Your OOTD has a bigger environmental impact than you actually realise. Outfit repeaters are officially environmentally chic! World Environment Day 2025: June 5 is celebrated as World Environment Day every year. It is aimed to educate about environmental issues and encourage everyone to adopt eco-friendly actions to protect our planet Earth and move towards a more sustainable future. It is non-negotiable to remember that every choice leaves behind an environmental footprint, so collectively everyone needs to be conscious about what is being consumed everyday.ALSO READ: Wearing the same kurta again? 4 ways men can make ethnic wear look differentSay hello to sustainability, fashionably! (Picture credit: Freepik)Again, on a daily basis, habits need to actively shift for holistic betterment. In simple words, your outfit of the day (OOTD) carries a much more serious subtext than you realise.What you wear is bigger than you, as fashion is closely connected to natural resource use, followed by consumption and waste. Personal style does carry a major environmental effect.Textile waste ends up in landfills and water bodies instead of going to recycling and reuse systems. (Picture credit: Freepik)Sustainability should not remain as a complex theoretical jargon in policies and international conversations. For it to be implemented, it has to become a part of everyday habits- and that begins with what you wear.In a conversation with HT Lifestyle, Jabir Karat, founder and CEO of Green Worms Waste Management Pvt. Ltd., shared how everyday fashion habits can help reduce waste. Cyclical nature of fashion trendsEvery new style vies for the crown on social media. From the 2024-2025 micro trend of hot wife aesthetic, featuring opulent, oversized fauz fur coats like Hailey Bieber's to quintessential clean-girl style like Kendall Jenner's flushed, near-natural makeup with old-money look of crisp shirt and linen pants. In early 2026, Zara Larsson turned the mood on its head with her hyper maximalist, vibrant style. (Picture credit: Pinterest)From the hot mob wife aesthetic, with heavy faux fur coats and animal prints, to the quiet death of clean-girl minimalism with the resurgence Zara Larsson-esque hypermaximalist 2016 fashion, trends come and go like tides.But it is important to not chase every trend blindly. Every wardrobe refresh has irreversible consequences, adding to the mounting textile waste.Jabir shared the extent of the textile waste crisis, saying, "Trends change rapidly, and clothing collections are replaced just as quickly. Without a systemic closed-loop for textiles, the environmental consequences are significant. Globally, around 92 million tonnes of textile waste is generated globally per year, with India contributing over 7 million tonnes."8 habits you need to adoptJust as how trends change, clothes are also rapidly discarded, triggering a cycle of overproduction, labour exploitation and increasing pressure on already overburdened landfills. This makes it indispensable to adopt eco-friendly fashion habits. Jabir mentioned some practical ways you can reduce textile waste:Pause before buying: Do you actually need the new outfit? See if you can replicate it by upcycling, restyling or repairing the existing garment.Consider second-hand options: Thrifting is environment-friendly. Pre-owned, exchanged clothes reduce waste.Choose materials widely: Pay attention to fibre. Single-fibre garments are easier to recyle than blended fabrics.Go for natural fabrics: Plain, undyed, or lightly dyed natural fibres such as cotton and handloom fabrics are easier to reuse and recycle.Avoid garments that are tough to recycle: Polyester, synthetic coating, heavy printing and plastic embellishments can make recycling challenging.Rewear clothes: Repeat outfits to reduce fashion waste, very simple.Upcycle old textiles: Old clothes can be upcycled into bags, cushion covers, cleaning cloths and other utility-focused things.Dispose clothes mindfully: When you want to dispose clothes, send to textile collection, recovery or recycling facilities. Especially if it is hard to recycle, stop throwing them into regular waste.When you repeat any outfit, it may be looked down upon by ignorant people who take great sartorial pride in wearing something new everytime but don't let that stop you from rocking an eco-friendly choice as outfit repeaters are the real trendsetters. (Picture credit: Pinterest)While consumers can do their bit by repeating outfits and upcycling, designers also need to contribute by integrating sustainability right from the beginning of this design process. The decisions taken at the design stage are important, as they help decide whether a garment is really long-lasting, repairable, easier to recycle.You can still be stylish and sustainable in one breath, as the two are not mutually exclusive. A true diva is not who chases every trend, but know how to restyle, rewear, because these take real sartorial brain than blindly mimicking whatever you see on your feed.Adrija Dey’s proclivity for observation fuels her storytelling instinct. As a lifestyle journalist, she crafts compelling, relatable narratives across diverse touchpoints of the human experience, including wellness, mental health, relationships, interior design, home decor, food, travel, and fashion that gently nudge readers toward living a little better. For her, stories exist in flesh and bones, carried by human vessels and shaped through everyday endeavours. It is the small stories we live and share that make us human. After all, humans and their lores are the most natural and raw repositories of stories, and uncovering them, for her, is akin to peeling an orange under a winter afternoon sun. Always up for a chat, she believes the best stories come from unfiltered yapping, where "too much information" is kind of the point. A graduate of Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, and an alumna of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, Adrija spends her idle hours cocooned with herbal tea and a gripping thriller, scribbling inner monologues she loosely calls poetic pieces, often with her succulents in attendance. On lazier days, she can be found binge-watching, for the nth time, one from her comfort-show holy trinity: The Office (US), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or Modern Family. Dancing by herself to her peppy playlists, however, is an everyday ritual she swears by religiously.Read MoreWasteSustainabilityFashionMaterialCatch every big hit, every wicket with Crick-it, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Quizzes, Polls & much more. Explore now!.Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.See Less