邓晶  供稿

With the takeoff of the sharing economy, people can rent anything from apartments, bicycles to phone chargers and even, everyday clothes. The concept of “wardrobe sharing” has now become widely accepted. Many fashion brands like H&M, Urban Outfitters and Bloomingdale’s has announced their own rental subscription services. Meanwhile, online clothing rental platforms have mushroomed such as Rent the Runway, Le Tote and YCloset.

随着共享经济的蓬勃发展，几乎所有东西都可以租用：从公寓、单车到充电宝甚至日常衣服。“共享衣橱”这一概念现在已被广为接受。许多时尚品牌纷纷推出自己的租衣订阅服务，其中包括H&M、Urban Outfitters 和Bloomingdale’s等。与此同时，Rent the Runway、Le Tote和YCloset（衣二三）等线上服装租赁平台也快速涌现。

YCloset, for example, founded in 2015, is a Beijing-based clothes-sharing platform. Its monthly membership fee costs 499 yuan, covering the delivery and cleaning fees. During that period, users can have access to an unlimited wardrobe of various brands and styles. Additionally, users are encouraged to purchase the items they like at a reasonable price. For girls who are always complaining “I have nothing to wear”, the clothing rental services enables them to keep up with the latest fashion trends without spending a significant amount of money.

以衣二三为例，这一时装共享平台成立于2015年，总部位于北京。会员费用为每月499元，免清洗费和寄还运费。成为会员后，用户可以无限次租用各种品牌和各类款式的衣服。另外，平台鼓励用户以优惠价格留下喜欢的衣服。对于总是抱怨自己衣服不够穿的女孩们来说，时装租赁服务让她们无需投入过多金额，便可赶上时尚潮流。

Liu Mengyuan, founder and CEO of YCloset, believes that this platform not only satisfies women’s pursuit of beauty and fashion but has the potential to reduce waste by extending the lifespan of garments. It seems to her that renting clothes is greener than purchasing them. But really? How sustainable is the constant clothing rental?

衣二三的创始人兼CEO刘梦媛认为，衣二三不仅可以满足女性对美和时尚的追求，并且能够延长衣服的使用寿命，减少浪费。在她看来，租衣服似乎比买衣服更加环保。但事实果真如此吗？持续的租赁到底有多环保呢？

Every item borrowed needs to be returned, and the transportation activities will definitely increase carbon dioxide emissions. According to Josué Velázquez-Martínez, a professor of Sustainable Logistics at MIT, an item ordered online and then returned can emit 20 kilograms of carbon each way. By comparison, the carbon impact of a pair of jeans purchased outright and washed and worn at home is 33.4 kilograms, based on a 2015 study commissioned by Levi’s.

成衣租赁服务要求每件租用的衣服都需要寄还回去，而运输活动会增加二氧化碳排放量。据麻省理工学院可持续物流学教授Josué Velázquez-Martínez估测，在网上租一件衣服，随后寄还，单程就可排放20千克碳。而2015年由李维斯委托开展的一项研究表明，在实体店直接买下牛仔裤，清洗后在家穿着，这一过程的碳排放量为33.4千克。

Rental services will meanwhile contribute to packaging waste, for borrowed clothes often come wrapped up like new. What’s worse, those cardboard boxes and plastic bags have a shockingly low recycling rate and require energy and water when they are.

此外，租赁服务还会造成包装浪费，因为每次寄出时衣服总是需要重新包装。更糟糕的是，用于包装的硬纸盒和塑料袋回收率都非常低，即使可回收，也会耗费能量和水资源。

Renting is not inherently sustainable, as we can see. But the clothing rental industry should invest more efforts in the wider use of renewable energy and the greater reduction in packaging waste. The future of sharing fashion will be more promising if it becomes greener.

由此可见，租赁并不一定是可持续的。但是服装租赁行业应投入更多努力，扩大可再生能源的使用，尽可能减少包装浪费。如果共享时尚能变得更加绿色，该产业的未来发展也将更加光明。

VOCABULARY

mushroom v. 快速增加

sustainable adj. 可持续的

inherently adv. 固有地，天生地