The Fast Fashion Industy and The Environment
February 22, 2022
You might have heard or read a thing or two about how fast fashion is bad for the environment. The fact that our clothing ends up in landfill or the chemicals from them gets into our water systems, or that there is simply an overproduction of clothing that ends up as waste. And all of this is true.
*Theme song begins and title sequence appears. "Hi, my name is Yuddha and I'm here to talk to you about how the fast fashion industry impacts our environment".*
To reel you in.. here are some *alarming* facts:
- According to Business Insider, fashion production comprises of 10% of total global carbon emissions (Earth.org, 2020).
- Fast fashion exhausts our water resources and pollutes our rivers and streams, with 85% of all textiles going into dumps each year.
- 22,000 litres of of toxic waste is dumped into rivers by tanneries in Bangladesh every day (Sustain Your Style).
- As majority of fast fashion clothing is made of synthetic fibres (mentioned that in the previous post), the washing of clothing releases 50,000 tons of microfibres into the ocean each year, which ultimately impacts our sea life, coral reefs and the entirety of our ecosystem.
There is much more fact-based information I can present to you in bite size, however I prefer to give it to you in its full (disastrous) glory. So here we go..
When it comes to the overall impacts of fast fashion on the environment, the onus is not just on the beginning stages of manufacturing and distributing garments from the supply chain and retailers, it is also the purchasing and throwing away by the consumers. It is the entire process and life cycle of garments that has an impact on the environment at each and every stage.
WATER DEPLETION & POLLUTION
FROM SUPPLY CHAINS
The fast fashion industry uses an excessive amount of water. It is used in more ways than one in the entire supply chain (cleaning and washing), with 10,000 litres of water being used to grow and produce one kilogram of cotton or approximately 3,000 litres of water for one cotton shirt (Princeton, 2020). 2.6 % of the global freshwater is used to produce cotton (Sustain Your Style). It is essentially exhausting and depleting our natural resources to make a single shirt to be worn for God knows how long. Although cotton is a natural fibre, it becomes a question of how many needs to be produced in the first place (with ties to the issues of the overproduction of our clothing).
Water is also used in the process of textile dyeing, which is done for literally all of our clothing. It can take up to 200 tons of water per ton of dyed fabric (Sustain Your Style). In addition, textile dyeing greatly pollutes are water, leading to this being the second largest polluter of water. When garments are being dyed, the excess water from the production is often being dumped directly into rivers, streams and our oceans. The untreated toxic waters spreads across the globe, consequently contaminating the drinking water around areas that are directly impacted.
Ultimately, 1.5 trillion litres of water is used by the fast fashion industry each year, leaving 750 million people in the world without access to drinking water (Sustain Your Style).
TO CONSUMERS | MICRO-PLASTICS
Studio shoot of microplastics from water samples taken by manta trawl (mesh size: 300µm ) in different German rivers onboard the Beluga II (period: April—June 2016 © Fred Dott/Greenpeace
As mentioned a number of times before in the previous post, fast fashion clothing is made of synthetic fibres, such as nylon or polyester. These materials are made of plastic. We learnt that the leftover water from textile dyeing is dumped into our global waters, but did you know the washing of our clothing in washing machines produces microplastics, which then end up in our water systems? If you're wondering what exactly microplastics are, they are tiny microscopic non-biodegradable plastic bits that releases from our clothing. Sometimes they are so small and miniscule that you may not realize you're consuming it through food products as well.
Each time we wash our synthetic clothing in a washing machine, approximately 700,000 individual microfibres are released in the water, which then makes their way into the ocean (Sustain Your Style). The point is, because the washing of our clothing ends up releasing microplastics into the ocean, it thus impacts our sea and marine life. Not only is it harmful for their health, but it's harmful for us humans too. Remember when I said we've most likely (99%) eaten or ingested microplastics and not even realize it? Small fish ingest the plastics, which are then eaten by bigger fish, which then introduces plastic into our food chain! (Sustain Your Style). Yum.
TIPS: I always wash my clothing on a cold cycle, since it preserves energy and emits less microplastics. And I wash every every week and a half at that (or when I really need to). You can also invest in guppy or filter bags that you can put in the washing machine to prevent microplastics from releasing.
Another tip or suggestion is to simply avoid buying clothing made from synthetic fibres, if possible. Try exploring linen or hemp.
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
FROM SUPPLY CHAINS
The textile industry's supply chain is very energy-intensive. Creating and processing synthetic fabric into textiles requires a lot of energy, which means the use of electricity. Electricity is needed to run machinery, sewing machines, as well as for washing, drying and dying fabrics (The Conscious Challenge). In addition to that, the transportation of garments produces CO2 as majority of garments travel by ship. In all, the supply chain requires 10 times more energy to produce one ton of textiles than does the production of one ton of glass (The Conscious Challenge).
WASTE OF TEXTILES IN LANDFILLS (AIR POLLUTION)
FROM BRANDS AND COMPANIES | OVERPRODUCTION
I would like to believe most people know and understand that there is a mass [over] production of clothing being made and our landfills make up a huge portion of it. And I won't be going into this too much, but that is because our society is built on capitalism and consumerism; the need to buy, buy, buy and forget about it shortly after.
Where brands and companies fit into this is the overproduction of clothing. With the rise of trends and what's new and in-demand, people are programmed to consume as much as they can, only for it to have a short life cycle. Brands and larger companies feed these ideologies and create this cultural mindset to the mass, and in order to keep up with demand, supplies go up. A lot of brands and companies make more clothing (or in specific supply chains that are hired by brands to make the garments) than is necessary, in hopes of selling each and every piece. But what happens to the excess or unsold clothing that is not bought due to either lack of interest, new trends or whatever the reasons may be? First and foremost, they get sold to thrift stores or charity shops. And if they are not being sold there.. well, they end up in landfill.
TO CONSUMERS | OVERCONSUMPTION
In continuation of the above paragraph, all unwanted and unsold clothing ends up in landfill. Folks spend money on items they don't need and either give away/donate clothes they no longer want, or they simply throw it away (please never, ever do the latter). The longer textiles sit in landfill, the more plastic pollution it emits into our air. Majority of fast fashion textiles is non-biodegradable, which means it can take up to 200 years to decompose in landfill (Sustain Your Style), which, let's be honest, no amount of clothes will be sitting there for that long, and if it does sit for a long period of time (years), that ain't good for our health. As for the latter, throwing away our clothing in garbage/trash is a direct link to ending up in landfill, however it has a higher chance of getting incinerated or burned than otherwise (all clothing in landfill will eventually be incinerated due to a vast majority not being able to be recycled). When clothing is being burned, the toxins and greenhouse gases it emits pollute our air and becomes a health and safety concern for those nearby.
Only 15% of donated clothing is recycled. 85% of that ends up in landfill (Waste Reduction Week Canada). And to make matters worse.. the donated items don't just stay on our native lands, rather it is shipped across sea to places such as Acra, Ghana at the Kantamonto Market, the biggest second hand market out there. I will talk a bit more about this in another post.
Also, incinerating clothes also pollute our air with microplastics. So there's that..
TIPS: Buy less. Buy better quality. If no longer in need or want a clothing item, try a clothing swap with friends or family, lending it, giving it away to someone who wants it. Upcycle it and turn it into something new. Mend it if the only reason you're giving it away is because it is damaged, and if you are unable to, look for someone who can. Then, your last option should be to donate or give it away to charity.
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
Besides the GHG emissions from dumping our clothing into landfills or incinerations, greenhouse gases are also being generated during the production, manufacturing, and transportation of garments each year. The fast fashion industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions (Sustain Your Style). The factories are also powered by coal in places such as China, Bangladesh, and India, which already have a history of high intense pollution and carbon emissions.
RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION | VISCOSE
"70 million trees are cut down each year to make clothes" (Sustain Your Style). If you're wondering why that is bad, it is because we need trees to live, simply put. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and other gases, and in turn, replenishes the atmosphere with oxygen (Quiet Nature). Viscose, or rayon as it's known as, is a cellulosic fibre made from wood pulp (Princeton), and is used in majority of our beloved silk-look alike clothing that is soft and breathable. Unfortunately, every year thousands of hectares of forests are cut down and replaced with plantations of trees, unethically used with harmful chemicals to create fabrics (rayon, viscose, modal), and releases toxic chemicals into the air and waterway surrounding the plantation (Great Plains Conservation). It is considered a cheaper alternative to cotton, with a higher environmental cost at that.
CONCLUSION..
As we can see, fast fashion does a lot of detrimental harm and damage to our environment and planet as a whole. There is far more information out there on the micro and macro level of effects that I am not equipped to cover, however these are the main points that come to mind and are also the biggest known impacts through research and conversations.
We shouldn't be okay or comfortable living on a planet knowing the clothing we are being given and the brands and companies producing and promoting it (who simply don't care) is doing harm, and how our consumption and investment in this industry is continuing to perpetuate that harm. I know us humans can only do so much, especially within the means we are given, however it is important to understand that we have so much power in changing the way the systems and structures work. The environment and our planet can only sustain so much damage...let's be that voice and child the Earth needs right now.
SOURCES USED
Sustain Your Style: https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/en/whats-wrong-with-the-fashion-industry
Princeton Student Climate Initiative: https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/7/20/the-impact-of-fast-fashion-on-the-environment
Earth.org: https://earth.org/fast-fashions-detrimental-effect-on-the-environment/
Conservation Law Foundation: https://www.clf.org/blog/whats-wrong-with-burning-our-trash-anyway/
The Conscious Challenge: https://www.theconsciouschallenge.org/ecologicalfootprintbibleoverview/clothing-energy
Great Plains Conservation: https://greatplainsconservation.com/safariboutique/is-viscose-really-better-for-the-environment/#:~:text=The%20wood%20pulp%20that%20viscose,and%20waterways%20surrounding%20production%20plants.
Quiet Nature: https://www.quietnature.ca/why-are-trees-so-important/#:~:text=Trees%20absorb%20carbon%20dioxide%20and,replenish%20the%20atmosphere%20with%20oxygen.&text=Over%2050%20years%2C%20a%20tree,%2431%2C250%20worth%20of%20soil%20erosion.
0 comments