Welcome back to the overview series! Here is the second instalment that goes through the main problems we found.
Fast fashion has propelled a culture of continuous buying and throwing away of clothing. Rather than the traditional 2 cycles per year, fast fashion puts out an average 50 cycles per year of new clothing lines, resulting in millions of tons of textile waste each year. 85% of used textiles go to landfills rather than being recycled. There are little ventures recycling clothing as it currently is a manual process done by hand by workers. Furthermore, different types of textiles require different recycling processes.
Moreover, the fashion industry emits 10% of the world’s carbon emissions. This is more than international flights and maritime shipping combined!
Another important note is that this industry is the world’s 2nd largest consumer of water, and produces 20% of the world’s industrial water pollution. The amount of water required to make 1 cotton shirt = water 1 person drinks for 3.5 years! This number increases with the type of clothing as well. The amount of water required to make 1 pair of jeans is the same amount of water 1 person would drink for 10 years! Synthetic textiles also pollute when washed as they release micro-plastics into the ocean (500 000 tons/year).
Overall, this industry is in need of some innovative solutions to tackle the issues present!
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