Issues/The Planet

The Planet

Fast fashion is now worth some Ł6.3 billion.

The price of clothing has dropped 36% over the last decade. Making it easier for people to keep up to date with the latest trends and keep changing their images. With a new image comes a new pair of jeans while the old ones sit there accumulating space until we throw them in our bins!

Here is some food for thought...

We buy 2 million tonnes of clothing a year, with 1.2 million tons of clothing being dumped in landfills a year.

What’s happening with the clothes while they sit in landfill? Well it takes a leather shoe 45 years to decompose, so while the shoe sits there releasing toxins into the atmosphere we continue to dispose of waste in the same way over and over again.

Fabrics like wool which decompose yet produce methane and damage the environment. Certain other clothes made from artificial fibres like polyester take longer to decompose. It is cheaper to buy clothes made up of synthetic fibres than it is to buy clothes made with organic and natural fibres- a natural choice for producers who love keeping costs down.

Due to the clothes going to landfills and the negative environmental impact of polyester and other synthetic textile production, the Environmental Protection Agency under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act has classified textile manufacturingfacilities as ‘hazardous waste generators’!

The level of pollution emitted through the clothing industry is only rivalled by the chemical industry.

Why are people throwing away more clothes today than ever before? Its because the value attached to our clothes has changed, Clothes are so cheap that it is almost easier to throw something away and buy something new rather than repairing and re-wearing it. It is suggested that since 1997 the number of items bought by an average woman has almost doubled. Instead of us recycling and donating to charity shops it has become acceptable to just throw it in the bin without an after thought. A government document highlights that in the UK, we recycle only 16% of the 2 million tonnes of clothing we consume a year.

So what can we do differently to stop ourselves choking the planet we depend on? Head over to our ‘Get involved’ page and see just how you could help make a difference!.