Resources & carbon saved by recycling your fashion, rather than continuously buying new clothes
Clothes cycle in and out of fashion quicker than ever. In an age of fast food and fast living, fast fashion is the latest social norm. Clothing collections sail into stores and we snap them up like it's going out of fashion, only to be replaced by the next trends within a matter of weeks. We spend around £38 billion annually on clothing and textiles
. Where a few years ago they might have taken 3 or 4 months to make, they can now be turned round and be on the shop floor in 12 days. Once upon a time stores would have had their winter, spring, summer collections; nowadays some have up to 12 seasons a year.
But cheap clothes come at a cost. They are often manufactured in developing countries like China, Bangladesh and India, by workers on poor wages and in dreadful conditions, some working up to 80 hours a week.
Manufacturing clothes can also come with serious environmental consequences.
Synthetic fabrics use large amounts of crude oil and chemicals in its manufacture. Polyester, the most widely used manufactured fiber, is made from petroleum, and production has doubled over the last 15 years. Manufacturing polyester and other synthetic fibres is hugely energy-intensive and responsible for emissions such as VOCs (volatile organic compounds), hydrogen chloride and particulates that can cause respiratory problems. Volatile monomers, solvents and other by-products end up in the waste water discarded by the manufacturing process.
Polyester itself does not biodegrade; like plastic it photodegrades, the whole process taking around 200 years.
Cotton crops take up 2.4% of the world's farmland, but are responsible for 24% of global insecticide use, and 11% of global pesticide use - more than any other crop. In fact, over $2 billion worth of pesticides are sprayed on to cotton crops every year - bad for the environment, bad for wildlife and definitely not doing us any favours either.
It's also incredibly water-intensive - every kg of cotton uses over 15,000 litres of water;
and your cotton shirt would have needed 2,700 litres of water. Add to that the carbon costs of shipping textiles and transporting clothes all over the world, and it's clear our throwaway clothes culture comes with serious environmental implications.
Our UK clothing and textiles industry is responsible for over 3 million tonnes of CO2, 2 million tonnes of waste material and 70 million tonnes of waste water.
Carbon saved by sticking with your own unique style:
The Carbon Trust has undertaken life cycle assessments (LCA) of various different types of clothing.
Below are the carbon emissions they have calculated associated with different types of clothing accumulated across the entire product life cycle, covering farming, raw materials, manufacture and distribution. Proportionally farming is by far the most carbon intensive of these processes, responsible for just under two-thirds of total emissions, followed by manufacturing at approximately 20%, raw materials making up around 10% and distribution around 6% or 7% depending on the garment:
Men's large white T shirt = 0.65 kg
Women's large white T shirt = 0.5 kg
Men's medium white polo = 1.1 kg
Men's medium black hoodie = 2.8 kg
Women's medium black hoodie = 2.2 kg
Women's small black zip-up = 2.4 kg
Men's medium black zip-up = 3 kg
This results in an average carbon footprint of 1.8 kg per item of clothing
Of course the value will vary depending on the garment itself, some will be less, heavier items may be significantly more but for everyday items of clothing, the anomalies should average out.
Useful websites
Environmental Health Perspectives
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/115-9/focus.html
Fashioning an ethical industry
http://fashioninganethicalindustry.org
Fashion from recycled clothes
http://www.goodone.co.uk/
Organic Consumers
http://www.organicconsumers.org/clothes/background.cfm
Footnotes
