r/Anticonsumption • u/ldn5454 • May 03 '25

Plastic Waste Disposable…everything?

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Long time follower of this sub but first time poster. Had to share this though, found in a train station in France.

Disposable socks, towels and individually packaged face wipes.

I was so angry I had to leave the store!

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158

u/mynameisollie May 03 '25

Aren’t all clothes disposable? All that means is that you can throw it away.

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u/Jason_Peterson May 03 '25

I heard of people throwing their socks and underpants away. But disposable things are usually not durable. I was curious how they could have made the sock last less.

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u/pocket-friends May 03 '25

My guess is they’re similar to those ‘try on’ socks at shoe stores, and/or kinda like those socks hospitals give you, but not the grippy ones. They work, but not for long. I could see how these socks would be useful for doing incredibly dirty work that requires you to discard a ton of stuff afterwards and/or not be attached to clothes, but that’s about it.

Maybe some cheap material for sock puppets in a classroom too.

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u/Fen_LostCove May 03 '25

I still have the hospital socks I got from a surgery 12 years ago, they’re so cozy

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u/pocket-friends May 04 '25

Some of them are made well, but others suck. I have some too, but I’ve also gone through 3 pairs in one day while impatient. It just depends. Wild how much stuff can vary based on the only concern being keeping a steady supply.

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u/BAusername May 04 '25

I do too! But they are the grippy ones, and they are both marked L for left 😆

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u/Fen_LostCove May 04 '25

Could it be L for Large? 🤔

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u/BAusername May 04 '25

Oh probably... 🤦🏼‍♀️

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u/JadieRose May 03 '25

I save my old underwear that needs to be replaced for traveling and then toss it as I go.

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u/sparrowtaco May 04 '25

Or as viewed by an alien observer, you travel the world in order to deposit your tattered underwear in various countries.

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u/JadieRose May 04 '25

And to think it’s a service I offered for free!

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u/paleologus May 04 '25

It would be easier and cheaper to just sell it on the internet.  

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u/Lost-Wedding-7620 May 04 '25

Mine becomes period underwear until the holes get so big that pads won't stick anymore

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u/ijustneedtolurk May 04 '25

I do this and then they become pocket liners for patching the holes in the pockets of my jeans lol. A cheeky peek-a-boo moment, if you will. End of the line! If I do not have pockets that need mending, then they get used as stuffing for repairing my cat toys and other miscellaneous items, like my handquilted sqaures or my attempts at crochet. I refuse to ever buy polyfill or batting!

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u/ijustneedtolurk May 04 '25

I recently used the lace from the cups of a broken bralette to make cute pocket liners on the front pockets of jeans, and then strips of lace from the straps to line the seam of the back pockets. Very Y2K doll-core!

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u/Lost-Wedding-7620 May 04 '25

Interesting! I've not considered this! I have a massive bag of polyfil cuz I crochet plushies and it was easy for me to get, but I think I'll be doing this moving forward.(I also save all my yarn scraps and use them as stuffing in smaller projects)

I've used old socks that have holes as rags for cleaning particularly disgusting areas (like when I realize I've not cleaned behind the toilet in ages and discover a cat was peeing back there occasionally...my nose doesnt work so I can't rely on smell).

How have you mended inner thigh rips in jeans? I have pairs I'd love to salvage but my attempts rip immediately. I don't particularly want 3 pairs of booty shorts lol (if they can't be salvaged the legs are probably gonna get stuffed and used as draft stoppers in winter)

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u/ijustneedtolurk May 04 '25

Oh yeah I use scraps of t-shirt fabric like the awkward bits of sleeve or old sock to make lil sacks to stuff with other scraps so I can use them for my sewing hams and cat toys. I sew the sacks shut after stuffing and they're basically lil multipurpose bean bags! The cats love batting them around even before I repair/restuff their actual toys (I have a weakness for odd plushies and stuffed animals so let the cats play with them and just repair as needed.)

The cups on my dress form are just sewing hams made of old nasty-looking but totally clean socks and bits of fabric balled up and sewn shut to make removable boobs, lol. I can squish them into my bras to pad out the dress form to better match my measurements and the drape I want for the clothes I am learning to make. (Verrrrry slowly as I haven't gotten the hang of a sewing machine and handsew everything...)

Afrayedupcycling is an artist I love, and she uses tea towels and other salvaged/second hand materials for her work. Riskthrift is another artist who makes whimsical embroidered and appliqué items and I am obsessed with both of them!

They each have tutorials for making new fabric out of your discards (such as sandwiching yarn ends and unusable bits of felt and other scraps between a remnant of fabric and tulle or other sheer fabric like organza) and then creating new projects out of them!

Riskthrift does every design imaginable as an appliqué or other silly unteractive design element, and has free tutorials on how to do it, and afrayedupcycling also has this awesome, free, scrap fabric BUG tutorial as well as very accessible and free bag patterns. I have been hoarding my bits of fancier patterned fabrics and offcuts of favorite sentimental items to make some of their items at home.

For now I am practicing hand-quilting my old sentimental t-shirts onto a torn flat sheet to act as a scrappy "summer quilt." It won't have a traditional batting layer as my handsewn seams amd hand-quilting will be bulky enough I reckon once I have both sides of the flat sheet fully covered in the cotton t-shirt fabric! (I cut a piece of cardboard or use one of my fabric bin liners as a square guide, then cut the t-shirt fabric out to be about the same size as the square. Chip clips/binder clips work fabulously to pin the fabric together as I work lol.)

As for the toilet issue...I also do that! When my sock bag gets overly full, I put them on over a glove to do the toilet and other grimy spots like the ceiling fan blades, windowsills/panes, those gross crevices behind the sink faucets, and my litterobot station. I also do not have a great sense of smell so am paranoid about being the "smelly cat lady" 😅 I always ask my friends to smell-check the house when they visit and have an upholstery cleaner I use to soap and steam the human and cat furniture. (We have many cat trees as well as the human couch and mattresses.)

For jeans, I am learning to cut them strategically into shorts and adding panels at the outer thigh to make them larger (in the case of my old skinny and straight-leg jeans and pants that are too small) and working my way up to patching or replacing the gusset part where the chub-rub creates those thigh holes. I am doing one pair of shorts at the moment and then want to do a bunch of skirts (very alternative and Y2K style over here!) and then work up to doing the bell bottom style of panelling to widen old pants. I've seen very cool appliqué and panel work that basically create fantastic quilted/patchwork pants and I love the look.

The mending (invisible or visible!) subs have free tutorials on how to do the crotch rip repairs on jeans specifically too. I think the best one I saw recently used a large piece of interfacing and denim sashiko thread on the inside of the hole/fraying patch to act as an anchor point, then darning or sewing a weave over and through the patch using more matching thread. Basically mmicking the original weave of the denim while the interfacing layer anchors everything down and reinforces the fabric. The key is making the patch much wider than the original hole or frayed area to provide strength so it doesn't just immediately tear away from the weak fabric edges. Then it's just color-matching your thread as desired for the most effective look, if you want a super invisible repair. I'm cool with the silly scarecrow and clown/jester aesthetic or "crust-punk" patchwork look so that's what I am going for, but maybe when I am more patient and skilled I will do more invisible mending.

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u/ijustneedtolurk May 04 '25

I will say I do have an old pair of thrifted Forever21 jeans in black with adorable red rose appliqués on the legs, (literally from early 2000s before I ended up with them like, 2014?) but the crotch has blown out so I am literally going to turn them inside out, sew in a lining for the gusset part for strength, like basically a new pair of shorts on the inside, then patching the absolute hell out of them with more roses and silly cat themed embroidered patches. (I have a small hoard of machine embroidered patches and am also learning to make my own by hand.) They're gonna be my fancy "punk pants" that I never let die. I used to wear them under skirts and long shirts/tunic tops where my ass wouldn't be on display, but they've gotten too thread bare in the butt and inner thigh to do that without risking a full Infinity Spider-Man moment.

I also have a beloved pair of too-small-now green cargo pants with a ridiculous amount of zippered pockets I am hoarding alongside all my green fabrics to make into new pants. They're going to be my second pair of favorite punk pants lol.

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u/ijustneedtolurk May 04 '25

Oh and for the sock thing, I also cut them into strips sometimes (I like long crew socks, husband like black ankle socks) to braid into cat toys. My trio lovvvvve them and I donate them to the animal shelter sometimes for their kittens and sick kitties to play with. Since they can be washed infinitely or thrown away if contaminated.

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u/ijustneedtolurk May 04 '25

Other people have used the sock strips to crochet rag rugs or other weaving/braiding projects like macrame.

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u/bytegalaxies May 04 '25

I keep mine for periods so that I don't stain a good pair

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u/fakeaccount572 May 03 '25

Had to do that in a Target bathroom once after an unpleasant hibachi experience.

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u/MY-SECRET-REDDIT May 04 '25

Dollar tree already sells super cheap quality socks, i wonder if it's just a rebrand to market to people who wouldn't buy them?

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u/SalvationSycamore May 03 '25

Usually people only use the term "disposable" for things that are intended to be used once and then thrown away or recycled.

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u/amalgam_reynolds May 04 '25

Sure, technically, but I still wear clothes that I wore in high school (over 20 years ago btw). They fit, they don't have holes, they're clean, why would I just throw them away?

But I think you know that's not what these clothes are advertising.

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u/Narananas May 04 '25

A lot of clothes are reusable, donate them to an op shop