From fast fashion to single-use seasonal clothing, millions of garments are produced, purchased, and discarded at a pace our waste systems simply can’t handle. In this episode of the Waste World podcast, Gage Edwards is joined by Lexy Silverstein to dig into the realities behind the clothes we wear, what happens to them after we’re finished, and why it is essential for consumers to act sustainably when considering clothes. This conversation explores what it will take to shift our culture away from disposable fashion and toward systems built on longevity, circularity, and responsibility.

Silverstein is a leading sustainable fashion advocate, content creator, and educator who has built her platform around pushing back against fast fashion culture and creating accessible, community-driven solutions. She has launched textile reuse and costume redistribution programs on both coasts, partnering with Heal the Bay in Los Angeles and Clinical Associates in Maryland to keep clothing and Halloween costumes in circulation and out of the waste stream. Through her advocacy, storytelling, and hands-on projects, Lexy challenges consumers, brands, and institutions to rethink their relationship with clothing and to consider the environmental and social costs hidden behind cheap, disposable garments.

In this episode, Silverstein breaks down the root causes of textile waste, from micro-trend culture to the rapid acceleration of low-quality, high-volume production. She talks about the limitations of current recycling systems, why circularity requires collaboration across sectors, and how simple consumer actions can add up to meaningful change. This episode also looks back at her post-Halloween insights, the early results of her dual-coast donation programs, and what she believes needs to happen, both culturally and structurally, for the fashion industry to adopt more responsible production practices.