A more frightening fact is the resources required to produce this avalanche of clothing. From the water and pesticides needed to grow raw materials such as cotton, to the chemicals and energy, as well as the fossil fuels involved in the manufacturing process, to overflowing landfills, the environmental havoc is immense.
To quote Dr Helen Roby, a researcher at the UK’s Open University, who instigated a wardrobe audit project and discovered that dedicated followers of fashion in general drastically underestimated the number of clothes they owned. ‘Overconsumption is the elephant in the room. We know it's a problem but we don't want to do anything about it!’
It is this fear of radically dwindling natural resources involved in production, for example water could become increasingly scarce, which is most likely to force change. Yet clothing industry philosophy in the face of approaching disaster thus far remains capitalistic in its intent. For the objective does not appear to make clothing cheaper for the low income consumer, but more to continue to generate profit in the long term by operating on a more sustainable basis.
Clothing firms claim that while they cannot influence what people choose to spend their money on (presumably the choice between garments made from original or recycled materials), yet it’s a racing certainty given an appropriate publicity budget that they most certainly can! But here the industry takes a truly capitalist stance, pleading that they need to be hugely profitable in order to drive fashion sustainability, presumably a big budget marketing campaign adds to the fear and loathing at the prospect of making less money. However, listen up rag traders all, circularity [of materials] is a crucial solution to the negative impact of over consumption of resources.
Manufacturers are investing in textile recycling innovations and research, but currently, most clothes which involve a blend of materials such as polyester, nylon and cotton, are impossible to separate and recycle. As of 2016 none of the clothes produced on behalf of major UK high street brands were made from 100% recycled material. So in essence, the only organisations recycling clothing materials are charities.
Looking at recycling clothing from another angle:
Recycled rags were virtually the only source of fibre used to supply the papermaking industry in the Western world for over 700 years, until wood pulp processes were developed in the mid-nineteen century. The first paper mill in North America for example was built by the Spanish in Mexico City in 1575. Then in the 19th Century a world shortage of rags caused attention to turn to wood as a raw material for paper, given that forests were vast and plentiful at the time! Wood pulp is not a perfect fibre, only about 50 percent of wood delivers the cellulose that can be made into paper, much less than the cellulose content of cotton or linen.
The paper industry now refers to trees as a ‘renewable resource,’ thereby conveniently perpetuating the myth that fundamentally cutting down trees does not present an environmental problem. While it is true that trees can be replanted, unlike oil, ores and minerals once extracted never to be seen again, it is not quite that simple and devalues the essential benefits of natural forestation. Certainly some trees are grown on plantations specifically for the paper industry, yet these replanted trees never become a naturally functioning forest. They are usually subject to intensive management, employing heavy use of petrochemical inputs including pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers.
At the moment Earth is on a downhill track from so many perspectives both environmental and human, thus there is much to do mis amigos, to help our ailing third planet from the Sun; and like everything else in this life it is a question of numbers.
Redbeck