwear, even your pajamas. We're all guilty of wearing these items right down to the bone, and in many cases throwing them in the garbage because it's really difficult to donate your old ratty socks that have holes in them to your local thrift store. 但对我们来说幸运的是，有一些东西永不过时，我说的就是我们的基本衣物—— 大家的袜子、内衣，甚至睡衣，我们大家都会将这些衣服穿到破为止，并最后直接把它们扔进垃圾桶。 因为你可不能把自己的破旧袜子捐到当地的二手店。 
But what if we were able to compost these items rather than throw them in the trash bin? The environmental savings could be huge, and all we would have to do is start to shift more of our resources to start to produce more of these items using more natural fibers, like 100 percent organic cotton. 但是如果我们可以把这些东西作为肥料，而不是直接扔到垃圾堆里呢？这对环境保护的意义是很重大的。我们所要做的就是转移资源，开始用更多的自然纤维生产更多这样的物品，像是100%有机纯棉。 Now, recycling and composting are two critical priorities. But one other thing that we have to rethink is the way that we dye our clothes. Currently, 10 to 20 percent of the harsh chemical dye that we use end up in water bodies that neighbor production hubs in developing nations. The tricky thing is that these harsh chemicals are really effective at keeping a garment a specific color for a long period of time. It's these harsh chemicals that keep that bright red dress bright red for so many years. 回收和降解是两个很重要的方面。但是我们还需要重新思考的是我们漂染服装的方式。如今，我们使用到的10%到20%的有害化学染料最终都流入临近的发展中国家生产中心的水体之中。让问题更加复杂的是，这些有害化学品在让一件衣物保持特定色彩并维持很长时间方面很有效，就是这些有害化学染料能够让一件亮红色裙子在很多年后依然鲜艳动人。But what if we were able to use something different? What if we were able to use something that we all have in our kitchen cabinets at home to dye our clothes? What if we were able to use spices and herbs to dye our clothes? 但是如果我们用其他不同的东西来染色呢？如果我们可以用一些在我们厨房餐柜里都能找到的东西来漂染我们的衣服呢？如果我们能用一些香料和香草类植物来为我们的衣服染色呢？ 
There's countless food options that would allow for us to stain material, but these stains change color over time. This would be pretty different than the clothes that were dyed harshly with chemicals that we're used to. But dyeing clothes naturally this way would allow for us to make sure they're more unique and environmentally friendlier. Let's think about it. 生活中有不计其数的食物可以帮我们为衣物着色，但是这些着色剂会使衣服颜色随着时间逐渐褪去。这会与那些我们经常用有害化学染料所染出来的衣物截然不同。但是用这种自然的方式漂染服装可以保证我们的衣服更独特，对环境更友好。让我们想一想我刚刚所说的。 Fashion today is all about individuality. It's about managing your own personal appearance to be just unique enough to be cool. These days, everybody has the ability to showcase their brand their personal style, across the world, through social media. The pocket-sized billboards that we flick through on our Instagram feeds are chock-full of models and taste-makers that are showcasing their individuality through their personal microbrands. 在今天，时尚就是个性，它关乎我们每个人的外表与独特气质。如果你独一无二，你就很酷。现如今，每个人都有展示他们的品牌、个人不同风格的能力，通过社交媒体在世界各地来传达这些信息。我们口袋中的“广告牌”，我们在Instagram上看到的，全部都是模特和品味艺术家们，他们通过个人微品牌展示自己的个性。
But what could be more personalized, more unique, than clothes that change color over time? Clothes that with each wash and with each wear become more and more one of a kind. People have been buying and wearing ripped jeans for years. So this would just be another example of clothes that exist in our wardrobe that evolve with us over our lives. 但是有什么会是比随着时间变色的衣服更凸显个人风格，更别致的呢？每一次的洗和穿都会让这件衣服变得更加独特。破洞牛仔裤已经流行很长时间了，这可以是另一个 存在于我们衣柜里的例子—— 它们随着我们生命而逐渐演化。 This shirt, for example, is one that, much to the dismay of my mother and the state of her kitchen, I dyed at home, using turmeric, before coming here today. This shirt is something that none of my friends are going to have on their Instagram feed. So it's unique, but more importantly, it's naturally dyed. Now, I'm not suggesting that everybody dye their clothes in their kitchen sink at home. But if we were able to apply this or a similar process on a commercial scale, then our need to rely on these harsh chemical dyes for our clothes could be easily reduced. 比如说，这件T恤—— 虽然我妈妈和她的厨房可能会有所不满，是我在今天来这里之前用姜黄根粉末在家里染的。这是一件我的好友不可能在Instagram上看到的T恤，这是独一无二的。但更重要的是，这是用自然染料着色的。我不是建议每个人都要在厨房的水槽里染自己的衣服，但是如果我们可以来运用这个方法，或是在服装商业生产过程中运用相似的过程，那么我们对于化学染料的依赖就会大大减少。 The 2.4-trillion-dollar fashion industry is fiercely competitive. So the business that can provide a product at scale while also promising its customers that each and every garment will become more unique over time will have a serious competitive advantage. 2.4万亿美元的服装市场竞争非常激烈，如果一个企业可以大量提供这种产品，并且能对顾客承诺每件衣物会因为时间的流逝而变得更加与众不同，这将会是一个极大的竞争优势。 
Brands have been playing with customization for years. The rise of e-commerce services, like Indochino, a bespoke suiting platform, and Tinker Tailor, a bespoke dress-making platform, have made customization possible from your couch. Nike and Adidas have been mastering their online shoe customization platforms for years. Providing individuality at scale is a challenge that most consumer-facing businesses encounter. 很多品牌多年来一直在做个性化的产品，电子商务服务的兴起，像是 Indochino， 一家做私人西服定制的平台，还有 Tinker Tailor，一个做私人裙装定制的平台，使你在自家的沙发上就能实现个性化。耐克和阿迪达斯提供在线私人定制鞋服务已经很多年了。大规模地提供个性化产品，是大部分面向顾客的公司面临的挑战。 So being able to tackle this while also providing an environmentally friendly product could lead to a pretty seismic industry shift. And at that point, it's not just about doing what's best for our environment but also what's best for the bottom line. 所以如果能够解决这个问题，同时提供一种对环境友好的产品，将可能导致一个剧烈的行业变革。到那时候，这就不仅仅是关乎做对我们环境最友好的事，也是做对我们行业发展最有利的事。 There's no fix-all, and there's no one-step solution. But we can get started by designing clothes with their death in mind. The fashion industry is the perfect industry to experiment with and embrace change that can one day get us to the sustainable future we so desperately need. 这并不是万灵药，也没有一蹴而就的解决方案，但是我们可以在设计衣服时就考虑到它们如何终结。时装产业是一个完美的能够开始这个实验并拥抱变化、帮助我们实现 那个可持续未来的行业，那正是我们迫切需要的。 Thank you. 谢谢大家！ 

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