Planet Blog
As concerns over fashion practice and its impact on the planet grow, it is becoming increasingly evident that sustainable policy is integral at every stage of a garments life. Relearning consumption habits in order to mitigate the impact namely overproduction and mass fashion have on the environment in order to preserve animal welfare and habitats, reduce carbon emissions and keep our finite resources in a closed loop.
A circular economy (CE) is a fundamental part of preserving the planet. It is an economic system by which it closes the loop on a garments life cycle, aiming to eliminate waste by reusing the garment at the end of its life, this prevents it from being disposed of in landfill or being burnt, both of which contribute to global warming, 85% of all textiles end up in landfill (Igini, 2023) and annually 200 million trees are logged for cellulose fibres including viscose (Rollscane, 2022) ; trees are a natural absorbent of atmospheric carbon. The goal of a CE is to minimize the extraction of finite resources and thus reduce environmental impact. Fashion design researcher Gwilt emphasizes the importance of moving away from a ‘[business] model that relies solely on achieving economic success from the manufacture of products, to considering a model of practice that incorporates…product-service combinations.’ This system works in conjunction to the current linear model, which operates by a ‘take, make, waste’ ethos, an estimated reduction of 39% of greenhouse gases could be seen by implementing a CE by 2050 (Bradford 2023).
‘Good Health and Well-being’ is a Sustainable Development Goal established by the United Nations, currently the fashion industry violates this aim in order to prioritize financial gain. This can be seen in cotton farming for garments, farmers are burdened by the demand of cotton so that they resort to pesticides to aid rapid production, this not only is a threat to the farmers health (Kannuri & Jadhav 2018), but it has also been seen to cause 20,000 deaths annually from toxic chemicals on cotton fibres, and has been proven to cause cancer (Eden Project n.d).
Additionally, models in the fashion industry should be accounted for too. The impact is not only severe for the models own mental and physical health, but also wider society and our perception of beauty. ‘How women internalise objectification influences their emotional and cognitive behaviour. For example, wearing a swimsuit affected women’s but not men’s performance on a math test’ (Fredrickson & Roberts 1997). The fashion industry reinforces unattainable looks, thus resulting in many particularly women opting for cosmetic surgery, ‘women of the twenty first century is sculpted surgically from top to bottom, generically neutral, all irregularities regularised, all particularities expunged’ (Garland-Thomson 2002)
Word count: 428 (exlc. citations)
References:
Igini, M. (2023, August 21). 10 Concerning Fast Fashion Waste Statistics. Earth.org. https://earth.org/statistics-about-fast-fashion-waste/#.
Rollscane, C et al,. (2022, February 18). The climate and nature risks hidden in viscose fabric. Forest 500. https://forest500.org/analysis/insights/climate-and-nature-risks-hidden-viscose-fabric#:~:text=An%20estimated%20200%20million%20trees,peatland%20forests%20cleared%20for%20plantations.&text=Viscose%20is%20a%20cellulose%2Dbased,used%20in%20the%20fashion%20industry.
Gwilt, A. (2020). A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.perlego.com/book/1584411/a-practical-guide-to-sustainable-fashion-pdf.
Bradford, A. (2023, May 4). Sustainable waste management: driving profit through circularity + tech. Roadrunner. https://www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/sustainable-waste-management-driving-profit-through-circularity-tech#:~:text=The%20benefits%20of%20transitioning%20to,gas%20emissions%20globally%20by%202050.
Kannuri, N. K., & Jadhav, S. (2018). Generating toxic landscapes: impact on well-being of cotton farmers in Telangana, India. Anthropology & medicine, 25(2), 121–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2017.1317398
Eden Project. (n.d). Cotton. https://www.edenproject.com/visit/things-to-do/mediterranean-biome/cotton
Fredrickson, B. L., & Roberts, T.A. (1997). Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women’s Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(2), 173-206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x
Garland-Thomson, R. (2002). Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory. NWSA Journal, 14(3), 1–32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4316922