Planet Blog
The increasingly high demand for the production of clothes multiplies the damage on our environment. Whether that be the role the fashion industry plays in the release of CO2 emissions, water pollution or the plastic microfibers that are getting release into the oceans. The 2017 Pulse of the Fashion Industry report stated that the industry was responsible for 1.715 million tonnes of CO2 emission in 2015, (Environmental impact of textile and clothes industry) The report also forecasts that the emissions that are caused by the fashion industry will grow up to 63% by 2030.
Our current system of distributing and producing clothes, plays a major part in all the carbon emission and water and air pollution, that is caused by the fashion industry. The linear economy focuses on producing and selling the clothes, that unfortunately only get used for a short amount of time and therefore, all the large amounts of non-renewable resources that were used in the making of those clothes, get scattered on land fiends ect. What circular economy provides is an alternative system of production and consumption, in which the clothes are kept in use for as long as possible and their value is also contained. The full and highest value of the clothes is being preserved even after re-entering the economy after use, therefore the waste that would have been created in a linear economy is now cut down, without the clothes being at a lower value. When the circular economy is used by brands the quality of clothing on the market increases. Resales are already wildly used by fashion brands, for example, in 2019 the ThredUp Resale has grown 21 times faster than an average retail over the past five years, as stated in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s article on “Fashion and the circular economy”. The article stated that “56 million women bought second-hand products in 2018, up from 44 million on 2017” (Fashion and the circular economy). The resales and partnerships are what make circular economy work, Stella McCartney has a partnership with The RealReal, which is a website that is based around circular economy, where people can buy and sell everything from clothing to home décor. Circular economy is basically used to tackle climate change and other global problems.
The UN Sustainability Development Goals aim to end all types of poverty are the UN Sustainability Development goals. They bring attention to many different global challenged. One that could be directly connected to the environmental faults of the fashion industry is Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production. There are 85% of textiles sent to land fields, which is equivalent to 21 billion tons of year. Enthought, our Planet is nearly consumed by climate change, Goal 12 has established the change in the policies that concern the environment when it comes to the transformation of the business markets, globally “By 2018, a total of 108 countries had national policies and initiatives relevant to sustainable consumption and production.” (UNSD – Welcome to UNSD)
References:
(N.d.). Retrieved from https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2019/633143/EPRS_BRI(2019)633143_EN.pdf
(N.d.-a). Retrieved from https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/fashion/overview#:~:text=Circular%20fashion%20examples&text=Customers%20are%20encouraged%20to%20recycle,they%20return%20their%20used%20garments.
(2022). Retrieved from https://www.springwise.com/sustainable-source/fashion-and-the-sdgs/#:~:text=SDG%2010%3A%20Reduced%20inequality,tool%20for%20tackling%20social%20issues.
(N.d.-a). Retrieved from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/files/report/2018/TheSustainableDevelopmentGoalsReport2018-EN.pdf