Today we are going to talk about sustainability in the fashion business.
Let’s imagine a typical day in the life of an average 21st century consumer.
I’ll take myself as an example. I come from work and check out what’s new on social media… Oops, five to six posts by various clothing brands await me.
Then, I scan news sites – what’s going on in our country and in the world. However, I cannot finish a single story without being bombarded by several new ads for clothes and shoes!
Then I skim my private e-mail and… clothing company newsletters take up more than 50% of my inbox. And my phone? Brand apps I sometimes use are firing up!
Does that sound familiar?
It’s true, some posts and ads show really nice things. Of course, I click on them. The dress I can picture myself in tempts me to look at it from every angle. Plus, now it’s on sale for only half of the original price. Hey, but look at this T-shirt! It’s so cool, it would go great with those blue jeans.
Can you see yourself in this story too? Well, every such temptation leads to a sustainability problem.
“Stop!Stop right now!” –the voice in your head starts to scream, your brain trying to navigate your many wants.
Do you really need one more dress? Where will you wear it? Or one more T-shirt? You have so many already. Hold yourself together, think about what you’re doing to yourself, to your pocket, to your wardrobe by buying all these unnecessary items of clothing.
Also think about what you’re doing to your community, country, planet Earth, to the future of your children and grandchildren.
Turn on the warning lights in your brain, so to say and, every time before you buy one more clothing item, think about the sustainability of life on Earth.
Unfortunately, here we are. Every T-shirt, trousers and dress have a direct impact on the sustainability of the lives of all of us, but also of our offspring.
Ask Why Before You Buy…
Allways
I’m sure you know this already, but maybe it’s more in the back of our brain because it seems like distant future and has nothing to do with us personally, right?
However, it does!
With today’s post I would like to call to your attention how we, as stakeholders in the fashion business and consumers of fashion products, contribute to global pollution, emission of harmful gases and destruction of the Earth’s resources.
Nevertheless, this post also aims to clarify some ambiguities and point out that every individual has the power to contribute to the reversible process of the planet Earth’s recovery and preservation of its resources.
How? By simply adopting new habits and long-term considering one’s own role in the fashion business and in today’s consumer world.
Got you interested? Let’s embark on this journey, then!
Over the last several years, sustainability has become a dominant term in the fashion business– a must have, we could say!
That’s great news, regardless of whether this step forward has been brought about by rising awareness of the global population on the threat to the planet Earth posed by textile waste, or
it was initiated by new, stricter legislation, whose foundations were laid down several years ago by 2015 Paris agreement on climate change.
In this one, as well as in the future posts, I will also touch upon the basic elements of sustainability in fashion and textile industries, provide info on this sector’s share in the total global waste production.
We’ll also reveal some steps that the fashion industry has decisively and irrevocably taken to enter a new chapter.
A chapter of sustainable textile and clothing. Finally!
Today’s textile waste – shocking data
According to some sources, textiles and clothing today make up as much as 22% of the total global mixed municipal waste on landfills (most of it cannot be recycled anymore) and are responsible for 10% of total hazardous gas emissions!
These data are shocking, but the reality looks even worse:
- Textiles account for 22% of total global mixed waste
- Globally, we consume 62 million tonnes of textiles per year. By 2030, this is expected to reach 102 million tonnes
- Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
- The fashion industry is responsible for 8.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2016, when this study was done, apparel and footwear industry produced an estimated 3,990 million metric tons C02eq
- Polyester, a synthetic textile, accounts for 51% of textiles produced – that’s 54 million tonnes. Cotton is second with 25% at 26 million tonnes (2017)
- CO2 emissions are also affected heavily by usage: it is estimated that for a cotton t-shirt, 35% of lifetime CO2 emissions are generated during production, and 52% are producing during use (when washing)
- The fashion industry is responsible for 20% of water waste worldwide
- The textile industry uses an estimated 79 billion cubic meters of water per year. That’s 10 cubic meters of water for every person on the planet, or 10,000 liters per person
- 95% of water used in textile irrigation, almost 40 trillion litres, is linked to the production of cotton
- To produce one cotton shirt the fashion industry uses 2700 liters of water. That’s the equivalent of 2.5 years of drinking water or 24 bathtubs.
- Approximately 35% of all oceanic primary microplastic pollution is caused by the fashion industry. That’s 190,000 tonnes of microplastic waste entering the oceans each year due to fashion
- Textiles generate more greenhouse gases per unit of material than almost any other industry (except aluminum)
- The fast fashion trend means clothing brands are now producing almost twice as many clothing collections per year than they were before 2000.
- 87% of the total fibre input used for clothing is either landfilled or incinerated
- The textile industry uses more than 15,000 different chemicals
- Because people are buying more new clothes, they are using them less: the average piece of clothing is worn 36% fewer times now than it was 15 years ago. This is most extreme in Western countries, such as the US, but China is catching up. In China, clothing utilization has decreased by 70% over the last 15 years
Source and more data: https://woollygreen.com/fashion-industry-waste-statistics/
Therefore, the world’s fashion industry is responsible for at least 10% of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere! What a number! It makes you shiver!
The seriousness of this data has brought us to the realisation that the 21st century fashion and textile industries are absolutely unsustainable.
The unusable waste is piling up, while new resources are used for the production of new textiles, which only compounds the problem, destroys nature and increases the emissions of the by-product carbon dioxide.
So, from this point on, every single person on Earth should think twice when consuming “fast fashion”, as every one of us has a significant impact and responsibility on future of our planet Earth.
Next blog: What sustainability means for fashion industry and how every one of us can help
