THE TOLL OF FAST FASHION ON THE ENVIRONMENT

The fashion industry represents an important part of our economies, with a value of more than $2.5 trillion and employing over 75 million people worldwide. Good as that may sound, it comes with far more environmental cost than me and you can imagine. Having said that, let's see how fashion affects the environment.

Fashion is a complicated business involving long and varied supply chains of production, raw material, textile manufacture, clothing construction, shipping, retail, use and ultimately disposal of the garment. Adding to this chain is the ultimate problem of consumerism that people around the world have developed especially in the fashion industry. Feeding this rampant consumerism is the “fast fashion" trend, in which clothing is designed to be moved as quickly as possible from the local store across the world. Only about 10 years old, fast fashion is leading the way in actual disposable clothing and it is particularly worrisome because it creates demand for and then constantly churns out massive amounts of cheap clothes, ultimately accelerating carbon emissions and global warming.

The fashion industry affects humanity in different ways such as over water consumption and pollution (e.g., 1.5 trillion liters of water are used by the fashion industry each year as 750 million people in the world have no access to drinking water, and 200,000 tons of dye are lost to affluents each year as 90% of wastewaters in developing countries is discharged into rivers without treatment), waste accumulation (e.g., 85% of the human-made debris on the shorelines around the world are microfibers as 15% of our clothing only are recycled), chemical waste (23% of all chemicals produced worldwide are used for the textile industry), greenhouse gas emissions (e.g., 70 million oil barrels are used each year to produce polyester, and 23kg of greenhouse gases are generated for each kilo of fabric produced), soil degradation (e.g., 90% of Mongolia's surface is facing the threat of desertification due to the breeding of the cashmere goats that provide wool for coat making) among many other ways.

To begin with, globalization means that your shirt likely traveled halfway around the world in a container ship fueled by the dirtiest of fossil fuels. While we don't know what percentage of cargo garments comprise on the world's 9,000 container ships, we do know that a single ship can produce as much cancer and asthma-causing pollutants as 50 million cars in just one year. The low-grade bunker fuel burned by ships is 1,000 times dirtier than highway diesel used in the trucking industry. These ships do not consume fuel by the gallon, but by tons per hour. Pollution by the shipping industry, which has boomed over the past 20 years, is beginning to affect the health of those living in coastal and inland regions around the world, yet the emissions of such ships go mostly unregulated.

Additionally, majority of the ingredients of fashion is the materials like cotton, nylon, polyester, among others. On one hand, made from petrochemicals, polyester and nylon are not biodegradable (can take between 20-200 years to decompose), so they are unsustainable by their very nature. While the manufacturing of both uses great amounts of energy, nylon also emits a large amount of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, during manufacturing. The impact of one pound of nitrous oxide on global warming is almost 300 times that of the same amount of carbon dioxide, the most ubiquitous greenhouse gas. While cotton, especially organic cotton, might seem like a smart choice, it can still take more than 5,000 gallons of water to manufacture just a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Synthetic, man-made fibers, while not as water-intensive, often have issues with manufacturing pollution and sustainability. And across all textiles, the manufacturing and dyeing of fabrics is chemically intensive.

The fashion industry is currently responsible for more annual carbon emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. If the industry maintains its course, an increase of 50% in greenhouse gas emissions is expected within a decade. By analyzing the root causes of the problem, the next steps are easier to understand as we can connect the dots and create solutions.

Below are some of the environmental footprints of fast fashion according to Geneva environment network:

• The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second (UNEP, 2018)
• Approximately 60% of all materials used by the fashion industry are made from plastic (UNEP, 2019)
•  500,000 tons of microfibers are released into the ocean each year from washing clothes — the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017)
• The fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of humanity’s carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined (UNEP, 2018). If the fashion sector continues on its current trajectory, that share of the carbon budget could jump to 26% by 2050 (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017)
•   Some 93 billion cubic meters of water – enough to meet the needs of five million people – is used by the fashion industry annually, contributing significantly to water scarcity in some regions (UNCTAD, 2020)
•  Around 20% of industrial wastewater pollution worldwide originates from the fashion industry (WRI, 2017)

As we all can agree, the fashion industry has caused a substantial amount of damage to our environment. However, if me and you start taking proactive steps towards advocating for a green-friendly fashion industry and becoming environmentally-conscious consumers, we could slow down these effects and make the environment livable. Real change could also happen if the big, affordable brands found a way of making and selling sustainable and environmentally friendly clothing. Until then, you as a consumer can help by changing where you shop and what you buy as well as doing mindful purchasing and supporting the reform.

LET'S GET TO WORK