{"id":7320,"date":"2020-01-07T14:18:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T11:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=7320"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:46","slug":"fashion-doesnt-have-to-cost-us-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2020\/01\/07\/fashion-doesnt-have-to-cost-us-the-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Fashion Doesn\u2019t Have To Cost The Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our\nclothes give comfort, protection, express our individuality and\njobs \u2013 more\nthan 300 million people work in the clothing industry.<\/a> However,\nof all the growth it generates, the industry also\nencourages much waste: More than half of fast fashion is\ndisposed of in under a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This take, make and dispose business model has outsize costs to the environment, society and the industry itself. Total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production clocks in at 1.2 billion tons a year, more than those emitted by all international flights and maritime ships combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replacing\nthis linear business model with a circular design will help recapture more\nthan$500 billion in industry losses every year and still mitigate negative environmental\nimpacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major\nbrands \u2013 Nike and H&M are already taking notice. Nike has instituted a\nsustainable manufacturing and sourcing index, which works to incentivize and\nreward improved environmental, health, safety and labor practices at the\nfactories along its supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H&M\nhas committed to using 100 percent recycled or sustainably sourced materials by\n2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfashion industry’s design and manufacturing innovations have risen a lot of\nconcerns due to their environmental effects during production, use and\nafter-use phases. Many of these threats can be designed out by creating new\nfibers that fill vital functions \u2013 versatility, lightness, and ease of care \u2013\nbut come with a lower production footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\nway to do this is waterless dyeing, an innovation that helps mitigate the\nindustry\u2019s toxic wastewater discharge from clothes dyeing, which\naccounts for 20 percent of industrial water pollution globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep\nmaterials in use<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\naverage, consumers wear clothes 36 percent fewer times than they did 15 years\nago. If the number of times a garment is worn doubled,\ngreenhouse gas emissions would be 44 percent lower. Globally, customers miss\nout on up to $460 billion each year by throwing away clothes that\nthey could continue to wear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tastes,\ntrends, and styles change, but new business models could satisfy the complex\nhuman needs filled by fashion without having customers buy, and then throw out\nnew clothes so often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improving\nrecycling would allow the industry to capture the material value of clothes\nthat reached the end of life. Currently, less than 1 percent of textiles\nproduced for clothing is recycled into new clothes, representing a\nmissed revenue opportunity of more than $100 billion a year, not including\nthe extra high costs for landfills and incineration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nallow for recycling at scale, clothing design and recycling processes will\nhave to be better aligned. It will also have to stimulate demand for\nrecycled materials, by cementing brand commitments to recycled fabric use in\nclothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where\nno recycling materials are available \u2013 virgin materials \u2013 textile production\ncan become more renewable and regenerative by transitioning to more effective\nand efficient production processes that generate less waste need fewer\nresources, reduce water use, are energy-efficient and rely on renewable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\nrenewable solutions can be cost-effective by reducing exposure to the cost\nvolatility of some resources. The price of oil, such as has been historically\nvolatile, exposing businesses to unexpected input cost spikes for\npolyester and other plastic-based fibers. Cotton availability is highly\naffected by water management and other environmental conditions which in turn\nlead to price fluctuations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are ongoing efforts to decrease the negative impacts of clothing production, creating a wholesale circular economy in clothing requires system-level change. Stakeholders need to rally behind the goals of a new textile economy – setting ambitious joint commitments reinforcing voluntary initiatives and jump-starting innovation in all stages of clothing production. The drawbacks in the way we design, produce and use clothes are clear. With a circular design, fashion doesn’t have to cost us the earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our clothes give comfort, protection, express our individuality and jobs \u2013 more than 300 million people work in the clothing industry. However, of all the growth it generates, the industry also encourages much waste: More than half…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}