Greenpeace: Fast fashion – this industry needs an urgent makeover

From Changing Markets:

Today’s fashion industry has become synonymous with overconsumption, a snowballing waste crisis, widespread pollution and the exploitation of workers in global supply chains.  What is less well known is that the insatiable fast fashion business model is enabled by cheap synthetic fibres, which are produced from fossil fuels, mostly oil and gas. Polyester, the darling of the fast fashion industry, is found in over half of all textiles and production is projected to skyrocket in the future.

Their campaign exposes the clear correlation between the growth of synthetic fibres and the fast fashion industry – one cannot exist without the other. The campaign calls for prompt, radical legislative action to slow-down the fashion industry and decouple it from fossil fuels

The latest report from Changing Markets:

 Trashion: The stealth export of waste plastic clothes to Kenya. The report was launched together with les Amis de la Terre France, Wildlight, and Clean up Kenya and presents findings from an on-the-ground investigation in Kenya, looking at what happens to used, unwanted clothing, that gets exported from Europe to the Global South.

The report finds that the system of used-clothing trade is to a large extent export of plastic waste: 

• Over 900 million items were sent to Kenya from around the globe in 2021. Out of these, nearly 150 million items came from the EU and the UK. 

• Although exporting of plastic waste is restricted under the Basel Convention and to be banned in the EU, our assessments suggest more than 1 in 3 pieces (or up to 300 million) of items imported to Kenya are damaged or unsellable clothing containing synthetic – or plastic – fibres, ending up dumped, landfilled or burned, exacerbating the plastic pollution crisis.

• This toxic influx is creating devastating consequences for the environment and communities. A large proportion of used clothing ends up dumped on continuously growing landfills in Kenya and polluting the Nairobi River, and eventually entering the ocean. As the lion’s share of these contains synthetics, the impacts of microplastic leaching and environmental contamination of water and soil are likely to be significant. 

• Some items are even being used as fuel, such as for roasting peanuts, causing locals to inhale smoke from the burning synthetic clothing with the risk of damaging health impacts.

The report calls for a strong legislation at the EU level to ensure clothing is more sustainable by design, and brands and retailers, which are profiting from cheap fast fashion, take responsibility for their fashion waste.

Other reports:

Synthetics Anonymous 2.0: Fashion’s persistent plastic problem

December 2022

Dressed to Kill: Fashion brands’ hidden links to Russian oil in a time of war

November 2022

Licence to Greenwash: How certification schemes and voluntary initiatives are fuelling fossil fashion

March 2022

A New Look for the Fashion Industry:EU Textile Strategy and the Crucial Role of Extended Producer Responsibility

March 2022

Synthetics Anonymous: fashion brands’ addiction to fossil fuels

June 2021

Fossil fashion: the hidden reliance of fast fashion on fossil fuels

February 2021

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