HOW IS FASHION HURTING OUR PLANET?
A huge topic of conversation/debate will always be about the health of our planet. Through the industrial revolution, we have began to let the health of our planet suffer as a result of our growing addiction to consumerism. As demand for goods rises, the need to produce those goods also rises, not only diminishing our planet’s finite recourses but also raising carbon admissions, furthermore worsening the state of our planets health. (Green Tumble, 2016).
SUSTAINABILITY WITHIN FASHION
So, how does the fashion industry effect this? of course, as we walk into a shopping centre, most of us are not thinking of how we are effecting the planet by our fashion choices. However, the fashion industry is considered one of the main contributors to world pollution and climate change and is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon admissions (World Bank, 2019). As clothes become more accessible to buy in all quantities/colours/patterns/materials the health of our planet suffers. The world consumes 80 billion new clothes every year, 400% more than two years ago (The True Cost, 2015), therefor clothes sent to landfill is at an all time high (85% textiles are sent to landfills) as well as staggering water usage and huge demand for recourses such as cotton on a scale larger than the natural ecosystem process can keep up with. with this being said, ‘fast’ fashion at the rate it is today is obviously highly unsustainable. recourses will run out, carbon emissions will sky rocket and climate change will be at an all time high. There are different ways to take this such as global legislation against fast fashion, business’s working of a made to wear basis and most importantly creating more climate conscious consumers (Drapers report, 2022)
THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
The circular economy is based on an idea that all materials will be reused/recycled, with the vision that no materials will go to waste/effect the environment. Keeping materials in circulation for as long as possible and most importantly slowing down climate change (EPA, 2023). Therefor the circular economy promotes the act of reusing clothes or recycling them to combat the vast amount of clothes that are sent to land fill. 95% of clothes sent to land fill could be recycled but at the moment only 1% are. In order to make fashion ‘more sustainable’ this is something we HAVE to improve on.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS
In 2015 all United Nations members adopted 17 goals “peace and prosperity for people and the planet” as part of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development (SDGS United Nations). Arguably almost all of these sustainability goals can be related to the fashion industry. for example, goal six: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Water scarcity has always been an issue globally, and the fashion industry could be partly to blame. It’s estimated that the fashion industry currently uses around 93 billion cubic metres of water per year and this figure is set to double by 2030 (Common Objective, 2021). This is due to the huge overproduction of clothes, therefor creating unnecessary and unsustainable water usage. for example It takes on average 10,000-20,000 litres of water to cultivate just one kilogram of raw cotton (common objective, 2021). ‘The fashion industry currently uses enough water to quench the thirst of 110 million people for an entire year’ (Pulse of the Fashion Industry, 2017,2019).
BIBLIOGRAPGHY.
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United states environmental protection agency. (2020). what is the circular economy?. [Online]. EPA. Last Updated: 2023. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/circulareconomy/what-circular-economy [Accessed 6 October 2023].
Drapers. (2022). Collaborating for Change: Sustainability Report 2022. [Online]. Drapers. Last Updated: 2022. Available at: https://www.drapersonline.com/guides/collaborating-for-change-sustainability-report-2022 [Accessed 6 October 2023].
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