Are we killing the planet in style | Sustainable Fashion
When Marc Jacobs said that clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them, he probably wasn’t thinking of all the clothes that end up in the Great Pacific garbage patch or the carbon emissions the industry is responsible for. Eloise Hunt talks about the need for sustainability and discusses ways to mitigate our passion for fashion.
At the thought of pollution, we imagine raw sewage pumped into rivers, open-caste mines and oil spills. We don’t often think of our fluffy unicorn slippers or plaid shirts. But the overall impact the fashion industry has on our planet is shocking. The production of clothing has been estimated to account for 10% of total carbon impact. The fashion industry is arguably the second greatest polluter in the world, second only to oil. Even ignoring the human rights abuses and animal suffering, the impact of our disposable dress is dire. People need to be taking fashion more seriously, not less.
The lack of sustainability in fashion can be blamed on four major factors. Firstly, there is enormous energy consumption associated with clothing. Production is concentrated in countries such as Bangladesh and China. Here, factories are powered by coal plants before garments are shipped to the rest of the world. It is difficult to find reliable data on how much fuel is guzzled transporting clothes. But, we do know that in the US only 2% of clothing is domestically produced and globally 90% of fabrics are transported by cargo ship. A single ship can produce as much atmospheric pollution as 50 million cars in just one year.
Another major factor is cheap synthetic fibres increasingly replacing natural cotton or wool. Polyester and nylon are both non-biodegradable, energy intensive, and made from petrochemicals. Polyester is rapidly increasing in value and is now in over half of all clothing. Nylon is absorbent and breathable, so perfect for making those super cute yoga pants. But nylon production forms nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 310 times stronger than carbon dioxide (not so cute). Viscose is another synthetic which is derived from wood pulp, and the material’s popularity in fashion has caused deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia. This is significant as the rainforest is often described as the ‘lungs of the earth’ – acting as our most effective carbon sink and providing oxygen in return.
Even when stepping away from synthetics, cotton is hardly innocent. It is incredibly water intensive accounting for 2.6% of global water use. It takes 2,000 litres of water to produce the average cotton t-shirt. Further, 99.3% of cotton growth uses fertilizers, which can cause runoff and eutrophication of waterways. Uzbekistan, the sixth largest producer of cotton in the world, is the poster boy of cotton catastrophe. In the 1950s, two rivers were diverted from the Aral Sea as a source of irrigation for cotton production. As the sea dried up, it also became over-salinated and laden with pesticides and fertilizer from agricultural runoff. Contaminated dust from the bare, dry lake-bed saturated the air, creating a public health crisis and settling onto farmland. This also has the knock-down effect of making the regional climate more extreme with colder winters and hotter summers. Currently, water levels in the Aral are less than 10% of what they were 50 years ago. Whilst this is a dramatic example of cotton farming, similar environmental mayhem can be seen globally.
The final environmental issue with fashion is the overwhelming garment greed driving consumption. The western world hunts down a sale as our ancestors chased prey in the wilderness. High demand produces 150 billion items of clothing annually, which globally equates to 20 new items per person every year. Then, on average each garment is worn only seven times before being dumped in a landfill. Worse still, in the UK alone £37.5 billion worth of clothing is hidden in our closets unused and unloved.
Faced with issues of energy consumption, the rise of synthetics, water consumption, and fast fashion it’s easy to feel powerless. But, with increased scrutiny comes sustainable solutions. Increasingly, high-end designers are turning eco fashion from hippy to haute with endorsements from celebrities, including Mark Ruffalo, Emma Watson and Stella McCartney. This is a small yet significant thread of hope.
But what can us mere students do when we don’t have thousands to splurge on a tee? I’ll spare you the lecture on conscious consumerism as it’s clear that we need to loose our societal obsession with buying the latest catwalk trend and wear our clothes for longer. But, when you need new clothes, opting for Fair Trade or organic fabrics is a simple way to ease pesticide pollution and, in the case of cotton, reduce water consumption by 60%. If your heart still throbs for high street style, then look to the H&M Conscious line which uses sustainably sourced or recycled materials. Or, better yet choose second hand, vintage or upcycled items to save your pennies and the planet from the processing of more virgin fibres.
In celebration of Green Week, Environmental Society are holding a clothing and items swap at 13:00-16:00 in Metric on Wednesday the 22nd February – this is a perfect opportunity to rejuvenate your wardrobe with sustainable style. Above all, fashion is not yet sustainable but we, as consumers, hold enormous power to persuade brands to make products that are clean, of high-quality, and worth wearing.
