About

An average American throws out around 81 pounds of clothing every year. To put that into perspective, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 11 million tons of textiles end up in landfills annually.

 

This overwhelming waste is fueled by fast fashion brands that prioritize low prices over sustainability, contributing to environmental degradation, resource depletion, and unethical labor practices.

At Avartana, we believe the environmental and social costs of fast fashion are far too high. That’s why we are committed to transforming the way people approach clothing, shopping, and sustainability. Our goal aligns with the United Nations SDG Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

 

• Through our platform, we’ll share accessible and engaging content about the true cost of fast fashion.

  • We’ll provide tip blogs on how to build a sustainable wardrobe, including how to repair, recycle, and upcycle clothing.

  • Our educational resources will empower consumers to make thoughtful and informed choices.

  • We’ll promote the concept of circular fashion by encouraging clothing swaps, second-hand shopping, and donation drives.

  • Our platform will highlight ways to extend the life cycle of garments, reducing the volume of textile waste.
     

• We have developed a tool to help shoppers evaluate the sustainability of their purchases.

• Simply scan the product, and our tool will provide insights on the brand's environmental impact and ethical production, to ensure the consumers product lines up with their personal values.​
  
   

Avartana अवर्तन: “a cycle,” “a turning,” or “a revolution.” This word reflects exactly what I’m trying to create: a shift in how we think about fashion as a meaningful cycle that values sustainability and intention.
 

I’ve always been drawn to the idea that small actions matter. When I was in elementary school, I started a glue stick recycling initiative. We used so many glue sticks in class, and it felt wasteful to keep tossing them out once they were empty. So I asked my classmates to collect theirs. I cleaned them, sorted them, and found a way to recycle what we could. It sounds small, but it taught me a lesson I’ve never forgotten: that even young people, even small efforts, can make a difference. Caring about where things come from and where they go is worth the effort.

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As I grew older, I started noticing just how unsustainable so many parts of our daily lives are, especially the fashion industry. I loved clothes and self-expression, but I couldn’t ignore how much waste, exploitation, and environmental harm the industry produces. Fast fashion trends would come and go in a matter of days, and people would buy things only to wear them once or twice before throwing them out. I found myself thinking about that same cycle I had seen in the classroom except this one was much more harmful, and on a global scale.

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That’s when I started imagining Avartana. I wanted to create something that didn’t just call attention to fast fashion’s damage, but also offered a new way forward. Avartana is about closing the loop — about turning fashion into something circular and ethical, where the life of a product is respected from start to finish. It’s a space to explore sustainable alternatives, highlight brands that are doing things right, and help consumers make informed choices.

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Eventually, my vision expanded: I began thinking about building a tool, an app assistant, that could help people quickly determine whether a product was made sustainably. In a world full of greenwashing and misleading marketing, I wanted to create something transparent, accessible, and actually helpful. I also hope to eventually launch a curated line of sustainable products, with a portion of profits going toward causes that matter, like climate justice and recycling infrastructure in underserved communities.

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Avartana is about returning to that core idea that change starts with small, conscious decisions. And those movements begin when people care enough to challenge the cycle and start a new one.

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Fast fashion may be affordable but the environmental price is costly.
 

Fast fashion is the mass production of clothes that are typically designed and sold within a matter of weeks. Garments are made of cheap materials and sold at low costs.

The incentive to provoke consumers to buy more clothes is a business strategy in most fast fashion companies, while also appealing to the fast-shifting consumer demands. The cheapest way to purchase a large sum of clothes is through fast fashion. 

As trends on social media become more prevalent, fast fashion brands are quick to recreate these trends, causing viewers of the media to invest in their clothing more often. These trends, specifically microtrends, are often short-lived and are claimed "cheugy", a slang antonym to trendy. This leads to overconsumption.

From the late 90s to the early 2000s, viewers of the media looked to celebrities, magazines, and fashion shows to see what was in style. The group of people influencing the public was a very small percentage, which led to trends lasting years before they declined. Due to the rise of social media, microtrends are created daily, and only last around 3 months, if not a shorter span of time.

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As the media’s audience struggles to purchase clothing to follow the trends, viewers end up neglecting or throwing out the clothes as the trend declines, which leads to overconsumption.

 

The effects of overconsumption are greatly affecting the environment.

 

 

Greenwashing is a business strategy used by fast fashion companies to increase their sales by convincing their audience that they are a good cause to support by claiming to be environmentally friendly.

 

The main forms of greenwashing, according to the UK’s Competition and Market Authority, include companies identifying items as "recycled" or "organic" when the percentage of materials this relates to is relatively low, and brands promoting limited, seemingly sustainable capsule collections in a way that indicates their whole range is sustainable.


In order to limit the effects of greenwashing, Avartana plans on creating a resource to help consumers understand the quality and manufacturing processes of a product before purchase.

 

Avartana is dedicated to raising awareness about sustainable fashion and empowering consumers to make eco-conscious choices. Our AI bot evaluates product sustainability, helping you shop ethically.