FASHION

You look fabulous darling

WHAT IS THE ISSUE WITH FASHION?

The textile industry is the second most polluting industry in the world after the petroleum industry. The whole textile life cycle endangers biodiversity, from the cultivation of crops to the disposal of fabric waste. And this global issue goes beyond environmental concerns as it threatens the lives of millions of people working in the textile industry. With fashion businesses increasing the number of collections offering clothes cheaper than mending or repairing what you already possess, 350,000 tonnes of fabric end up to landfill each year in the UK.

Not-so-Fun Facts

The average woman in the UK has £285 of clothes they will never wear, the equivalent of 22 outfits.
The production of the clothing of the average UK household involved the use of 200,000 litres a year – enough to fill 1,000 bathtubs.
The charity WRAP estimates that the value of unused clothing in wardrobes across the UK is around £30 billion.
Every week the UK sends 11 million items of clothing to landfill.
The fast fashion industry globally emits 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year.

WHAT IS THE DEVASTATING JOURNEY OF MY GARMENT?

Cotton Cultivation

The first issue with cultivating cotton is the enormous quantity of water needed. 2500 L of water are necessary to produce a 250 g T-shirt.

If well managed water extraction would not be an issue on its own. However, the production of cotton actually consumes 10% of the world's pesticides contributing to the massive pollution of watercourses and groundwater sources, and increasing water scarcity.

Furthermore, the majority of cotton crops cultivated are genetically modified to make them resistant to diseases, but it increases the number of "superweeds" becoming resistant to pesticides and requiring more and more toxic treatments.

Dyeing Fabric

The first environmental impact is once again the amount of water used in the process, with 200 tonnes of water needed per ton of dyed fabric.

Not to mention that dyes are highly toxic chemicals that contribute to polluting watercourses. It currently is the second cause of pollution of water and harms all living organisms including humans. Dyes cause allergies, skin diseases, slow mental development and cancers.

In China, 70% of the watercourses are polluted by the textile industry through the processes of bleaching, treating and dyeing fabric with around 8,000 different pollutants released straight into watercourses which are still used as primary sources of drinking waters for local communities.

Those dyes are used because they are cheap. But will you still look at your cheap Primark top the same way now that you know the environmental and human cost behind your saved pennies?

Washing Fabric

Polyester is the most widely use fibre in the world. But every time it is washed, at home or elsewhere, it releases micro-plastics in the water that is hardly removed by wastewater treatment plants. As a result of that, half a million tonne of micro-plastics is generated each year contributing to contaminating our watercourses. So if you think about it, choosing what you wear can also save our oceans.

Disposing of fabric

With all the excess production and the extremely fast renewal of consumers' wardrobes, more than half of the products of fast fashion are eliminated in less than a year. In 15 years the average number of times a garment is worn has decreased by 36% contributing to this mass generation of waste. It then gets either disposed into landfill or gets burned.

THEN WHAT CAN I DO?

The simplest thing you can do to reduce your environmental impact when it comes to fashion is buy less. People have so many hardly used clothing items in their wardrobe – maybe we just don’t need that many clothes. But if you enjoy buying clothes or can’t help it, don’t worry! There are more sustainable ways to go about it...

Make your clothes last longer – don't just throw them away! Mend clothes that are torn and upcycle things you no longer wear.
If you’re going to get rid of clothes, share them with friends or donate them to charity shops. Swap shops are an increasingly popular way of reusing clothes, and you can trade new clothes for your old ones.
Secondhand and charity shops do an amazing job of reusing clothing. The amount of clothes that Oxfam saves from landfill every year weighs as much as the Eiffel Tower!
If you want to make a little money from your clothes, consider selling them to friends or online through sites like Depop.
When you can afford it, shop local and handmade clothing. There are lots of places for this in Edinburgh (check out Godiva!). It’s sustainable and it supports local artisans.