The thing four years ago was calculating the ‘cost per wear’ (CPW) of a garment - the lower the cost, the more value the buyer would get for their shiny new gear. However, the true cost of each new item of clothing or a pair of shoes went far beyond its price tag. Every piece of fashion we buy has hidden environmental costs through the consumption of energy, water, land and chemicals used in the production process. Fast fashion encourages overconsumption and waste and it has detrimental consequences on the environment.
Textile production contributes to global pollution and climate change more than international flights and shipping combined. It also consumes enormous volumes of fresh water and creates tons of chemical and plastic pollution.
The solution is complex, but there are small steps each of us can make towards breaking fast fashion habits and becoming more natural and sustainable in our clothing choices.
Buy less and wear more
The saying goes that the most sustainable and eco-friendly garment is the one already worn. By extending the life of 50% of your clothes by at least nine months, in general, you can save 10% water, 8% carbon, and 4% waste per metric ton of clothing.
Shop from sustainable and ethical fashion brands
One of the best ways to contribute to sustainability is to pay attention to where and how you shop. Such careful choices will help you lower your carbon footprint and also help promote fair working practises for fashion industry workers around the world.
Various reports from Bangladesh and Vietnam show that less than 1% of interviewed employees worked in adequate working conditions and had decent wages. This is particularly true for women workers, so you can support businesses that help women with barriers to employment. For instance purchase a sustainably-produced beautiful braided bracelet rather than a branded one. Such bracelets are made by repurposing meaningful materials into wearable art and in their course of production, attention is paid to every step of the supply chain, from sourcing recycled materials to making sure the workers are paid fairly.
Read the label
Polyester, a petroleum-based synthetic fibre, requires fewer resources than cotton, but they also release more greenhouse gases per kilogram. However, bio-based synthetic polymers produced from renewable crops emit up to 60% less carbon emissions. So, read your labels to make a more educated choice with your clothes.
Watch your washing
When washing 6kg of laundry, you potentially release approximately 700,000 fibres into the environment! This should make you think twice before you stuff your machine with clothes you’ve only worn once. Wash at a lower temperature to use less energy, and start turning clothes inside out to increase their wearability.
Donate or sell
When you’ve gotten tired of or maybe outgrown your favourite pair of jeans or a coat, consider donating your clothes to donation centres, shelters and resale boutiques. There are various ways you can redistribute the clothes you no longer want without the harmful effect on the environment. Just ensure they are clean and in good condition before you give them away.
Buy or rent second-hand clothes.
If you enjoy refreshing your wardrobe often, turn to pre-loved clothing. Thrift stores everywhere offer quirky and vintage styles, but more retailers are accepting the second-hand model to diversify their offer and fight fast fashion at the same time.
Recent studies have shown that rental clothing does have an impact due to transportation costs and dry cleaning, but still, it manages to slow down customer consumption and prolong the life of garments that would otherwise end up in a landfill, thus reducing carbon emissions.
There isn’t a uniform solution that will make the fashion industry sustainable, but it rather takes a combination of several solutions that together can minimise the harmful effects on the environment. Renting retailers and online thrift stores can make it much easier for consumers to resist overproduction and decrease their personal carbon footprints.
Recycle and repurpose
Certain fashion retailers such as Levi’s and H&M have recognized their harmful environmental impact and have taken steps towards reducing their carbon footprints. One practice they’ve introduced is offering consumers the opportunity to recycle fabrics. Once collected, these are reused as material for new clothes or even transformed into something completely different, such as insulation for houses.
Besides recycling, you could consider repurposing your old clothes. If you can’t make yourself give up a loved but worn item, take the matters into your own hands, start cutting and designing until you create something new and fresh! Unsalvageable old t-shirts can become cleaning cloths, but you can also try to make stuffed animals for your kids, bathroom mats or bed quilts, and even shopping bags or totes.
Cheap, on-trend clothes are attractive and tempting but this desire of ours is costing the earth. There has to be a joint effort. Governments around the world need to implement programmes that put an end to the era of throwaway fashion by making retailers take responsibility for the waste they create and finding ways to support the sharing economy. Additionally, there’s a lot more that we as individuals can do to ditch our fast fashion habits and help reduce our carbon footprint.