Sustainable fashion

Fashion allows us to express our individuality by wearing outfits that boost our confidence and reflect our personalities.

The fashion industry in the UK generates billions of pounds in revenue every year and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs. However, the clothes that people buy and wear can have an impact on the environment.

Fast fashion is when clothing companies make a high volume of cheap clothes very quickly. With lower prices, people have been buying clothes more frequently to keep up with the latest trends. This might sound great, but it can cause some big problems.

Some of the clothes are made in places where manufacturers can pay workers less money and where they don't always have to follow strict rules to protect the environment. This makes it easy to produce and sell clothes all over the world, but many people think that the process should be more sustainable.

Globalisation speeds up fashion trends with help from things like social media and television. Technology allows fashion to spread quickly worldwide, and this increases the demand for cotton and polyester production. Some people argue that this is creating a more homogenous society.

In 2022, the average household in the UK spent £17.60 per week on clothing and footwear.

Factories

When factories make clothes, they burn things like coal and oil for energy. These are called fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, making the Earth warmer. This can cause changes in the climate and other problems. As well as this, the chemicals used when dyeing fabrics into different colours can often enter the water system in an uncontrolled manner, which damages aquatic ecosystems.

Transport

Clothes are often made all around the world, which are then transported to shops in places such as Wales. Fossil fuels used in transporting the products pollutes the air with greenhouse gases.

Microplastics

Sometimes, when clothes made from materials like polyester (a man-made fibre) are washed, tiny pieces of plastic break off. These are called microplastics, and they can end up in rivers and oceans. They're bad for fish and other animals that live in the water, as they can digest them, and they can even get into the food we eat.

Waste

People often throw away clothes they don't want anymore. Although people can recycle their old clothes, they often don’t, and the unwanted clothes end up in landfills and can cause problems as they break down.

Water usage

The plants that produce cotton for making clothes need a lot of water to grow. This can be a problem in countries that grow cotton because it can use up too much water. This makes it hard for local people to ensure that they have enough water to drink, wash, and enough for their animals.

Labour exploitation

Many fast fashion brands rely on cheap labour in developing countries, where workers are often paid low wages and subjected to poor working conditions, including long hours and unsafe workplaces.

Health risks

The use of toxic chemicals in textile production and dyeing processes can pose health risks to workers and communities living near factories.

Loss of cultural identity

Fast fashion can make people think they need lots of clothes and the newest styles all the time. Some argue that this can make people forget about the value of well-made clothes and traditional styles from different cultures, and that it can also make everyone look the same.

More and more people are starting to talk about the issues caused by fast fashion and are trying to find solutions. Some clothing companies have started to make their clothes in ways that are better for the environment.

Using organic cotton

Growing organic cotton means that it is grown without using harmful chemicals like herbicides and pesticides that harm the natural environment.

Recycling old clothes

Some shops offer an opportunity for their customers to return old clothes for recycling. The fabrics in these clothes can be recycled which reduces the waste in landfills and decreases the need for new materials.

Fair wages for workers

Fair wages ensure workers can support themselves and their families. Operating through Fairtrade agreements means supporting ethical practices in clothing production. These include adequate working conditions and reasonable working hours and wages.

Reducing energy and water use

This helps reduce the strain on the land and natural resources used to grow materials and make clothes.

Taking action at individual, national, and international levels could make the fashion industry more sustainable.

Closed-loop recycling means taking used items, recycling them and using them to produce the same kind of products, for example recycling old clothes and using them to make new items of clothing. Materials are reused over and over again without losing quality. This helps to save resources, use less energy, and make less waste.