Plastic waste from the fashion industry poses a major environmental threat

You know those little tags on your clothes? Sure, they can be annoying, especially when they make your skin itch. But they contain a world of information – more than you might think! They tell us a lot about the clothes we wear and their impact on our environment. A recent study shows how the fashion industry is a significant contributor to environmental plastic waste.

The driving force behind this revelation is Professor Richard Venditti of North Carolina State Universityan expert in paper science and engineering.

Backed by a team of knowledgeable researchers, Professor Venditti has revealed revealing statistics on the fashion industry's frightening contribution to environmental pollution.

Plastic waste from the fashion industry

The fashion industry hasn't exactly been blessed with good news. Stories of poor working conditions, underwhelming pay and a fast-paced “fast fashion” culture have rocked the sector time and again.

But Professor Venditti's recent study draws our attention to an even more alarming problem: plastic leakage.

“We analyzed data on apparel imports, exports and production in countries around the world,” Venditti said. “We then compared this data to existing global information on the different stages of the apparel value chain to estimate how much plastic is leaking into the environment at each of these points.”

Environmental impact

“A lot of the plastic waste that enters the environment comes from discarded clothing, especially synthetic clothing,” Venditti said.

“There is also waste from manufacturing, packaging and even abrasion of tires during transport, as well as microplastics that end up in the water when we wash our clothes.”

In 2019, the fashion industry produced an incredible 20 million tons of plastic waste. The secret to fashion lies in the synthetic materials used in clothing, such as polyester, nylon, and acrylic, not to mention the plastics used in packaging. About 40% of this volume ends up polluting our environment.

Who is the bad guy?

It turns out that synthetic clothing is fashion’s biggest polluter, producing 18 million tons of waste in 2019 alone. That same year, 89% of all plastic waste in the global fashion industry came from these synthetic underdogs. Nearly 8.3 million tons ended up in the environment.

Cotton may seem like the safest option, right? Wrong. Even our beloved cotton is contributing to the plastic waste debacle.

Cotton clothing generated 1.9 million tonnes of plastic waste. Add to that other fibres and you get a total of 0.31 million tonnes. And packaging? Don’t get me started on that!

The migration of plastic waste into fashion

Plastic waste doesn’t necessarily end up where clothes are sold. Countries like the United States and Japan, known for their “fast fashion” craze, often dump their used clothing in low-income countries. These countries, which don’t have adequate waste management systems, are the most affected by this environmental disaster.

This means that our purchasing habits in rich countries have an impact on the environment in less fortunate countries.

“What we see is that in countries like the United States, we have a culture of 'fast fashion' where we buy a lot of clothes and don't keep them for very long,” Venditti said.

“When we throw away these clothes, they end up in landfills or, more often, thrift stores. Some of the clothes that end up in these stores are sold in the United States, but they often end up in other countries that don’t have waste management systems robust enough to handle that kind of volume. That’s where you end up with a lot of plastic leaking into the environment.”

Can we solve this problem?

The study calls for a major overhaul of the fashion industry. A transition to a circular industrial model, which recycles materials instead of throwing them away as waste, is the need of the hour. We also need to promote renewable and non-synthetic textiles.

So next time you go shopping, take a look at the labels. They tell you a lot about the environmental footprint of your clothes. Will your next purchase contribute to the mountain of plastic waste or will it guide us towards a more sustainable future?

Remember that our fashion choices don't just define our style, they shape the world we live in. Our decisions matter, more than we think.

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

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