🌏 Insights from 𝒕𝒉𝒆 2025 𝑮𝒆𝒖𝒎𝒖𝒍𝒌𝒐 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒖𝒎 “𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑪𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔”, organised by 아름다운가게(The Beautiful Store), a leading charity shop in South Korea.

Yesterday, CARE ID attended the annual event. Our CEO 노힘찬 is a Beauty Fellow at Social Enterprise Center of The Beautiful Store Foundation, which made this year’s discussions especially meaningful for our team. This year’s forum provided some of the most evidence-driven insights we’ve seen in Korea on reuse, clothing waste and climate inequality.

𝑪𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝑰𝒏𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒂𝒕𝒂 𝑭𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑪𝒂𝒏’𝒕 𝑰𝒈𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒆

(Session by Deputy Director Hyun Jung Park, Ph.D. ICCA Korea)

🌍 Who emits vs. who suffers

• Poorest nations emit 1.1% of CO₂, yet suffer 69% of climate-related deaths

• Top 1% emit 100× more than the bottom 50%

• Today’s generation is consuming the carbon budget of the next

👕 Fashion’s systemic contribution

• Average garment worn 5–7 times

• Fashion = 10% of global GHGs

• 1kg of clothing → 23kg CO₂

• 35% of ocean microplastics come from textiles

• High-income consumers discard 76% more clothing

“Cheap clothes are only cheap because someone else pays the cost.”

Labour, land, oceans, and future generations absorb what the market does not price.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝑬𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 “𝑺𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑪𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈”

Insights from the Beautiful Store Foundation

𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘒𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘢’𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩:

• Many donated garments cannot be resold → eventually incinerated or landfilled

• Some are exported at ultra-low prices and discarded immediately overseas

• Informal waste channels lead to untracked disposal and microplastic leakage

• “Recycling” often acts as a burden-shifting mechanism, not a structural solution

• Reuse alone cannot solve fashion waste.

• Without transparent, item-level data, the burden simply shifts to another community.

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝑴𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕 𝑷𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒔 (𝑫𝑷𝑷)

• No brand can fully trace the true end-of-life of a garment

• Waste export and leakage remain invisible without item-level traceability

• EU & Korea are moving toward mandatory disclosure + accountability

• NGOs working in reuse feel the limits of the current system every day

This is the gap CARE ID© aims to bridge.

Digital Product Passports are not a compliance checkbox—they are infrastructure for climate justice. They enable the transparency, responsibility and cross-border accountability that today’s fashion system urgently needs.

If you’re exploring circularity or DPP adoption, let’s start a conversation.