5 Reasons why fashion may be damaging our planet
Fashion's relentless pursuit of fast trends and mass production contributes to environmental degradation through resource-intensive manufacturing, pollution, and excessive waste, posing a significant threat to the delicate balance of our planet's ecosystems. Here are five reasons why fashion may be damaging our planet.
1. The fashion industry’s thirst trap contributes to the global water shortage.
Over 2 billion people across 40 countries are impacted by global water shortage, and the fashion industry is one of the contributors to this crisis.
Out of all the fibres, cotton has the highest water footprint. The cotton shirt you own might have consumed up to 2700 litres of water for its production. One person can drink so much water over three years!
Unfortunately, the fashion industry heavily relies on water from the cultivation of raw materials to the wet processes of textile manufacturing like bleaching, dyeing, printing and finishing, which also produce wastewater in the form of production waste and consumer laundering, polluting the natural water bodies.
2. The thirst is not just to quench, but also to contaminate
A toxic trait of the fashion industry is its thirst to contaminate the water. Many rivers, oceans and the livelihoods of the people dependent on them have been victimized by the fashion industry’s water contamination.
One such victim is the Noyyal River, a once-one-of-the-purest-rivers flowing in the Tiruppur region, known as the knitwear capital of India. The Noyyal River has been polluted due to the rise of the textile factories in that region. The textile industry unapologetically uses over 15,000 chemicals during the production processes. These chemical dyes and bleaching agents from textile manufacturing plants were discharged directly into the Noyyal River, making it extremely toxic.
The livelihood of the fishermen was disrupted as they depended solely on the fish, and most of the fish was reportedly inedible and abnormally coloured due to dyes. The groundwater is no longer suited for irrigation, terribly affecting farmers. The story of the Noyyal River is a harsh reminder of the fashion’s thirst to contaminate flowing rivers.
3. The toxicity of Microplastics:
We all know that plastic is a toxic, cancer-causing material. If your clothes are made of synthetic materials such as polyester, nylon, or acrylic, they shed tiny fibres when they are washed. These fibres pass through wastewater treatment plants and end up in natural water bodies.
These tiny fibres are called microplastics— tiny plastic fragments, often less than 5mm in size. The microplastics, when flushed into natural waters, the fish and other organisms consume these particles. This can cause the fish and other organisms to become abnormal and inedible, or we may end up consuming these fish, risking our lives!
An alarming case of Great Lakes, the chain of deep freshwater lakes in North America is that of the water samples collected from the Great Lakes, 90% of them have microplastics. This spread of toxicity is a threat to people and nature.
4. There’s just too much waste
The textile industry produces more than 92 million tons of waste every year. On top of that, an average polyester garment takes over 200 years to decompose and releases thousands of harmful microplastics throughout its lifetime. It's concerning to think about the impact of this on our planet.
The number of textiles discarded by consumers is around 60% of the total garments produced, which means for every 10 garments produced, 6 are thrown away.
Maybe you are responsible for sending your clothes to recycle, but only 1% of all the old clothes sent by people like you, are recycled into new clothing. That means the rest of it ends up in landfills. This is a sign to slow down the production and consumption.
5. Fashion’s Carbon footprint:
Carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released into the environment. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the textile industry causes 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions from the energy source used in manufacturing, logistics and consumer use (laundering).
However, the carbon dioxide emissions are highest during synthetic fibre extraction(manufacturing).
Additionally, conventional cotton cultivation can produce 3.5 times more carbon dioxide than organic cotton cultivation. Organic fabrics make a difference!
In short:
Water scarcity, pollution, waste, microplastics and fashion’s huge carbon footprint are some of the alarming messages from the planet hinting us to make sustainable production and consumption.
