A typical household puts a considerable amount of thought into deciding the quantity and spread of grocery purchases to be made for the month. While this is considered normal and practical when it comes to the purchase of perishables, surprisingly, an increasing percentage of millennial consumers do not seem to apply the same levels of deliberation when purchasing clothing. Clothes– which as a product segment are considered to be durable, have come to be treated much like perishables. They are increasingly worn for extremely short periods of time and discarded recklessly, contributing to the mounting heap of landfills every year. Recognizing the ill effects of our clothing production and consumption patterns has become increasingly important. It is estimated that 73% of all our clothes end up in landfills, clearly an alarming statistic that cannot be ignored anymore.
In the wake of such telling numbers, the concept of Sustainable Fashion has found significance. This term is an all-encompassing concept that hopes to bring awareness both to consumers and producers about the unsustainable practices of the textile industry as a whole. Additionally, there is an effort to incorporate an element of environmental and social consciousness into the fashion/textile industry going forward.
The problem in question can be said to emanate from two different sources:
- The rise of consumerism – has led to indiscriminate spending on non-essential clothing without any consideration for wastage of resources
- Producers adopting manufacturing and sourcing methods that enable them to achieve economies of scale which significantly brings down the price of the final product for the end consumer. Unfortunately, these methods usually do not price in the negative environmental costs associated with large-scale production into the cost of the final product
With the primary problems clearly defined, let’s look at some facts and figures regarding the damage created by the textile industry:
- Textiles and Apparels are the 2nd most wasteful industry on earth after the Oil & Gas industry.
- 8.1%, or the equivalent of 3,990 million metric tons CO2 p.a., is attributed to the apparel and footwear industries.
- 20% of industrial water pollution is due to the treatment of textiles with chemicals and dyeing.
- Less than 1% of clothing enters a closed-loop recycling process.
- Every second, one garbage truck of textiles is incinerated or landfilled.
Considering that rapid volume growth is expected to continue for the next 10-15 years (due to increased prosperity and living standards for a large proportion of the world’s population) in the apparel industry, the effects on water consumption, energy emission, waste creation, and chemical usage are going to grow exponentially.
Considering the multi-dimensional problems of the sector, Sustainable Fashion initiatives are indeed the need of the hour. It is heartening to know that many entrepreneurs, activists and industry platforms around the world have come together to both individually and collectively take up this initiative. If you are interested to know more about innovators in the Sustainable Fashion space, kindly read further in our blogpost ‘Promising innovations in Sustainable Fashion’
Last but not the least, apart from the need to change industry practices, it is equally important for consumers to consciously change their consumption habits. Conscious consumers and empathetic producers together can make a real and sustainable difference in the world.
References:
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-high-price-of-fast-fashion-11567096637
- https://textclothsustain.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40689-016-0024-3
- https://www.vogue.in/content/ethical-fashion-what-happens-clothes
- https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/old-environmental-impacts>
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/earth-day-2019-fashion-industrys-carbon-impact-is-bigger-than-airline-industrys/
- https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/old-environmental-impacts
- https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/A-New-Textiles-Economy_Full-Report_Updated_1-12-17.pdf
- https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/A-New-Textiles-Economy_Full-Report_Updated_1-12-17.pdf