New Year, New Fashion Habits

Fast fashion has been the industry standard for years now – consumers have become obsessed with the mass production of cheap, disposable clothes and producers are ready to give it to them. Consumers can’t wear a garment more than 5 times before it is behind the trend or worn through. According to the UN, a trash truck’s worth of textiles are either burned or sent to landfill every second. Fast fashion, and the fashion industry as a whole, is hurting workers, consumers, and the environment in tremendous ways.

Below are some highlights of the impacts of the clothing industry and ways you can make a meaningful change:

Water Pollution
Impact: Lead/mercury/arsenic and other chemicals pollute water from manufacturing processes, while cotton fertilizer runs off into local waterways.
Change: Buy clothes where there are strict factory regulations and choose organic/natural fibers.
Water Usage
Impact: Enormous amounts of water are used for dying/finishing products, while 20,000 liters are used to produce 1kg of cotton.
Change: Choose products that use low water consumption like linen, recycled fibers, etc.
Microfibers
Impact: Every time we wash clothes, 1,900 microfibers are released into our waterways and later consumed by aquatic animals, who are consumed by us!
Change: Choose natural or semisynthetic fibers with less embedded microplastics.
Waste Accumulation
Impact: 72% of clothes are made of synthetic fibers, which are not biodegradable and will last in landfills for hundreds of years.
Change: Buy less, better quality clothes that can be mended and then recycled.
Chemicals
Impact: Chemicals are used for dyeing, bleaching, wet processing, fiber production, and to grow the natural products our clothes are made of (such as cotton). These chemicals are then absorbed into our skin.
Change: Choose organic fibers, buy from sustainable brands, and wash clothes before wearing.
Emissions
Impact: 10% of all carbon emissions come from clothing production, manufacturing, and transportation, while synthetic fibers are made from fossil fuels.
Change: Buy less, better quality clothes that can be mended.
Soil degradation
Impact: Pastures are overgrazed by animals raised for skins, massive amounts of chemicals are used for cotton growth, and forests are cut down for wood based fibers – all destroying the nutrient content of the soil.
Change: Choose soil-friendly fibers like organic cotton,  linen, hemp, or recycled fibers
Deforestation
Impact: Wood-based fabrics such as rayon, viscose, and modal are grown where ancient forests have been cut down causing ecosystem devastation.
Change: Avoid buying these wood-based fabrics.

It may feel like you have to change your buying habits to save the world. However, fast fashion giant Forever 21 filing for bankruptcy may be a sign that the industry as a whole is changing. 53% of people 21 to 34 years old say they’d give up brand names to buy environmentally friendly products, according to a Nielsen survey. This sentiment is making its way to industry giants. For example, when investors questioned luxury brand Burberry for its practice of destroying unsold merchandise, Burberry announced a change to donate or recycle items while trying harder to only make as much as what will be bought.

In Atlanta, there are many places to buy sustainable clothes, and to recycle or donate old clothes you no longer want or need:

If your clothes are still wearable, you can also bring them to CHaRM, which accepts clothing for reuse for no fee. Their monthly Buckhead popup is in the parking lot of Peachtree Presbyterian Church, 3434 Roswell Road NW one Saturday a month from 8am to 12pm.

References

• https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-11-03/fast-fashion-sustainable
• https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/books/review/how-fast-fashion-is-destroying-the-planet.html
• https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/putting-brakes-fast-fashion
• https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/old-environmental-impacts#anchor-link-chemicals