Takes so much life to decompose this good

Since the beginning, our clothing has been fully biodegradable. Finally, we get to show you exactly what happens when an Everybody.World garment hits the pile. We teamed up with compost oracle Cass Marketos (whose Substack, The Rot, is an inbox highlight) to document the process.

Modern clothing is overwhelmingly synthetic, plastic-based fibers that are incompatible with earth's natural systems. These aren't "fabrics" in any historical sense. They're plastics spun to mimic thread. And stuff made from plastic... sheds plastic.

But the Trash Collection is built different. It's all post-waste, plastic-free cotton treated with low-impact dyes. All purposeful decisions to ensure a safe return to the earth without leaving centuries of contamination behind.

So, what happens when you compost it? Within just three weeks, a Trash Tee begins breaking down, becoming a delicious carbon feast for a thriving ecosystem of fungi, bacteria, protozoa, and more. Under the microscope, we watched the cotton behave like any natural plant fiber, reintegrating into soil life and wiggling off into the microbial universe.

"As a general rule, the more abundant and diverse the microbial activity, the healthier the overall system," Cass writes. "And what we saw was definitely abundance."

Read Cass' newsletter for the complete breakdown and see the testate amoebas, fungal threads and ciliates up close. Plus a nice guide to composting your own clothing at home.