Twelve months ago, three everyday garments were buried underground:
• A 100% cotton T-shirt
• A 50/50 wool–cotton jumper
• A polyester football jersey
Same soil. Same weather. Same waiting.
The results?
Nature gave a brutally honest report card.
🌱 What the soil revealed (no PR team involved)
1️⃣ Cotton T-shirt
Almost gone.
99% dissolved.
Returned to where it came from — the earth.
2️⃣ Wool–cotton jumper
Mostly gone.
About 80% vanished.
Slower, but still biodegradable.
3️⃣ Polyester football shirt
Unchanged.
0% decay.
Same shape. Same fibres. Just mud-stained — like a ghost that refuses to leave.
One year underground and plastic didn’t flinch.
Because plastic doesn’t rot. It waits.
🧵 This is where fashion gets uncomfortable
Polyester isn’t “fabric” in the natural sense.
It’s oil, processed into thread.
When we wear it:
- It sheds microplastics into water
- It stays in landfills for centuries
- It never becomes soil again
Plastic outlives us.
That might make sense for insulation panels or medical equipment.
But on human skin? Every day? For trends that last 15 reels?
That’s not innovation.
That’s amnesia.
🌍 The lie we were sold
Fast fashion told us:
- Synthetic = modern
- Cheap = smart
- “Recycled polyester” = sustainable
But bury it once and the truth leaks out.
If a garment cannot live with the soil,
it has no business being worn by people who depend on it.
💚 The real lessons for consumers
Every purchase is a soil decision, whether you realise it or not.
✔ Choose plant-based and animal-based natural fibres
✔ Support handloom, slow fashion, real materials
✔ Skip plastic prints, plastic blends, plastic lies
This isn’t about nostalgia.
It’s about survival with dignity.
🪡 Why handloom matters more than ever
Handloom was never a trend.
It was a system that understood life cycles.
• Natural fibres
• Low energy
• Human skill
• Clothes that return to earth, not haunt it
In a world choking on synthetic excess,
handloom is not old-fashioned.
It’s future-proof.
🗳️ Your wardrobe is a voting booth
You don’t need slogans to change the world.
You need better buying habits.
Every shirt you buy votes for:
- Soil or landfill
- Farmers or oil companies
- Life cycles or eternal waste
So yes — bury your clothes if you’re unsure.
The soil never lies.
And it clearly prefers handloom over plastic ghosts. 🌿🧶♻️