Sustainability is a pressing concern, especially with the accelerated rate of climate change.

As the third-largest polluting industry in the world, the textile and fashion sectors have an enormous impact on climate change.

With consumerism shifting in the 1990s, fast fashion gained popularity as people looked to purchase clothing more frequently.

Let’s explore what fast fashion is, the correlation between fast fashion and greenhouse gases (GHG), and what can be done to reduce carbon emissions.

What is Fast Fashion?

Fast fashion is the term used to describe clothing produced in shorter timeframes, usually with new, trendy designs appearing every few weeks to satisfy consumer demand and increase profits.

The fashion industry has two seasons, fall/winter and spring/summer, as evidenced by the opulent fashion week shows seen in the fashion meccas of the world, such as Paris, Milan, and New York. However, in addition to the two major seasons, fashion has now evolved into 52 micro-seasons, one for each week of the year, hence the term, fast fashion.

With the constant stream of new clothing collections being released so regularly, companies wind up producing items that are typically manufactured quickly, cheaply, and unsustainably.

As a result, the less a piece of apparel costs the consumer, the higher the environmental impact.

Impact of Fast Fashion on Greenhouse Gases

When we think of reducing gas emissions, our minds go to carpooling, using less electricity, or recycling. It is difficult to conceive that buying new clothes would contribute to global warming. Yet, the fashion industry is one of the players causing great harm to the environment.

According to Earthday.org, the textile/fashion industry “Depletes healthy soil, contaminates freshwater resources, pollutes the air we breathe, defiles our oceans, destroys forests, and damages ecosystems and the health of their diversity.”

Per a study published in the journal Waste Management & Research, the clothing industry is expected to produce approximately 148 million tons of fashion waste by the year 2030.

Unchecked, the fashion industry could be responsible for 26% of all carbon emissions by 2050.

When textiles are buried in landfills, they produce greenhouse gases (GHG) as they degrade. Methane, one of the GHG’s released, is 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2).  

Furthermore, as clothing breaks down, it contaminates the soil with toxic chemicals from pesticides, dyes, and finishing treatments the garments undergo during manufacturing.

As landfills reach capacity, the clothing items that don’t break down fast enough are incinerated with the rest of the trash, releasing more GHG into the atmosphere.

According to a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, the textile industry produces “1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per year, which is more than international flights and maritime shipping.”

Furthermore, the study estimates that “over 60% of textiles are used in the clothing industry and a large portion of clothing manufacturing occurs in China and India, countries which rely on coal-fueled power plants.”

Closing the Loop

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) estimates that approximately 5% of landfill waste comes from the textile industry.

On average, Americans discard approximately 70 pounds of textiles annually.

With so much clothing going to landfills, it is crucial to explore a shift towards a circular economy to mitigate the significant environmental impact caused by fast fashion.

There are three models for how fashion is handled at the end of use:

·      Linear Economy – The item is used and goes directly to the landfill when it is no longer needed.

·      Recycling Economy – An item is used and reused several times before being discarded.

·      Circular Economy – The item is used in a closed loop and never discarded.

A circular fashion economic model eliminates waste and pollution by reusing, remanufacturing, recycling, sharing, repairing, and refurbishing to create a closed-loop system.

Furthermore, a circular fashion economy is an important part of sustainability in the industry because it considers every part of the product’s life, such as materials, farming practices, transportation, packaging, and, ultimately, disposal.

Therefore, creating fashion items that can be disassembled, recycled or reused can be a game-changer for the industry.

Consumers can also take part in the circular fashion economy by doing the following:

·      Repairing clothes

·      Buying second-hand

·      Choose sustainable brands

·      Repurposing old clothes

·      Buying organic cotton

Changes in the Fashion Industry

Key players in the fashion industry are taking note and making changes as they take climate action.

According to the Climate Council, “In 2018, many of the primary stakeholders of the fashion industry – and some of its biggest names – came together under the UN’s banner to release the ‘Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action.’”

Based on the Paris Agreement, the charter aims to drive the fashion industry to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050.

Big corporations, such as Levi, Strauss & Co., and H&M, are among those committing to reducing emissions and reworking their supply chains.

Focusing on Scope 3 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol would allow the fashion industry to evaluate all indirect emissions that occur in their value chain. That would include suppliers, customers, and end-users.

Furthermore, it would allow them to assess emission hot spots within and outside their operations, which would enable them to develop GHG reduction strategies.

Climate change is humanity’s most challenging issue. With fast fashion having such a negative impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the environment as a whole, it is imperative action is taken.

A culture shift must take place from consumers to the fashion industry. The fast fashion culture must be replaced with slow fashion, adopting instead a circular fashion mindset of consuming less, wasting less, and reusing more.