The clothing industry represents an important part of our economies, with a value of USD 1.3 trillion and employing over 300 million people along the value chain. In the last 20 years, global fibre production has almost doubled from 58 million tonnes in 2000 to 116 million tonnes in 2022, and is expected to continue to grow to 147 million tonnes in 2030 if business as usual continues. While people bought 60% more garments in 2014 than in 2000, they only kept the clothes for half as long, GenevaEnvironmentNetwork reported.
While the fashion sector is booming, increasing attention has been brought to the impressive range of negative environmental impacts that the industry is responsible for. The fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for 2-7% of global carbon emissions.
What’s more, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year, and washing some types of clothes sends significant amount of microplastics into the ocean.
Fast fashion also has a human cost: textile workers, primarly women in developing countries, are often paid derisory wages and forced to work long hours in appalling conditions. In many places, these conditions create infringements on human rights. Use of chemicals in clothes production also raise serious health concerns, both for the workers in the industry and consumers. Additional impacts on health also arise from the pollution described previously.
The environmental and social cost of the fashion industry forces us to rethink fast fashion, and stresses the need for more sustainable business models and practices. Resources hereunder provide additional information on the environmental impacts of fashion, and potential pathways for change.
After the Second World War, the development of synthetic textiles, such as polyester and nylon, transformed the fashion industry. From only a few thousand tonnes in 1940, global consumption of synthetic fibres rose to more than 60 million tonnes in 2018. Since the late 1990s, polyester is the most commonly used fibre in textiles. The production of chemical fibers surpassed cotton production in the mid-1990s and has more than doubled in the last 20 years. In 2020, synthetic fibers accounted for approximately 64 percent of global fiber production.Today, an estimated 60% of clothing and 70 % of household textiles are made of synthetic fibres.
These plastic-based textiles have a significant impact on the environment and climate throughout their life cycle due to emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants. The textile sector is a growing contributor to the climate crisis, with about 1% of crude oil production used to produce synthetic fibres.
The fashion sector is also an important source of plastic leakage into the environment. The textile value chain is responsible for 9% of annual microfibre pollution to oceans.
Consideration of the textile sector will thus be important for tackling the ongoing plastic crisis. Plastic pollution is one of the major environmental crises of our times, and efforts from various actors are underway to address it. This includes negotiations towards an international legally-binding agreement on plastic pollution, initiated by the resolution adopted at the UN Environment Assembly in March 2022. Learn more about the plastic pollution crisis, governance processes to address it and the work of Geneva-based organizations on the matter in our Plastics and the Environment series.