"A new research on fashion trends and textile waste, named ‘‘Timeout for Fast Fashion’ was released by Greenpeace on the eve of Black Friday. The report highlights the serious environmental consequences of over-consumption. Clothing is among the most sold products on the annual shopping day promoted in many countries. This, critics say, encourages impulsive overspending and unnecessary purchases through ‘bargain’ offers and discount prices. "

A new research on fashion trends and textile waste, named ‘‘Timeout for Fast Fashion’ was released by Greenpeace on the eve of Black Friday. The report highlights the serious environmental consequences of over-consumption. Clothing is among the most sold products on the annual shopping day promoted in many countries. This, critics say, encourages impulsive overspending and unnecessary purchases through ‘bargain’ offers and discount prices. 

Fashion the biggest polluter

Deliberating on the topic, Kirsten Brodde, Head, Greenpeace’s ‘Detox my Fashion’ campaign said that it was  difficult to resist the allure of a good bargain but fast fashion means that people are consuming and trashing fashion at a higher rate than our planet can handle. To counter excessive consumerism, growing numbers of people choose to abstain and observe ‘Buy Nothing Day’ instead.

As a part of this movement, trash queens in dresses recycled from discarded clothes are being sold at shopping centres in three major cities in Asia and Europe. The main reason for this initiative is to remind customers how many impulse buys of today end up as trash tomorrow. As of today, recycling is not a solution. Markets are overloaded with unwanted clothes [2] and technological challenges mean full recycling of clothing into new fibres is still far from commercially viable. Brodde points out their research indicates the second hand clothing system is on the brink of collapse. Fashion brands need to urgently re-think the throwaway business model and produce clothing that’s durable, repairable and fit for re-use. As consumers, one also hold the power. Before buying the next bargain item, one can all ask ‘do I really need this?’.

The research, published by Greenpeace Germany, shows how the fast fashion business is rapidly expanding; clothing production has doubled from 2000 to 2014 with sales rising from $1 trillion in 2002 to $1.8 trillion in 2015 and a forecast of $2.1 trillion by 2025. The average person buys 60 per cent more items of clothing every year and keeps them for about half as long as 15 years ago, producing immense volumes of textile waste.

Environmental impacts that have been detailed in the report include chemicals from textile factories polluting rivers and oceans, high levels of energy use and pesticides from cotton growing contaminating agricultural land. One of fast fashion’s biggest costs to the planet comes from the rising use of synthetic fibres, particularly polyester that emits nearly three times more CO2 in its lifecycle than cotton, according to Greenpeace. Already present in 60 per cent of clothing, polyester can take decades to degrade, as well as polluting marine environments with plastic micro fibres.

Since 2011, Greenpeace’s Detox campaign has gathered support from 78 companies including fashion brands, retailers and textiles suppliers to achieve zero discharges of hazardous chemicals in the manufacturing supply chain by 2020 and many are making progress towards this goal. However, if the trend for more and cheaper clothing continues, any gains that are made on eliminating hazardous chemicals will be outstripped by higher rates of production and consumption in the industry as a whole.