Josey - The Fashion Industries Effect on the Enviroment
Clothing production around the world has doubed since the year 2000, making the fashion indsutry the second biggest polluter in the world. The impact of the indsutry on the enviroment has always been substantial, but in recent years as it has continued to grow, the impact has grown with it. It is estimated that aproximately every second a truck load of clothing is dumped or burned in a landfill. Not only is this a huge amount of resources, but it is also clothing that could easily be reworn or recycled. This is an extremely wasteful amount and is not only affecting the resources that are used, but also the workers who are being forced to produce materials at extremely fast rates.
Wasting these materials is one of the major ways that this is having an effect on the enviroment but another is the waste that is produced and put into the enviroment. Often when factories produce clothing, once they are done they dump chemicals from the factory into rivers. These chemicals can be any number of toxic substances including mercury or arsenic, which are extremely harmful to aquatic life as well as the people who may be living nearby. At first this pollution only has an affects on a local scale, but eventually it moves towards the ocean and can start to take an effect around the world. Another reason this industry is unsustainable at such an immense level is because it uses a large amount of water to produce garments. It can require up to 20,000 liters of water to produce a single kilogram of cotton, putting an incredible strain on a resource we already need to preserve. The effects of water used for cotton can already be seen in places such as the Aral Sea, where there is now a desert because the cotton used up all the water.
Although at first it seems like there might be a way to continue to grow this industry and not have to worry about such a strain on resources, the problem is how the industry is continually growing and people are buying more and more clothing. Each year there is enough cotton produced for everyone around the world to have 20 garments of clothing. Although we have seen this is often not the case and there are people who have more or less than this, there is still an great quantity of these that get thrown away after as few as three wears. All of these small steps together create a sort of cascade that strains the resources we have and has a negative effect on the enviroment because of emissions. Although there is still much to be done about it, many fashion designers are realizing the type of effects this has and have been making an effort to bring awareness to these problems through their collections. Some designers have begun to incorporate reusable bottles or other materials that have a more positive impact on the enviroment in order to spread awareness and help people realize the impact of this problem.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/new-york-fashion-week-isnt-sustainable-but-neither-is-1841700190
https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/old-environmental-impacts
Wasting these materials is one of the major ways that this is having an effect on the enviroment but another is the waste that is produced and put into the enviroment. Often when factories produce clothing, once they are done they dump chemicals from the factory into rivers. These chemicals can be any number of toxic substances including mercury or arsenic, which are extremely harmful to aquatic life as well as the people who may be living nearby. At first this pollution only has an affects on a local scale, but eventually it moves towards the ocean and can start to take an effect around the world. Another reason this industry is unsustainable at such an immense level is because it uses a large amount of water to produce garments. It can require up to 20,000 liters of water to produce a single kilogram of cotton, putting an incredible strain on a resource we already need to preserve. The effects of water used for cotton can already be seen in places such as the Aral Sea, where there is now a desert because the cotton used up all the water.
Although at first it seems like there might be a way to continue to grow this industry and not have to worry about such a strain on resources, the problem is how the industry is continually growing and people are buying more and more clothing. Each year there is enough cotton produced for everyone around the world to have 20 garments of clothing. Although we have seen this is often not the case and there are people who have more or less than this, there is still an great quantity of these that get thrown away after as few as three wears. All of these small steps together create a sort of cascade that strains the resources we have and has a negative effect on the enviroment because of emissions. Although there is still much to be done about it, many fashion designers are realizing the type of effects this has and have been making an effort to bring awareness to these problems through their collections. Some designers have begun to incorporate reusable bottles or other materials that have a more positive impact on the enviroment in order to spread awareness and help people realize the impact of this problem.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/new-york-fashion-week-isnt-sustainable-but-neither-is-1841700190
https://www.sustainyourstyle.org/old-environmental-impacts
That's so interesting. Would reusing the clothing instead of being taken to a landfill help this problem? does it look like production will be slowing down soon to help the environment?
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ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article, since I’ve never really known about the greater impacts that the fashion industry had on our world. Do you think that as more people grow aware of the fact, they will turn to the fashion designers who are incorporating the reusable materials and resources into their clothing? I'm also wondering if people wanted to stay in their comfort zone, and wear the clothing they always have, what will happen to our environment and oceans in the future? The impact of the fashion industry already seems large with the waste it produces, but do you think that this waste will become less and less with the introduction of reusable clothing?
ReplyDeleteIn the first paragraph, you talked about the excessive amount of clothing being dumped or burned in landfills. This surprised me as I feel like, especially in the US, there are many places such as a Goodwill and The Salvation Army to donate unwanted/unneeded clothes. I had never heard of clothes being just thrown away. That being said, does the US take up a large percentage of the amount of clothes being discarded? I feel like we wouldn't...Moving onto the second paragraph, is there an alternative way that toxic substances can be disposed of? Is there a way that they can produce clothes without using toxic substances in the first place? The last paragraph discussed how certain fashion designers have started incorporating recycled materials into their clothing. Are they also adjusting the way that they produce the clothing (like not using toxic materials)? Also, how will the public react to seeing that their shirt was made with an old plastic water-bottle? Will this make them more or less likely to purchase the clothing?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article that raises awareness to a very underrated problem. I never knew how much the clothing industry contributed to global pollution. I never thought of people just throwing out clothes, especially with so many places within the US where you can donate clothes. Would it help if each clothing store had a sort of trash can for clothes people don't want anymore so that clothing store can reuse the materials to make new clothes? Or if clothing factories has a few small locations where people can donate clothes to them so they reuse materials in new clothes?
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