The article mentions that paper fashion came to an end due to environmental concerns, and also mentions that the subsequent fast-fashion trends were even worse from an environmental standpoint.
Paper's damaging environmental footprint is due to its production, not its disposal. Virgin paper production involves chopping down trees (this is somewhat ameliorated by sourcing from managed forests, though many managed forests are monocultures, leading to its own set of issues), bleaching (though unbleached paper is an option), and lots of water/energy usage (improper water management can turn it into a pollutant of sorts [1], and energy production from fossil fuels leads to air, water, and land pollution). Paper from recycled materials causes less of these issues, and has become better in quality over the past decades.
Assuming there are no harmful or non-biodegradable additives or materials added to the product, paper will disintegrate quite fast if left outside, and even faster if composted.
>Assuming there are no harmful or non-biodegradable additives or materials added to the product, paper will disintegrate quite fast if left outside, and even faster if composted.
The article did mention the dresses were 7% rayon.
It's not a large percentage but not totally biodegradeable.
>A 2014 ocean survey found that rayon contributed to 56.9% of the total fibers found in deep ocean areas, the rest being polyester, polyamides, acetate and acrylic.[41]
There was a young girl named McCall
Wore a newspaper dress to a ball
The dress caught fire
And burned her entire
Front page, sporting section, and all.
I remember reading "Future Shock" back in the day. I got maybe 1/3 of the way through it before putting it down.
The thesis of the book is that the societal rate of change is increasing, first chunk of the book has example of example of how stuff changes faster now a days. The author specifically used paper clothes as an example (now you can throw them away and get new ones easily and cheaply, thus allowing fashion and trends to change even more rapidly!).
I remember thinking that a good chunk (maybe 50%) of the examples in the book were outdated by the time I was reading it (e.g., paper clothes aren't a thing anymore). It felt like the argument of the book was undercut by the fact that most the examples were no longer valid and we'd mostly gone back to whatever we'd been doing before (e.g., we all still wear non-disposable clothing)
In the 80s, tyvek (a plastic fabric that feels like paper) became popular for windbreakers for athletic events. As far as I know, they're still in use. Not exactly high fashion, but the trend didn't exactly perish.
This is still popular before marathons. In my last few I got a Tyvek set of pants and hoodie that was lightweight and disposable. About 30 seconds before starting the race I stripped them off, bundled them up, and tossed them into the first trash can I saw. They were great for keeping the wind off you and surprisingly good at keeping you warm.
Yes, and if you still have 5 1/4" floppy disks lying around (assuming you're old, like me) then you may have some tyvek sleeves. It feels a bit more slippery than paper, and it is much harder to tear.
Disposable wristbands (the type used for stuff like event ticketing) are also generally Tyvek-- water resistant and doesn't easily tear (so not likely to fall off and get lost), but does cut easily with scissors.
I'd be interested to hear just how many times the average dress gets worn now and what percentage of them only ever get worn once. I suspect it's a significant percentage.
A classmate of mine in high school brought in a paper dress that her mom had saved. If I remember correctly, it was slightly thicker than card stock and had the texture and flexibility of felt wool.
Paper's damaging environmental footprint is due to its production, not its disposal. Virgin paper production involves chopping down trees (this is somewhat ameliorated by sourcing from managed forests, though many managed forests are monocultures, leading to its own set of issues), bleaching (though unbleached paper is an option), and lots of water/energy usage (improper water management can turn it into a pollutant of sorts [1], and energy production from fossil fuels leads to air, water, and land pollution). Paper from recycled materials causes less of these issues, and has become better in quality over the past decades.
Assuming there are no harmful or non-biodegradable additives or materials added to the product, paper will disintegrate quite fast if left outside, and even faster if composted.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Interstate_75_fog_disaste...