Fashion’s Bad Trip

Radio Télévision Suisse
Postproduction script

00:00:02,468 Yann Marguet: -Hello, come in.

00:00:04,625 VO: -Welcome to the home of stand-up comedian Yann Marguet.

00:00:07,880 Yann: -Here is the extent of the disaster.

00:00:11,440 Reporter: -How many pairs of shoes are there?

Yann: -I don't know, 300-400.

00:00:16,740 VO: -Not everyone has such full cupboards. The Swiss buy an average of 20 kilos of clothes per year. Clothes that end up taking up space. Even Yann sometimes has to part with his worn-out clothes. He deposits them into recycling bins.

00:00:38,354 Yann: -I do it when it starts to explode. What goes through my head when I do this is: "That's for the kids." But I don't know what they would do with double XL clothes. I found you a pair of sneakers not too new and not too worn. And a sweater.

0’47 Yann Marguet

00:01:07,262 VO: -Yann agreed to give us old stuff. We will use them to go up the recycling chain set up by the fashion industry.

1’19 C&A advert

1’28 Fashion’s Bad Trip

00:01:35,288 VO: Our investigation starts in 2021, in the middle of the COVID pandemic. We are at the RTS sewing workshop. We want to know where our old clothes end up.

00:01:51,479 Woman 1: -Yeah, that sweater.

Woman 2: -That, that!

00:01:55,490 Reporter:  -The ideal is to have clothes that are a bit thick.

00:02:02,592 VO: -We equip these used clothes with geolocation devices.

00:02:10,028 Reporter: -This is a Bluetooth system connected with phones. Basically, it's designed so you don't lose your keys or your wallet. We transformed the system to hide it in the clothes. It works on the whole earth, as soon as people walk by with a cell phone. We're going to put it on every piece of clothing we'll be testing.

00:02:34,983 VO: -With our phone, we can follow the movements of these clothes. We hid 16 location chips in total. They will be active for 250 days. In our experiment, there are stained, torn clothes, but also Yann Marguet's sneakers in good condition.

00:03:02,101 Reporter: -Let's go!

Woman: -Let's go!

3’02 December 2021

00:03:08,727 VO: -The cases are deposited in the recycling bins. The containers belong to recycling giants or charities. The remaining clothes are dropped off in fashion boutiques. Yann's sneakers go to H&M. A recycling box is inside the store. All that's left to do is wait. The sneakers remain immobile for weeks. But in spring, everything starts moving. In a few days, the sneakers leave the H&M store to German Switzerland. A stop in Daillens, then a warehouse in Egerkingen. According to the chip, the shoes are in this shed of a logistics company.

3’44 March 2022

00:04:22,833 Reporter: -We see clothes inside.

00:04:28,343 VO: -These bags full of used clothes come from the stores. They are collected and loaded into these trucks. The H&M logo is visible, our experiment seems to work. The shoes stay in this spot for a few days, before leaving for Germany. The sneakers reach the SOEX factory, one of the leaders in textile recycling. On its website, SOEX claims to be a green company. A visit of the site is possible, but no interview there. The boss says he has no time. SOEX buys the used clothes from fashion stores or charitable organizations. Old clothes are sorted, recycled or resold. None of our tested clothes went to the shredder. Officially, SOEX recycles 15% of coarse fabric clothing for doormats or car seats.

4’46 Shoe journey map graphic

5’12 We have a zero waste philosophy. Our aim is to avoid as much as possible that clothes end up in landfill or are burnt. We give a second life to old clothes. (Source: Soex website)

00:05:54,334 Reporter: -Is it for the car industry?

Factory worker: -Yes, it is.

00:06:00,678 VO: -The rest of the clothes are collected in these bags of 25-50kg. They are resold on the international market for second-hand clothes. This is where the company makes the most profit. The tracers tell us the countries of destination. Some stay in Europe, others go to Mali, to Afghanistan or Moldova. The carbon footprint is disastrous, they travel an average of 6,200km. These old jeans show the absurdity of the system.

6’22 World map graphic

6’40 Shirt’s journey map graphic

00:06:37,415 VO: From Geneva, it is bought by a wholesaler in Poland, and then resold in Ukraine and Hungary, before going to the Netherlands and to embark for Togo, then to Cote d'Ivoire. There, a colleague is asked to check the fate of the jeans. The jeans have passed through several hands in the region of Bouaké. These stores sell second-hand clothes from Europe. Our old jeans were bought by an inhabitant from a village in the bush.

7’40 October 2022

00:07:21,040 - 00:07:24,416

Unfortunately, the tracker's batteries ran out, so we could not find him in the village. For Yann Marguet's sneakers, the tracker is still working. After the SOEX factory, the shoes went to Moldova. This former Soviet Union country has 3 million inhabitants. This is one of the poorest regions in Europe. The sneakers are in this market in the Moldovan capital. Ludmila has had her second-hand shop for 13 years. She has just received bags full of clothes.

00:08:12,231 Ludmila: -These are winter clothes that were used for skiing. This is for the children.

00:08:26,442 VO: -The 20 kilo bag costs her between 60 and 80 euros. She buys it without knowing the quality of the clothes.

00:08:37,328 Ludmila: -Good, good, bad, bad, bad. I throw away 45% of the clothes. Sometimes half the bag ends up in the garbage. I pay attention to what is stained, torn. Here, the zipper is missing at the close. This jacket looks good, but with these spots, I'll sell it for a few euros.

00:09:10,535 Reporter: -What do you do with the unsold clothes?

00:09:15,370 Ludmila: -I throw them away.

00:09:18,370 VO: -Ludmila bought the bags on credit. If the quality is not good, she may lose money.

9’35 Ludmila, Owner of second hand clothes shop, Moldova

00:09:24,885 Ludmila: -I borrowed money to buy this bag; I will have to pay it back. We are the fifth wheel. We only have the leftovers in this business, we earn little. We survive.

00:09:46,186 VO: -These shops are not all legal. Some of them fund the local mafia. The tracker takes us to a store outside the official market. Yann's shoes are at this lady's house. It's difficult to find the right sneakers. The presence of the camera disturbs people.

00:10:14,835 Local: -Stop filming. Turn off the camera. You are journalists? What do you want? You can't film here. I can call someone to make you leave.

00:10:32,842 VO: -We show them the picture of the of the shoes and the trackers. Nothing happens. We leave empty-handed. The location chip moves just after we leave. We wait a few hours to get to the place, 100 meters from the market.

00:10:57,325 Reporter: -It is here. In fact, it is here.

00:11:11,908 VO: -The saleswoman must have gotten scared and threw the tracker away. We won't find Yann's shoes. We still have to see where the 50% of used clothes is, those that were impossible to sell on the market. Tintareni is one of the largest dumps in Moldova. This is where unsold clothes end up. A manager of the site explains the extent of the problem.

00:11:46,560 Waste disposal worker: -There is no sorting. We compact the garbage in layers of 2.5 meters and we cover it with 30cm of clay. There are 50 meters of buried waste.

00:12:04,474 VO: -No recycling system actually exists. There are clothes, shoes, plastic and chemicals. The water in the area is polluted. Irina's house is next to the dump. The grandmother is looking after her granddaughter during the week.

00:12:39,392 Irina: -I am worried because I give this water to my little girl. The water is used to wash ourselves. This is not good, but we have no choice. In summer the smell is even stronger. We can't have the doors open the smell is so unbearable.

12’45 Irina, Resident of Tintareni, Moldova

00:13:08,000 VO: -In spite of the complaints of the locals, the landfill continues to fill up with toxic waste and used clothes. Moldova has no recycling industry. The import of second-hand clothes only makes the situation worse.

13’31 Mango and H&M adverts

00:13:35,155 VO: -The big fashion brands make promises, but the results of the experiment prove them wrong. Of all the clothes we tested, only one third is worn again. Only one was piece of clothing was resold in a store in Switzerland. Worse, some have travelled 17,000 km and none of the clothes have been recycled.

14’02 Credits:

François Ruchti
Stéphanie Saporito
Dimitri Zufferey
Drissa Bomba
Jon Björgvinsson
Joelle Aerni