20% of industrial water pollution is caused by textile industry and the dying and treatment processes in textile industry. Textile industry also uses a huge amount of non-renewable resources. 98 million tons per year totally which includes oil to produce synthetic fibers specifically polyester, fertilizers to grow cotton, as well as chemicals to produce dye and finish textiles and garments.
Textile industry has a huge global impact. And very often... we don't really see the true value of these impacts. because, they are subsidized by the government. For example, clean water or pure soil, so we don’t really see the impacts of the textile industry. its hard for designer to understand all the impacts behind textile industry, however, this kind of environmental impacts are not included to the ending prices of the products So, it’s invisible for consumers also.
It’s really hard for consumers to try to understand what’s the impact of fast fashionism, And these impacts are mainly on the other side of the globe. even if you are here and we consume the clothes and textiles, but the production is on the other side of the globe, all these environmental impacts mainly are caused and affects the environmental location where the manufactured is located.
Sustainability is a complicated issue. very often when we talk about sustainability, we first focus on eco-designing including, for example, eco-materials. Different ways of designing or manufacturing, it’s quite a narrow view for sustainability. when we really talk about sustainability, we also have to include the social aspect.
For example, the working conditions on the other side of the globe. we should somehow deliver some more holistic understanding of sustainability, include the people, planet and prosperity issues. we still have problems with the sustainability approach. if it’s based on this kind of linear understanding or linear model. It doesn’t make a big change.
linear system - that means that we take, make and produce really fast, Sell one time only and then products became to be a waste really fast, whatever we are doing, we are wasting a lot of resources: water, materials or energy. the products are used really short time. it's really a problematic from a sustainability point of view.
Fast Fashion is based on this linear system. so, the raise of fast fashion actually causes the problem that actually matter too, but then the system is really fast. That means we are producing huge amount of garments, faster than ever, and actually we are consuming more and more garments but actually use them in a shorter, shorter time. That means, that garments became to be a waste in a really fast space of time. And that’s a problematic from a sustainability perspective. We have to create a new kind of balance into this textile and fashion system and there are different ways to end up in a new kind of understanding of what is the new system. So, for example, we can talk about the circular economy closing the loops and using the older resources much more wisely that what we currently do and the closing the loop and the circular economy approach actually has the foundation
there are two different ways of recycling the materials.
There are biological or technical cycles. And these all new approaches somehow include to sustain thinking towards more sustainable fashion Based on this understanding we really have to redesign the fashion system and begin to think about circular economy. closing the material loops and different ways of producing fashion.
there are possibilities, we try to the extend the use time of the garments as long as possible. for example, there would be possible to include different kind of business models, or different kind of services which actually could include, or increase the local shops markets. we should see the materials and products valuable, Try to keep them in the material flow as possible as it is and then actually closing the material loop, meaning that, the possibilities to recycle the materials again in the industrial production. We have to take the sustain perspective and include all actors or stakeholders into this new understanding. We also have to extend the use time of the garments, and really also include the new business models into this thinking. leasing, renting or repairing garments must be part of the business models. We have to get away from this kind of linear thinking and one time selling only, challenge the business side, and then we have to close the material loops and begin to use all the materials. See them as valuable resource for industrial production.
we need to have different kind of collaboration and be much more creative than before. to Do this new kind of networks or new kind of collaborations, bringing in this creative thinking. It's possible to transform.
By the linear economy we mean our current system of make-use-waste. In contrast, a circular economy means a system wherein products, after they are used once can be repaired, recycled or otherwise reused.
Defining Sustainability & Circularity facts
The Ellen MacArthur report states that the average number of times a garment is worn, has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago. This means that the use time of a garment has been reduced enormously. Therefore, the end-of-life of garments comes into play much more quickly than previously. Unfortunately, this means that these garments rarely get a second life through reuse or repair and are oftentimes landfilled or incinerated. Larger volumes of textiles are disposed much more quickly than ever before.
Less than 1% of clothing is recycled into new garments. When garments are disposed of, they unfortunately are hardly ever recycled in a way that these resources recover their original value. Oftentimes textiles are recycled into products such as insulation or materials for the automotive industry for example. This is usually referred to as downcycling. However, downcycling reduces the possibility of recovering resources for their original purpose as garments.
An incredible amount of water pollution is created by the fashion industry. 20% of industrial water pollution is caused by treatments of textiles such as dyeing. And remember, textile dyeing and treatment is only a small step in the value chain of the fashion industry.
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