Single-Use T-Shirts and Unsustainable Swag

March 7, 2025

Sometimes it feels like the world is operating a gigantic T-shirt cannon—forcefully chucking shirts and other swag at you whether you want it or not.

Unless you're good at avoiding or getting rid of them, you've probably got a drawer full of T-shirts from specific events: races, volunteer projects, class trips, summer camps, family reunions, or the 25th Annual Company Picnic. Many with the year on them.

Adjacent to these "single-use" shirts are clothes promoting specific businesses or organizations as well as all sorts of other merchandise—from keychains to water bottles to tote bags—from a conference you went to or charity you support.

Maybe you cycle through the T-shirts for working in the yard or painting the house. Maybe you use a couple of the water bottles. But the world is fast reaching maximum saturation on this stuff. In fact, we’re probably already there.

Thrift stores are full of race-day T-shirts, and the landfills are even fuller. Human beings buy around two billion T-shirts each year, wear them an average of seven times each, then discard them. Eventually, they end up at a market in Ghana or a textile heap on the beach in Chile. Check out this video for a visual reminder of the problem.

Zooming out to “swag” more broadly, only about 20% of promotional items are kept for any length of time. The rest of it is donated or sent almost immediately to the landfill.

And landfilling is just one small part of the problem. Apparel production represents 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It takes 2,700 liters of water to produce one cotton T-shirt, and cotton uses more insecticides and pesticides than any other crop in the world.

It might be one thing if we absolutely needed all of this stuff, but we don’t. Garment production increased 400% from 1994 to 2014. The average British household leaves a third of their clothes unworn each year. And the average American throws away around 80 lbs. of clothing annually. We clearly don’t need another T-shirt to wear a few times then throw away. And no one ever needed a plastic keychain or branded plastic water bottle to begin with.

So here’s what we recommend you do to confront the unsustainability of swag:

If you're in charge of an event or organization:

Try to convince your co-organizers not to make T-shirts (or any other type of swag) for your event or organization. Point out the environmental impact and the fact that over 65% of people say they consider sustainability when making a purchase. Your supporters will respect your decision!
If you need your group to be visible or all match for a day, consider using reusable vests or plain T-shirts that people can wear over their clothing and return to be washed and reused. This works well for volunteer events or field trips.
Get crafty! If you really want a T-shirt that promotes your organization, find some shirts at a thrift store, turn them inside out, and use a stencil and fabric paint or iron-on transfers to add your own logo. Or print stickers that people can put on a shirt, water bottle, laptop, or other accessory they already own.
If you want something to give away to supporters or participants, consider locally produced, consumable items that do not generate excess waste. In the traditional swag arena, things like biodegradable pens or recycled paper notebooks could be options. Or maybe you could make something from recycled materials or reclaimed wood. But really consider whether this is necessary at all.
Don't replace T-shirts with reusable grocery bags! Just because cloth grocery bags seem sustainable doesn't mean that giving them away to promote your organization is a good idea. These bags can be used hundreds of times—and indeed, they must be used hundreds (if not thousands) of times to have a lower carbon footprint than plastic grocery bags. If any of your branded tote bags end up in the trash prematurely, you have done the environment a disservice.

If you’re attending an event:

Say "no" to the swag. It’s tempting because it’s free, and maybe the design is nice. But ask yourself if you will genuinely use it. If you will not, politely decline. Even if you might use it, consider politely declining anyway. Companies and organizations will continue producing promotional items as long as people keep accepting them. If everyone says "no" to the T-shirt at this year's event, the organizers won't waste their money making one next year.
Give the event organizers feedback. Beyond politely declining, let the organizers know that swag is not sustainable and that you would respect them for choosing not to offer it.

Tell your friends:

Share what you know about how swag is unsustainable. For example, this short video on the production of a T-shirt highlights the environmental impact of the fashion industry—and it’s also simply interesting!

Use what you have:

Finally, enjoy the T-shirts and water bottles and keychains you own. Wear them out. Turn the shirts into rags when they get holes in them. Recycle (or TerraCycle) these items when they are beyond repair. Then go to a thrift shop—not the merch table—when you need to buy replacements.

-Justine