Black Friday - what you need to know about the fashion industry before buying
Photo: The brand Patagonia, not joining Black Friday in 2011
You have probably arrived here because you have heard that fashion has its environmental and social problems. With Black Friday coming up it is essential we talk about what role consumption plays and the impact it has on the planet. Of course, this does not mean that all consumption is bad or you should never consume. There are other solutions at hand of course, but we need to be aware that we are exceeding planet earth's capacity to sustain itself and we need to find new ways of enjoying clothing. Encouraging consumption with big sales is not really what the planet needs right now.
Together with Greenpeace Sweden, we are having an article series that will inform, inspire and motivate you to act differently on Black Friday. We will post three articles that help you to take action differently and how to join and embrace Circular Monday instead. The issues of the fashion industry, this article is the first one and the second one coming up next week will be about how you can make a difference.
Here is a summary of some of the issues of fashion:
Environmental
Textiles pollute. They pollute from cradle to grave, which means from production until they are not used anymore. The first problem is the source of the fibres, this can be cotton which is a highly chemical and water intense plant or polyester which is a synthetic fibre derived from petroleum. The next face is spinning and yarning which requires energy that is seldom renewable and in most cases, there is a use of hazardous chemicals. Not to mention the dyeing face, which has a colouration phase that pollutes about 20% of the world's freshwaters (Lara, L, et. al 2022). Water is also used during laundry where a laundry machine can use as much as 50 litres of water when in use (Nybro energy).
Further, since the majority of textiles are synthetic the problem with microplastics also remains. Microplastic is released every time a synthetic material is washed whereas fleece is one of the greatest pollutants. A study suggests that in the USA and Canada the washing of textiles releases microplastics the equivalent of 10 Blue Whales every single year (Vassilenko, K et al. 2019).
Another issue with textiles is of course the poor quality which makes us use them for a short time period whereas textiles seldom are recycled at the end of the life-cycle. Mainly because few households are connected to infrastructure for textiles recycling and there is a lack of technology for recycling (though textiles mostly consist of mixed materials). According to Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 73% of textiles end up in landfill and according to the same report, only 1% of the textiles globally are recycled.
Photo: Greenpeace USA
Climate
The majority of the climate impact is happening during the production phase, 78% comes from upstream activities. According to the European Environment Agency, the production of textiles generates around 15-35 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per tonne of textiles produced. In 2017, the production and handling of clothing, footwear and household textiles consumed in the EU-28 resulted in emissions of 654 kg CO2 equivalent per person.
But the climate impact can easily be lowered thanks to individual action; twice as many uses per garment life-cycle eliminated almost 50% of climate impact, and 10 times more carbon is saved by reusing clothing instead of recycling and creating new clothes (this is according to a study from 2019 by the Swedish Waste Management Association.) and it takes more than 195 second-hand jeans to have the same amount of carbon impact as a new pair of jeans.
To use the clothes we have as long as possible together with choosing second-hand first-hand makes a huge difference.
Workers Right
All clothes are handmade. For every garment, you touch there is a person who has sewn it with a machine or by hand. The garment workers are about 70 million globally and the majority are women. The major countries where production takes place and the garment workers work are China, Bangladesh and Cambodia. The workers often work in an unsafe environment with a lack of security, long shifts without proper breaks or rests in between, low salaries that are often below what is considered to be a living wage (a wage they actually can live on) and it happens they are being exposed to discrimination or gender violence. Further, their contracts are seldom in their favour and they have small opportunities to form labour associations and make their voice heard (Clean clothes).
Many brands do not keep their supply chains transparent so it is impossible as a consumer to know who made your clothes and what their working environments are. Ask brands to keep it transparent and say that you want to know where your garment has been made before buying anything new.
Size and volumes
In Europe, we consume 26 KG of textiles per person and year. In Sweden, we consume 13.7 kg of textiles per person and year. That is 141 000 tons of new textiles. 7.5% of these textiles end up in the bin where we donate only 3.8 kg of textiles. There is a huge potential here to lower the total consumption, use the clothes you have longer and circulate (lend out, sell and donate) the clothes we don't want to use. Only 0.8% of the clothes we buy come from second hand. What ends up at the second-hand market is reused again by 75% and about 20% is recycled as isolation material or other materials. In other words, not all the things we donate second-hand will be reused, we need to reuse more.
Since 1996, the amount of clothes bought in the EU per person has increased by 40%. In Sweden, the net-inflow (import minus export) has increased by the same amount between 2000-2020, which is approximately 4% per person.
It is clear that Black Friday does not go hand in hand with buying new virgin clothes. We should instead celebrate and encourage circular usage and the reduction when it comes to the use of virgin materials.
Don’t buy it and circulate it on Circular Monday instead!
