Don’t Tag Along: Reimagining Clothing Tags and Care Labels for a Circular Economy

Clothing tags and care labels? Why even think about them? What difference would something as small as clothing tags and labels make in the world of circular economy when there are big impact solutions like renewable energy, sustainable farming, biodegradable plastics etc.?

Hang tags and labels on a toddler’s clothing

A ribbon made from the care labels can go around the earth 25 times:

Clothing tags and labels may look small. However, if we collect all the labels (or care labels as they are popularly called) from the garments sold in one year in the USA and stitch them to make a ribbon, we can wrap that ribbon around the earth! Every year around 20 billion garments are sold in the United States. I checked some garments in my house and they had a label length of minimum two inches and some garments even had 4 labels measuring 4 inches each i.e. a total length of 16 inches! Of course, socks don’t have labels but they come with tags! So let us assume a very conservative length of 2 inches per label, per garment. Given the 20 billion garments are sold annually in the United States, the total length of the labels is 40 billion inches i.e. one million kilometers.This could make almost twenty five circles around the earth. The majority of the labels are made of polyester or nylon and are non-degradable and non-recyclable. With every wash, fibers from these labels enter and pollute water bodies.

We can fly a kite to the moon with tag strings

Similarly, let us consider hang tags. They have two elements: one is the tag and the other is the string that attaches the tag to the garment. While there are a variety of materials for tags and strings, most common are paper tags with nylon strings. Some garments have more than one tag. Let us assume each garment has one paper tag 3 x 1.5 inches and a nylon string of length 2 inches (most common lengths for nylon strings available at Alibaba, Walmart, Amazon or Target is 7 inches).

Joining the strings from 10 billion garments (assuming the other 10 billion may have cotton strings), the total length of the string becomes 20 billion inches i.e. five hundred thousand kilometers, which is more than the distance between the earth and the moon.

The tags, put together, equal the area of 96 million letter size printer papers!

These small things like tag strings and labels make for a substantial quantity of non-degradable and non-recyclable waste that either goes to landfills or to our oceans. There is a petition on change.org demanding a ban on plastic tags, to make garment packaging eco-friendly.

Reimagining tags, strings, and labels for a circular economy:

1. Need?: If tags, strings, and labels create so much waste and not all customers care about them, then why don’t we eliminate them? Well, care labels are mandatory by law and hang tags have a proven marketing advantage. [ Also, tags are important for returning the garments ;) ] However, to reduce waste some companies like Fair Indigo have eliminated the tags and this is a welcome change. Additionally, environmental policies, design, materials, and supply chain can play a key role in reducing waste generated by these tags and labels
2. Material: Companies are making tags and care labels with more sustainable materials like recycled paper and recycled plastics. The key to make the tags more circular is use biodegradable materials for the labels and to replace the nylon string with a sustainable material that is as efficient to apply as an automatic nylon string applicator. Could we use a cloth strip (from the cut outs) and stitch it to a garment? Would it be as quick and efficient as a nylon string applicator? Could providing a loop in the garment to attach the strip help?
3. Supply Chain: Tags are only important for retail in store shopping. Can we have a smart supply chain that separates garment stocks for in-store and online selling? That way online stock need not have the tags. Similarly if the garments are separated based on the consumer country before attaching the care labels, then the care labels can have graphics and language of the country, thus reducing the overall length of the care labels.

There could be many more ways to manage the tags and labels but we need to start acknowledging their huge environmental impact and take actions. We definitely don’t want this unnecessary waste to tag along with us for centuries to come ;)