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Its really easy to shop but never thought that every fabric purchased deteriorates the environment until last month. What started as a regular day at college as I attended a masterclass on Sustainable Fashion and banggggg….the eureka moment. I was aghast to know how fashion industry is polluting the environment in ways I never thought was possible.

Its no news that garment prices have dropped over the last 20 years and that has allowed us to buy more and more clothes. We now have 5 times more clothes than our grandparents had. With over 15 pairs of denims, shorts ,Dresses ,Tops…… etc. 

But the fact is that it has become a challenge to wear a garment more than five times. Why?

• Garment quality is declining every year. As a result, our clothes immediately look faded, shapeless, or worn out.

• Trends are changing so quickly that we cannot keep up. We continue to purchase just to stay up to date.

Mass-production of cheap, disposable clothing. Countless new collections per year which makes us feel constantly out of date and encourages us to keep buying more. This continuous accumulation of cheap garments is only possible because of a few reasons - a constant reduction of production costs being one of them. But you must be thinking how does it lead to serious consequences on our health, our planet.

Chemical Impact

Chemicals are used in every part of the textile production for making fibers, bleaching and dyeing fabrics, etc… When they arrive in the shops, our clothes still contain a lot of chemicals, even clothes made of "100% natural" fiber. Our skin is our body's largest organ and absorbs anything we put on it, including chemicals in our clothes. These can present a real danger to our health. Toxic substances in our clothes. A Greenpeace study for the Detox Campaign has identified 11 chemicals frequently used to make our clothes that contain toxins, carcinogens, and hormone disruptors which should be banned, but currently aren't.

The Fashion in the second largest polluter in the world just after the oil industry and the environmental damage is increasing as the industry grows. However, there are solutions and alternatives to mitigate these problems. The first step lies in building awareness and willingness to change.

 

Water Pollution of the Fashion Industry

 In most of the countries in which garments are produced, untreated toxic wastewaters from textiles factories are dumped directly into the rivers. Wastewater contains toxic substances such as lead, mercury and arsenic, among others. These are extremely harmful for the aquatic life and the health of millions of people living by those rivers banks. The contamination also reaches the sea and eventually spreads around the globe. Another major source of water contamination is the use of fertilizers for cotton production, which heavily pollutes runoff waters and evaporation water.

Microfibers pollution of the fashion industry

Every time we wash a synthetic garment(polyester, nylon, etc.), about 700,000 individual microfibers are released into the water, making their way into our oceans. Scientists have discovered that small aquatic organism ingest those microfibers. These are then eaten by small fish which are later eaten by bigger fish, introducing plastic in our food chain. see more info #whatsinmywash and on Stop! Micro Waste.

Waste Problem in Fashion Industry

Clothing has clearly become disposable. As a result, we generate more and more textile waste. Only 15%  is recycled or donated, and the rest goes directly to the landfill. Synthetic fibers , such as polyester are plastic fibers therefore non-biodegradable and can take up to 200 years to decompose. these fibers are used in 70% of clothing production.

Greenhouse gases Emissions

The apparel industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions. The global fashion industry is generating a lot of greenhouse gasses due to the energy used during its production, manufacturing and transportation of the million garments purchased each year. Synthetic fibers used in the majority of our clothes , are made from fossil fuels, making production much more energy -intensive than with natural fibers.

Rainforest Destruction  

Every year , thousands of heactares and ancient forests are ut down and replaced by plantations of trees used to make wood-based fabrics such as rayon, viscose, and modal. This loss of forests is threatening the ecosystem.

Soil Degradation

The soil is a fundamental element of our ecosystem. we need healthy soil for production but also to absorb CO2. The massive degradation of soil is one of the main environmental issues. Fashion industry plays a major role by overgrazing of pastures through cashmere goats and sheep raised for their wool, degradation of soil due to massive use of chemical to grow cotton.

So next time I am about to buy one of those yellow kurtas or that black crop top which is on a heavy discount, I will be conscious of how its going to impact the environment. But just not buying is too hard an option, so its worth exploring some of the other choices of how to stay in trend in a sustainable way. Watch out the next blog for some of the sustainable selections that we all can adopt. 

Refrences:

Greenpeace, 2012. Toxic Threads: Putting Pollution on Parade. Available at: https://www.greenpeace.org/archive-international/Global/international/publications/toxics/Water%202012/ToxicThreads02.pdf

Messinger, L., The Guardian, 2016. How your clothes are poisoning our oceans and food supply. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/20/microfibers-plastic-pollution-oceans-patagonia-synthetic-clothes-microbeads

Mak, P. Huffington Post, 2016. Millennial Shopping Habits Are Changing Fashion - Here's How. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/01/14/millennial-shopping-habits_n_8980380.html

Natural Resources Defense Council, 2011. Polyester is a Synthetic, Non-Renewable Fiber, With Some Surprising Redeemable Qualities. Available at: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/CBD_FiberFacts_Polyester.pdf

O Ecotextiles, 2009. Why is recycled polyester considered a sustainable textile? Available at: https://oecotextiles.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/why-is-recycled-polyester-considered-a-sustainable-textile/