Slowing Down Fast Fashion: An FII Institute Spotlight Series

If you asked most people, they would be oblivious to the fact that it takes 8,000 liters of water to produce one pair of jeans and 3,000 liters to make a shirt. The negative environmental impacts of “fast fashion” can easily go unnoticed in the whirlwind of fashion trends, colorful fabrics, and new styles.

FII Institute, in its new spotlight series “Sustainable Fashion: Radical Rethink Needed on Global Clothing Trade,” highlights how current systems are not sustainable, and stresses the need to change what our clothes are made from, where and how they are produced, and how we dispose of them.

As it stands today, throwaway clothing or “fast fashion” has negative environmental impacts at every stage of its life cycle—causing one-tenth of the world’s carbon emissions.

Most people do not realize the environmental damage that their clothes may be causing, but the facts are indisputable. The $2.4 trillion global clothing industry, which employs some 300 million people, is a huge carbon emitter, wasteful of resources and grossly polluting.

When going on our latest fashion haul, we may not think of the fact that synthetic fibers, found in 60% of garments, produce two to three times more carbon emissions than natural ones; that washing synthetic textiles releases 500,000 tonnes of microfibers into the ocean each year, equal to 50 billion plastic bottles; and that dyeing textiles uses enough water to fill 2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools each year.?

Globally, we are consuming more and more clothes each year and wearing them for less and less time. This has led to the clothing industry being responsible for more than 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually. That is one-tenth of all emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.

Despite these facts, we must not lose hope.??The damage can be slowed down and even reversed.?

?How? Some believe that given that the world is flooded with cheap textiles, only statutory regulation will succeed in requiring fashion brands to adopt new materials, enforce standards in supply chains, and sell more responsibly.

This is why countries like the US as well as the European Union have started cracking down on the fashion industry. The former has issued regulations that require companies to map their supply chains for environmental and social impacts, while the latter has a vision that by 2030, all the products put on the market must be “durable, repairable and recyclable.

However, individuals have a big part to play in the solution. E-commerce resales are the fastest-growing and most disruptive trend to hit clothes retailing in years, and the practice of buying and selling “pre-loved” and “vintage” clothing has become fashionable.

Boston Consulting Group estimates the global clothing resale market reached up to $40 billion in 2020, and through 2025 will grow at an annual rate of up to 20%.

Alongside regulations and consumer habits, new technologies are also helping mend the flawed fashion ecosystem by developing materials that require less energy and water to produce than conventional fabrics.

Gianfranco Zani, a textiles expert, suggests that “technology will be the new fashion avant-garde.”

The question therefore remains: What can we do?

∞ Buy vintage and pre-loved clothing and clothing made of recycled fibers.

∞ Return clothing to take-back bins. Use apps to rent clothes and to swap, sell, or donate unwanted items.

∞ Support innovative, low-impact clothing lines and ethical and transparent brands.

∞ Press for legislation so that clothing brands and retailers to pay for their environmental impact, with revenues paying for recycling and reuse facilities.

Read the full Spotlight series: LINK

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