Three priorities that clothing producers and consumers must work on to reduce their future impact on climate change and environmental pollution
What is so harmful to the environment after plastic? Many would be surprised if they knew that it was the clothes we were wearing. With its increasing consumption, many reports have monitored the environmental risks of production processes and those resulting from waste of old clothes in the absence of recycling.
When buying a new piece of clothing, one usually doesn't think about the environmental cost of that product. How many resources did it consume? What is the amount of pollutants thrown into nature during the processes of weaving, dyeing and sewing? What is the impact on the environment if thrown into the litter box?
One piece may not have a significant environmental impact. But what about the impact of between 100 and 150 billion pieces of clothing produced by factories annually, according to a statistical report published on the Fashion United website .
A polluting and draining industry
The huge quantities of clothing produced in the world cause great damage to the planet and the living organisms that live on it, especially since this industry is among the industries that deplete natural resources and pollute the environment, in addition to the burden that consumed clothing causes on the environment due to the low rate of recycling. .
A report published on the Columbia Climate School website notes that the global textile and apparel industry drains a lot of natural resources, for example consuming 93 billion cubic meters of clean water each year. To meet its need for fabrics, 70 million tons of trees are cut down every year. This number is expected to double by 2034, further destroying the world's forests.
Fabric dyeing, which uses toxic chemicals, is responsible for 17% to 20% of sewage pollution, and 72 toxic chemicals have been found in water used in textile dyeing.
About 65% of all clothing contains polyester, a type of plastic made from fossil fuels, the production of which consumes approximately 70 million barrels of oil each year. Some sources estimate that the garment industry contributes to global warming as it is responsible for 10% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
Old clothes are a big environmental dilemma
The negative impact of clothing on the environment continues even after its consumption and disposal, and according to a report published on the “ Panaprium ” website, which specializes in environmental and sustainability issues, citing the Global fashion agenda, more than 80% of the clothes produced end up in landfills. Garbage where it decomposes or is burned. During decomposition or burning, clothing emits large amounts of carbon and toxic gases into the Earth's atmosphere, which in turn contribute to pollution and global warming.
Since the recycling rate does not exceed 1% globally and the developed countries that produce and consume the largest proportion of these clothes prevent their laws from harming their environment, they get rid of old clothes by exporting them to developing and poor countries that do not have strict environmental laws, where a new cycle of pollution begins .
A report published by the French newspaper " Le Parisien " traced the path of used clothes, starting with the process of depositing them at collection points throughout France, until being resold by thousands of tons in Ghana and many other African countries, as pieces of clothing that do not find a buyer accumulate in Landfills that pollute land and sea soil.
According to the report, Ghana alone receives about 15 million used clothing items every week, 40% of which are unsalable, and then dumped directly into landfills.
And the French newspaper reported that landfills are not the final resting place for those old clothes, as with the rain the fabrics drift with the water, to be carried by the current to the Atlantic Ocean, and there these clothes release the chemicals they contain before they end up in the fishermen’s nets, if the tide does not return them once Others take to the beach to form walls of 3m high of garbage, such as the one that has piled up on beaches near the Ghanaian capital, Accra.
The author of the Le Parisien report confirmed that some African countries, such as Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa and even Kenya, tried to ban the import of used clothes, but some, such as Kenya, withdrew from this province, in the face of pressure from the United States, which disposes annually of about 16 million tons of clothes used.
Solution
In a report on fashion and climate released in 2022, the McKinsey consultancy set 3 priorities that clothing producers and consumers must work on to reduce their future impact on climate change and environmental pollution.
At the top of these priorities is reducing carbon emissions during the production and processing of raw materials for clothing, reducing production and manufacturing waste, while relying more on renewable energies. The report also called on manufacturers to increase the proportion of recycled materials in the production of new clothes, and to use lighter packages of recycled materials as well.
The McKinsey report urges encouraging sustainable behavior by adopting a more conscious approach to apparel consumption in use and reuse, such as renting, reselling, repairing and refurbishing clothing while increasing recycling and collection to reduce waste and guiding the industry toward an operating model based on closed-loop recycling.
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