Sustainable Fashion That Not Looks Good On You and For The Planet

Thanks to the rise of fast fashion clothing retailers such as H&M and Express, more clothes are being tossed in the landfill every year. In fact, 26 billion pounds of clothes are trashed every year in the United States, or around 80 pounds per person. As you would expect, throwing away this much clothing definitely has an impact on the environment. Natural fibers do degrade, but as they do they release methane into the atmosphere. In addition, they don’t make for good compost. Most clothes that you buy from the store go through a lot of unnatural processes such as dying, bleached, being printed on, etc. in order to actually become clothes. As they break down in landfills, these chemicals leach from the fabric and into groundwater. Burning clothes isn’t much better as it releases the same toxins into the air.

What About Syntetic Fibers?

They’re essentially a different form of plastic. As such, it can take hundreds if not thousands of years to biodegrade. However, since it’s cheap to manufacture, many textiles today tend to combine natural and synthetic fabrics so you get the worst of both worlds. Luckily, the world is waking up to the environmental issues surrounding clothing waste.

Many states have implemented their own recycling program to divert these textiles elsewhere. The EPA estimates that diverting all of the clothes into a recycling program would be the environmental equivalent of taking 7.3 million cars off the road. It can also save money as they no longer have to pay the standard $45 per ton to send waste to a landfill. 

Of course, not every town has a facility that can recycle clothes. Even in larger cities, textile recycling is not as common as recycling bottles and cans. You might be thinking that donating to a thrift store can help reduce your footprint, and it can to a certain extent. Still, most thrift stores are overburdened as clothing moves through the system faster and faster.

Most just don’t have the capacity to keep up with the amount of waste that’s produced. Even the market for secondhand clothing abroad has started to decrease due to the boom of fast fashion around the world. For many, there’s not enough of a price difference between new and used fast fashion pieces to warrant getting secondhand and, more importantly, the low quality of these clothes means most will not last very long. Enter sustainable fashion and ethical clothing. Don’t get this confused with eco-friendly clothing. There’s not really anything that could be marketed as such as all clothes have some negative impact on the environment. 

What is ethical or sustainable fashion?

Okay, so what exactly sets ethical and sustainable fashion from what you would normally find in a place like Target? Before we can get into that, let’s first look at fast fashion. While many people mistake fast fashion as a ‘style’ it’s actually a production model that allows manufacturers to mass-produce cheaply made items that they can sell at a low price point. Usually, the items take ideas from fashion shows and/or celebrities to create something that consumers can afford that is trendy and ‘of-the-moment.’ This cycle has led to increased demand for speed and value throughout the year and not just during seasonal changes. As such, this leads to huge waste and turnover. 

As you would expect, sustainable (or ethical) fashion is the opposite of fast fashion. These are items meant to last a long time and takes into account how the entire life cycle of your garments, from production to completed product, affects the people and environment where it’s produced as well as the consumers who purchase it. There are several issues at the heart of sustainable fashion. 

Water usage  

The fashion industry uses around 79 billion cubic meters of water per year, which translates to around 2 percent of all freshwater extraction in the world. This number is only expected to go up considering our current trajectory. While 2 percent might not seem like a lot, consider the fact that this is enough to provide water to 110 million people for a whole year. So why does the fashion industry use so much water? A lot of it is used to grow cotton, a famously thirsty crop. It takes about 20,000 liters to produce around two pounds of cotton. However, water itself is used throughout the production process from dying to finishing of the raw fiber.

Luckily, there are companies throughout the supply chain that are working to reduce their overall water usage. Some farmers have received certification from organizations such as Cotton made in Africa or Better Cotton Initiative to prove that their cotton uses only rainwater and not irrigation. Other companies are looking at ways they can recycle or re-use the wastewater from processing or putting research and development into reducing or removing the need for water in their dyeing process.

Hazardous Chemicals

Whether you’re wearing natural fiber or synthetic, the process of making an article of clothing requires harsh chemicals for dyeing and processing. Features that we’ve come to know and love such as wrinkle-free or water-repellant all require high levels of chemicals to achieve the finished product. So what about you, the consumer? While you might not have any adverse effects when wearing clothes, you might experience them after you throw your clothes out. As mentioned earlier, when thrown into a landfill, the chemicals from the clothes could leach into the groundwater. If burnt, the toxins will get released into the air. Luckily, many companies are researching safer dyes and finishes for popular features like wrinkle-resistance and water-repellency.

Short Lifecycle

The whole point of fast fashion is to mass-produce mercurial trends for the general public. As the styles change on an almost weekly basis, the volume of sales balances out the gross costs of production. Unfortunately, because they’re produced so quickly, it also leads to less quality control and cheaper raw materials. As you would expect, all of this leads to a very short life cycle.  The goal of sustainable fashion is to reduce your consumption. While you probably won’t find anything on-trend, you will be able to find timeless pieces for your wardrobe. The best part is that classic dresses or suits never go out of style.

With that said, if you really love fashion and want to wear the latest styles, you don’t have to buy new especially if you only plan to wear it once or twice. There are now many closet-sharing platforms where you can exchange items in your closet with someone else. Or, if you need something for a formal event, you can go to a place like Rent-the-Runway and rent an outfit.  

Waste

Short lifecycles mean more waste. The more stores update their designs, the more money they make as consumers update their wardrobe. As you would expect, this leads to a lot of waste not just on the consumer end, but on the supplier end as well. There’s no way retailers are selling all of their stock from the previous week. So what happens to remaining stock? Well, the ones that aren’t sold are thrown out and/or burned. Of course, consumers also make a huge bulk of fashion waste. Some throw out their old clothes because they’re no longer in fashion. Others will toss them because they have developed rips and tears. 

Sustainable fashion focuses not on trends but on classic pieces. Yes, they might be basic, but they’ll look good 5 or even 10 years down the line. As well, sustainable fashion focuses on quality. Rather than breaking down after a few wears, the stitching, dye jobs, and finishing all tend to last for years. Some retailers even offer free/cheap mending and alterations.

Agriculture

For natural fibers like cotton, you also need to account for all of the pesticides sprayed on the crop. It doesn’t matter how careful the workers are, these chemicals are extremely dangerous as it can pollute the local water supply and affect the overall quality of life for the people who have to directly handle these toxins. 

Luckily, there are more options than ever before for organic cotton, linen, and other fibers. Many brands are looking to be organic throughout the entire process not just growing the crops. Today, if you want to know your textiles are free of harmful chemicals, you should look for a GOTS certification on your garments.

What are the most sustainable fabrics?

The most sustainable fabric is one that isn’t new. That means wearing secondhand clothes or, if you’re crafty, creating new clothes from the old stuff in your closet. After that comes recycled materials. The most common is polyester made from recycled plastic bottles. However, there are a lot of companies who are actually clothes from recycled fabric. With that said, the latter generally has to blend recycled fabrics with new fabric to create durable clothing. 

There’s a growing field of research looking into how companies can create a closed-loop cycle where all of the fabrics they use are only used from recycled materials. The research is still a long way off, but there’s plenty of enthusiasm for it not just because it’s good for the environment, but because it will also reduce their overall costs. After that, the next best fabrics are those made from sustainable fibers such as organic cotton or Tencel. If you haven’t heard of Tencel before, it’s essentially a type of rayon made from cellulose. Unlike traditional rayon, it produces far less waste and is also less harmful to workers.

Is Sustainable Fashion Affordable?

When most people think of sustainable fashion, they probably think they’ll have to shell out hundreds of dollars for a t-shirt. While that’s a bit of an exaggeration, the truth is buying brands that focus on sustainability and ethics does cost more. However, since they are not mass-producing clothes they can focus more on quality than quantity. This does mean a higher price tag, but it also means your clothes will last you longer. In the long-run, you might spend more upfront for a sweater, but over the course of a few years, you’ll end up spending more shopping at a fast-fashion retailer replacing your favorite sweater. 

Of course, if you want to save money, the best thing you can do is buy used. You don’t have to buy everything at a thrift store, though. There are plenty of places online where you can buy stylish, used clothes from eBay to thredUP. There are even places where you can trade your clothes with other people if you want to reduce your costs further. Even regular retailers are getting into the used clothes business. Places like Macy’s and JC Penney are jumping on the bandwagon and partnering with companies to offer used clothes and other goods. 

Sustainable Fashion Is More Than Just What You Wear

While retailers definitely have their work cut out for them to follow more sustainable and ethical practices, consumers can also make a huge difference in terms of fashion waste. There are some easy things you can do to reduce your environmental impact and help sustainable fashion:

• Buy less - it might be tempting and fun to follow the trends and update your wardrobe every few weeks, but it’s incredibly wasteful. Instead of chasing the latest look, figure out your own style and find a few pieces that can work well together. Your wallet will thank you.

• Take care of your clothes - did you know that using a dryer actually reduces the longevity of your garment? If you want to keep your clothes looking fresh for longer, line-dry them. Not only will they last longer, but you also don’t have to worry about unfortunate shrinkage.

• Learn basic mending - Sometimes you’ll pop a seam. Other times you might pop a button. Regardless, if you know how to sew, you can fix these issues in less than 10 minutes. If you don’t know how to sew, there are plenty of video tutorials online.

With more and more people worried about the environmental impact of fast fashion, more companies are stepping up to the plate and re-evaluating their production model. H&M launched its Conscious line, which aims to reduce its footprint by using organic or recycled materials. Other companies are following suit and finding ways to maintain their quick turnaround while also reducing their impact.

Rebekah Pierce is a professional social blogger and has worked on several online publications including Citrus Sleep. Rebekah is an experienced content writer and copyeditor. You will find many of her works throughout CitrusSleep.com that cover a wide array of subjects including sleep education, natural, sleep products, electronics, fashion and many more. She is passionate about her work and family.

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