What is inside our colourful closets?
by Voolla Eswar Gokul
Many aspects of our modern life are known to cause environmental harm — like using disposable plastic items, careless disposal of untreated solid and liquid wastes, and even carbon emissions we cause through our transport choices. The environmental harm from these activities is somewhat visible. But with our clothing, the consequences are less obvious.
As per the UNEP Report, after the oil industry, the fashion industry is now the world’s second-largest polluter accounting for 10% of carbon emissions globally. And as the industry expands, the environmental damage is increasing. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation report, 2017, if the fashion industry continues on its current trajectory, the share of the global carbon emissions could leap to 26% by 2050.
A host of factors have resulted in environmental pollution from the fashion industry. As a global community, this brings us to ask, whether are we consuming clothes consciously and sustainably?
At present, the consumer’s demand for modern and trendy clothes, is driving the textile industry, while a century ago, clothes were manufactured locally, and for practical purposes. As a global community, we are afflicted by a phenomenon called ‘fast fashion’, which is a rapid increase in both supply and demand for cheaply produced clothing. This conceptualization of apparel production is being embraced and adopted by large retailers all over the world.
Essentially, this sensation induces us to do the following:
1. We incessantly purchase new clothes, whether or not we need them.
Consequence: The world now consumes about 80 billion pieces of clothing every year. As consumers worldwide purchase more clothes, the growing market for affordable, stylish, and trendy apparel is taking a toll on the environment. Attributing to falling costs, streamlined operations, and rising consumer spending, as per McKinsey &Company report clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014, and the number of garments purchased per capita between 2000 and 2014 increased by about 60% and consumers kept these clothes only for half as long. What then happen to these clothes?
2. We dislike and therefore discard clothes that are out of the latest trend. Consequence: As per United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a lot of this clothing ends up in the dump. The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second. About 85% of garments go into landfills every year.
3. We choose clothes from brands made of inexpensive fabrics without being conscious of their environmental effects.
Consequence: Synthetic fibres (polyester, acrylic, nylon) are used in most of our clothes. They are not only made from fossil fuel but are produced in countries that force people to work in dire conditions. According to James Conca from FORBES, “Cheap synthetic fibres also emit gases like N2O, which is 300 times more damaging than CO2.”
Therefore, one can say that this global trend is leading to an insatiable demand for the production and consumption of clothes.
The Unconscious Environmental Damage
1. Water consumption:
The most pressing issues concerning the production and manufacturing of our clothes are the direct consequences it has on the global water system. As per UNECE, the fashion industry is also the second-largest consumer of water worldwide.
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the fashion industry uses around 21 trillion gallons of water annually. Let’s take a simple case to break down this further.
Let’s look at the case of cotton:
It takes about 2500 liters of water to produce one cotton shirt. As per the WRI, that’s enough water for one person to drink at least eight cups per day for three-and-a-half years. It takes about 4500 liters of water to produce jeans. That’s more than enough for one person to drink eight cups per day for 5 years. That is because both the jeans and the shirt are made from a highly water-intensive plant: cotton. According to research conducted by
the Water Footprint Network, at least 22,000 liters of water are required to produce 1kg of cotton in India. Shockingly, in developing countries, approximately 20,000 people die of cancer and miscarriages due to the chemicals sprayed on cotton, according to the World Health Organization. Yes, cotton is a natural fibre, but the above facts makes it evident that
it is also an environmentally damaging crop. Further, a huge quantity of freshwater is used for the dyeing and finishing process for all our clothes. As a reference, it can take up to 200 tons of freshwater per ton of dyed fabric. This generates mass pressure on the water which has dire social and ecological
consequences for developing countries.
85% of the daily needs in water of the entire population of India would be covered by the water used to grow cotton in the country.100 million people in India and 750 million people in the world do not have access to drinking water.
— Stephen Leahy, The Guardian
2. Water pollution:
Fashion causes water pollution problems too. The most polluting and energy-intensive processes involved in manufacturing our clothes are dyeing, along with finishing. Finishing is where chemicals or treatments are added to the
fabric, such as bleaching, softening, or making the textile water-resistant or anti-wrinkle, to give it the desired look and feel. During dyeing, huge volumes of water and chemicals are often used to ensure that bright colours bind to the cloth and do not fade or wash out.
Many of the countries manufacturing textiles experience significant concentrations of untreated toxic wastewater. Sadly, this polluted water is pumped directly into nearby waterways by garment factories. Moreover, there are harmful contaminants such as lead, mercury, and arsenic in this wastewater. These highly dangerous compounds have a detrimental effect on aquatic life, as well as on individuals living along these waterways. The contaminants would inevitably enter the regional water system, and then the global water system.
According to UNEP, Textile dyeing is the second biggest water polluter in the world, since the water leftover from the dyeing process is often discharged into lakes or waterways. Overall, 20 percent of all industrial water pollution globally is caused by the garment industry.
In the case of cotton production, the use of fertilisers is another major source of water contamination which heavily pollutes runoff waters and evaporation waters.
3) Washing pollution
Washing and drying 1 kg of clothing over its entire life cycle, using typical methods, creates 11 kgs of greenhouse gases, according to McKinsey & company estimates. The post purchase choices that consumers make, such as whether to wash clothes in cold, warm, or hot water, also make a big difference.
Around 2,000 microfibers are released into the water, every time we wash a garment made from synthetic materials such as polyester or nylon. Eventually, these microfibers spread through the water system, ending up in our rivers and oceans. As per Greenpeace and World Resources Institute, washing clothes releases 5000,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean each year — the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles. Many of these fibres are polyester, a plastic found in an estimated 60% of garments. Producing polyester releases two to three times more carbon emissions than cotton, and polyester doesn’t break down in the ocean. Further, a 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that 35% of all microplastics — teeny tiny pieces of plastic that never biodegrade — in the ocean came from the laundering of synthetic textiles like polyester. Overall, microplastics are estimated to compose about 31% of plastic pollution in the ocean.
When aquatic species eat the microfibers, that include tiny pieces of plastic, it can fill their stomachs. Sadly, these microfibers do not dissolve, and some fibres even bind to harmful chemical pollutants, making them toxic. So, we have introduced a system that injects plastic into our oceans, our marine life, and eventually our own bodies.
Thus, during this current period of environmental crisis, it becomes imperative for us to become conscious of our clothing choices. Hence, the first step involves is building awareness about the fashion industry and its destructive methods of production, manufacturing, and exportation. Only once we are properly informed about where our clothes come from, can we consider certain aspects of our clothing.
