There has been a much needed spotlight on the fashion industry in recent years as it is responsible for 8-10% of all global carbon emissions. There are several areas of real concern within this industry: One is water: Fashion uses 93 billion cubic meters of water a year. Vast amounts are used per garment; a whopping 10,000 litres to make 1 pair of jeans! Other concerns are around the huge amount of waste both before clothing gets to the store and what we throw away. Then there are vast quantities of dyes and chemical pollutants that end up in our oceans.  Luckily there are many things we as consumers can do to help things move in the right direction…

Sustainable Textiles 

Ditch some of the main culprits such as polyester which has 2-3 times more carbon emission footprint than other more natural textiles like cotton. A huge issue with polyester is that it doesn’t break down, so when it finds its way into the ocean after being washed, it’s there for good in its microplastic form. These microplastics and the dyeing process equates to the fashion industry being responsible for 20% of ocean pollutants. Polyester can be hard to avoid as it has been found in 60% of clothing out there but with increasing awareness and demand for the industry to improve, your textiles options are widening.

A great place to start is by sourcing clothing made with natural materials such as cotton, linen, silk, hemp, flax and wool, bamboo and even recycled polyester, you’ll be surprised at just how many options there are.  

Repair, Reuse, Recycle

If you’re not confident with a needle and thread yourself, there are companies and local businesses who can mend things for you that are cheaper than buying new. If you fancy learning something new and cutting down on costs, there are plenty of easy tutorials online that you can follow. Clothing patches are also an easy and quick fix way of mending those jeans or elbow rips, all you need is an iron.  To mend is the new trend! A truck full of textiles is emptied every second into a landfill or burnt, one of the best things you can do is cut down on that waste. Forget what’s in this season and keep those items for the next bit of warm or cold weather, things always come back around. Or cut those jeans up to make shorts, again there are plenty of online tutorials on how to make all manner of new clothing out of your current wardrobe. Instead of throwing your clothes away, sell them online, donate them to charities, hand them down to friends and family. For those items that are beyond repair there are companies and charities that are able to recycle your clothes and make them into something new.

Buy Second Hand  

On the high street charity shops are a great and fun way to help keep your clothing carbon emissions down. It’s cheaper and feeds into the reuse and upcycle categories. There are also online shops and market places where you can find people selling their pre-loved clothes and accessories at fantastic prices.

Wash and Dry

Washing on cold and with liquid detergents rather than powder helps cut down plastic particles entering the ocean and on your electricity emissions and costs. As you have read in the above section, micro plastics entering our waterways through washing is problematic but there is a way to decrease your part in this. Mesh bags for your clothes help capture up to 99% of micro plastics. The bags don’t interrupt the wash in any way, with water and soap still able to pass through the mesh and complete your wash. Drying can be a tricky one, especially in the winter, but if you have the space then air-dry where possible to cut down on washing emissions and costs. 

Buy Less at Better Quality 

Buy from more high quality and sustainable brands, such as ones that only have a few collections a year. The more collections a brand puts out, the higher turnover of textile waste, plastic pollutants and natural resource use. It can be hard to justify spending more on a few items of clothing, but this will save money over time as those pieces will last longer. 

The most effective way to lower your fashion emissions is to buy less clothes. Reuse and recycle your fashion items, hand them down, buy second hand as much as possible and look for quality over quantity from sustainable brands with lower/zero plastic materials when buying new. Finally wash and dry clothes using minimal amounts of water and electricity. You’ll end up saving money and lowering your personal fashion footprint.

Watch

Watch this fabulous documentary episode on sustainable fashion from the series “Other Ways of Living” on the inspirational free video streaming platform Waterbear.  In this episode award winning documentary filmmaker and journalist Matt Shea looks at fashion. Every second, the equivalent of an entire rubbish truckload of clothes is burnt or buried in landfill.  But people are rethinking our relationship with clothes and pushing the frontiers of what’s possible, circulating them through repairs, resales and even upgrades. And textiles are being redesigned to be renewable and regenerative. One thing is for certain, the possibilities for innovation are endless.