How sustainability is revolving around the fashion industry

2022-06-25 06:13:54 By : Mr. Gavin Guo

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Kapil Bhatia is CEO & Founder, UNIREC

Sustainability in fashion  involves multiple aspect starting from the  products, processes, activities and finally the people behind this in aiming to achieve a carbon-neutral fashion industry, built on equality, social justice, animal welfare, and ecological integrity. Sustainable fashion concerns more than just addressing fashion  textiles  or products. It addresses the entire manner in which clothing is produced, who produces it, and how long the life span of a product is before it reaches the landfill. This sustainable movement combats the large carbon footprint that the fashion industry and fast fashion have created by reducing  greenhouse gas emissions .  Reducing the environmental impact of fashion can combat air pollution,  water pollution  and overall climate change .

Currently a wide range of fabrics are being used ( natural and manmade ) to fulfill the fast changing needs of the fashion industry and at the same the concept of slow fashion is coming to the fore to ensure that we maintain a reasonable balance on what we wear , how often we discard our clothes and how subjectively fashionable we are while doing the above. 

For example , cotton which is used in more than 50% of the garments worldwide has a deep and far reaching impact on our environment on the way it is currently being sourced. Conventionally grown cotton uses approximately 25% of the world’s insecticides and more than 10% of the world’s pesticides However, growing and processing this particular fiber crop is largely unsustainable. For every pound of cotton harvested, a farmer uses up 1/3 lb of chemical, synthetic fertilizer. As a whole, the US cotton production makes up 25% of all pesticides deployed in the United States. Worldwide, cotton takes up 2.4% of all arable lands yet requires 16% of the world’s pesticides. The cotton hulls contain the most potent insecticide residues. They are often used as cattle feed, which means that consumers are purchasing meat containing a concentration of pesticides. However , due to increased awareness about the above issues fabrics like BT cotton and organic cotton are now being sourced which reduces the impact on the environment significantly. Infact,  organic cotton uses 88% less water and 62% less energy than conventional cotton. 

Also in the last few years we have come across multiple sustainable fabrics like hemp, soy, bamboo, banana and pineapple fibres which are not only naturally sustainable but biodegradable as well. 

Finally , coming to synthetic fibres like polyester which is majorly used across the world to create fast fashion. “Fast” clothing is made with synthetic fibers as opposed to natural fibers. The synthetic fibers are made using the Earth’s fossil fuels. Almost sixty percent of our clothes are made this way. Since people spend so much money on these types of clothes and purchase them so frequently, landfills are filling up quickly. Over sixty percent of clothes made every year end up in landfills as consumer waste, and almost twenty percent of the world’s waste is constituted by fashion products. 

While there will always be a case in point for fast fashion and changing trends and the ever increasing “pressure” on brands to churn out new designs , product lines faster than their competitors , this also can be done sustainably. PET plastics which are mainly used in beverages ( soda, juice bottles and now even medicines ) can be converted into polyester and this in turn combined with blends can make some of the fabrics that are currently being used in large quantities across the world. Generally, PET plastic clothing are made from recycled bottles as follows: plastic bottles are collected, compressed, baled, and shipped into processing facilities where they will be chopped into flakes, and melted into small white pellets. Then, the pellets are processed again, and spun into yarn-like fiber where it can be made into clothing. One main benefit of making clothes from recycled bottles is that it keep the bottles and other plastics from occupying landfill space. Another benefit is that it takes 30% less energy to make clothes from recycled plastics than from virgin polyesters.

In conclusion , it is essential that we as manufacturers or retailers must take responsibility for the social and environmental cost of clothes. For every garment that we make , if we ensure that the same is sustainably produced not only at the product level but also in terms of their accessories , packaging and presentation, we certainly could create an indefinite positive impact on our environment. 

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Views expressed above are the author's own.

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