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Fast Fashion
Climate Impact:
What you can do
Buy fewer clothes, buy clothes that will last and buy second-hand clothes.
Who's doing it?
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Climate impact
Rejecting fast fashion could prevent an estimated 0.3 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year (see impact calculations). It also helps force the fashion industry to address unsustainable practices.
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Whether buying natural materials like cotton or synthetic materials like polyester or nylon, all clothes have a very real carbon footprint.
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Additional benefits
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Save money
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Support charity shops
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Ensure you're not supporting child labour
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Prevent micro-plastic pollution from new clothes
Challenges
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Less flexibility in what you can wear
Resources
Tips
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Buy second hand clothes from local charity shops or online
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Buy clothes made from recycled fabrics
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Buy higher quality clothes that will last longer
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Up-cycle old clothes or share clothes with friends
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Use a clothing rental service for special occasions
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Learn to sew and mend old clothes
Facts and further information
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The fashion industry contributes around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions - consuming more energy than the aviation and shipping industries combined.
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If it continues on its current path, the fashion industry could use more than a quarter of the global carbon budget by 2050 [1].
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The most common clothing material is polyester, which is a plastic, derived from oil. Polyester clothes are not biodegradable.
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Approximately 85% of textiles go to landfill or are incinerated [2].
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A polyester shirt has more than double the carbon footprint of a cotton shirt [3]. Switching from polyester to recycled polyester clothing can save 80% in toxins, around 60% in energy consumption, and up to 40% of CO2 emissions [4].
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Switching from conventional to organic cotton can cut emissions by 46%, as nitrogen waste from fertilisers is eliminated. Currently though, less than one per cent of all cotton is organic.
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The production of textiles also uses a huge amount of water. It takes about 8,000 litres of water to make one pair of jeans and 2,700 litres to make a single T-shirt [5].
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Impact assessment
Weight of clothes bought in the UK per year [6] = 1,130,000 tonnes
Weight of CO2e emissions per tonne of clothing purchased [6] = 23.2 tonnes
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Total clothing CO2e emissions per year in the UK (23.2 x 1,130,000) = 26.2 million tonnes CO2e
Population of the UK = 66.5m
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Therefore, CO2e emissions per person, per year in the UK (26.2/66.5) = 0.4 tonnes CO2e
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With a reduction in purchasing, increased reliance on second-hand clothing and purchasing higher quality, more durable clothes, a reduction of 75% of clothing related emissions is considered reasonable.
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Resultant saving (0.4 x 75%) = 0.3 tonnes CO2e
References
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https://unfccc.int/news/un-helps-fashion-industry-shift-to-low-carbon
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https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/09/12/fast-facts-about-fast-fashion/
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​https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/the-impact-of-a-cotton-t-shirt
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https://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/valuing-our-clothes-the-cost-of-uk-fashion_WRAP.pdf