The total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production are more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Some other fast facts about fast fashion:
1. It takes about 2,700L of water to make one cotton t-shirt (enough water for you to drink for 2 and a half years). About 7,500L for a pair of jeans. Cotton also uses an enormous amount of insecticides and pesticides and can often be horrible for our lands & farmers.⠀
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2. We now buy 60% more clothing than before 2000 and only keep it for half as long. This equals a whole lot of waste.⠀
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3. Americans now dump 16 million tons of clothing into the trash each year. Australians throw 6,000kg into landfill every 10 minutes.⠀
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4. The International Labor Organization estimates 170 million children are working in child labor, with most making clothes to satisfy the demand of US, Europe, UK & Australia. Fast fashion is a race to the bottom for the cheapest goods and children and workers in LMIC countries are the cheapest labor.⠀
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5. It costs enormous amounts of money to even get the clothes to landfill. NYC spends 20.6 million dollars a year to ship waste textiles to landfills and incinerators. That’s just one city and one tiny piece of the cost equation of clothes. ⠀
6. Women are wearing an item on average 7x before getting rid of it and women on average wear only 40% of what’s in their wardrobe. ⠀
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Thrift first! When buying focus on high-quality pieces made ethically and transparently from natural, compostable, less-thirsty materials (like hemp or linen). Shop from second-hand stores or local sales on eBay or thredup. Hold swap parties. Minimize your wardrobe and wear clothes you love for years and can mix and match with everything. Look after everything well; treasure your items, repair them and wash them gently (and less).
