There’s Nothing Sustainable About Fashion.
We all love to wear clothes. Unless you’re a nudist. In terms of self-expression, our fashion choice is our most obvious statement to the world. Our choice of clothing announces our first impression to bystanders indicating our labels, classes and often personal opinions or views. This trillion-dollar industry is one of the most detrimental to the health of our planet and it is often overlooked.
Most of us have heard of the term, “Fast Fashion”. The fashion industry created fast fashion to address the desire for catwalk-look clothing for a lower income household. These mass-produced clothes made to address affordability may appear like catwalk styles, however, are far from it. To capitalise on this demand, the industry utilise cheap textiles and manufactured high-output models, what used to be referred to as sweat shops - in relation to the terrible pay and treatment. This business model encourages high turnover of styles and rapid consumption. Reading between the lines, this means a LOT of clothing waste and significant carbon emissions from factory production.
92 million tonnes
of textile waste every year.
So, what are “cheap textiles”? In the sustainable world, these are referred to as non-biodegradable textiles. They are materials that can be produced in manufacturing facilities on demand. They are not textiles that require harvesting, meaning less cost for labour and transportation. Simply put, they are plastic fabrics derived from petroleum-based materials. These are materials such as polyester, rayon, acrylic, nylon, elastane to name a few. These fabrics take centuries to break down, like any other plastic. Not to mention they are terrible for your skin and heat regulation of your body.
You may say, well I prefer to wear cotton. I’m doing my part. We are glad for your skin benefits and heat regulation. However, cotton is the worst biodegradable material we could be relying on. The cultivation of cotton farms is incredible taxing on our water supply. Up to 10,000-20,000 gallons of water is required to make ONE pair of jeans. Compared to a human that requires on average 60 gallons of water per year.
2,700L of water is required to make 1 cotton t-shirt.
What can we do about it then?
THRIFT. Thrift like your little heart depends on it. Biodegradable clothes are often ugly or expensive. We all love looking nice and expressing ourselves externally. We all have that favourite pair of pants. Condensing our wardrobe and wearing our clothes until they fall apart is the best thing we can do. Outside of this, giving your clothes a second life. Rehoming or donating your clothes is a great way to ensure the life span of the clothes is fully realised.
Because of the detriment and alarming data being recorded for plastic waste, organisations have been established that aim to recycle clothing into other useful items for the remainder of the materials life span. These are things such as jewellery or furniture.
Aside from this, when purchasing clothes, it is best practice to select textiles that are considered biodegradable. The movement towards sustainable fashion is on the rise! Most brands entertain cotton; however, we have spoken about that. Other textiles that are good for you and good for the environment are: bamboo, linen, silk, hemp or abaca. There are historical materials such as wool, leather or fur that were also considered sustainable. However, in recent years the treatment and manufacturing of these materials are incredibly harmful for the environment. Should these materials be “made sustainably” then they are also excellent choices.
60% of 150 million garments were discarded globally in 2012
I think there’s more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking and I plan on finding out what that is. - Derek Zoolander
Our Recommendation?
For SW, we encourage thrifting as much as possible. These loved-again clothing items are no longer fuelling the fast fashion industry; however, they still exist. Their lifespans of use have not yet been fulfilled. Every purchase and use of existing clothing is one less item that requires manufacturing in the industry. Over half of all the clothing items the fast fashion industry is manufacturing are going into landfill. They are made; they exist so we should use them instead of putting them in our Earth. Where we can, however, we should be making effort to decrease the sales in the industry and therefore, lower demand and requirement for manufacturing new items.
