SSC Selection Post 2022 PYQ — Question 5

Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.
Do you know that fashion accounts for around 10% of greenhouse gas emissions from human
activity?
It is imperative that we educate ourselves about the ways in which we can reduce the impact
our wardrobe has on the climate.
We are a society that is addicted to mindless consumerism. Each of us needs to think deeply
about the ways and means through which we can reduce our carbon footprint on the
environment. Let us begin with our wardrobe. What is it that leads us to over-purchase? Is
there an underlying reason for our compulsive buying?
Psychologists say that underlying the impulse to buy is our need for self-esteem, status and
belonging. They also say that the impulse to shop is difficult to control with the emergence of
online shopping 24/7 over the internet.
One way to beat this is to simply ration the time you spend looking at clothes online. Another
way is to open vintage or second-hand clothes stores. The latter can be more successful as it
still gives the buyer the thrill of buying and experiencing the sense of reward and fulfillment. In
doing so, one slows down the fast-fashion cycle by giving a second life to clothes.
Besides buying less, one can extend the life of our clothes by mending and repairing them.
Websites like Love your Clothes encourage this and also offer tips on how to do this.
Finally, how one disposes one’s worn out clothes at the end of their useful life is also very
important. Dumping them only adds to the huge landfills or to increased harmful emissions
through incineration. The most environmentally sound way of disposing them is to send them
for recycling. Some major manufacturers have now started using recycled fabrics, but it is
often hard for consumers to find places to take their old clothes.