Keeping up with the latest trends has become essential for fashionistas worldwide. Stores such as Forever 21 and H&M provide clothes in bulk that are considered to be cheap, cute, and accessible.
But what is the cost? WHERE do so many clothes, with options in so many colors and hundreds of kinds of materials, come from?
Agriculture. Synthetic fibers. Textile and dye industries. Animals. The IPCC calculates that around 10% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions come from textile industries and around 1.5 trillion litres of water are consumed by these industries annually. This means that every time we buy one new outfit, we increase our individual footprint along with exponentially increasing emissions caused by the manufacturing units of the same brand.
And that’s not where it ends. After production and utility comes disposal. Most of the clothes we throw out end up in the landfill or are burnt, resulting in one kind of pollution or another. But it’s not only waste clothes that pollute: waste produced from manufacturing industries or dye industries that help for coloration of all the clothes dispose extremely harmful and toxic water directly into canals, lakes, and ponds. This harms not only aquatic life, but the soil around it as well- the most essential aspect of our ecosystem. Soil controls the health of the people living in the area and is essential to let people have a healthy and a safe life. How can you contribute to put an end to this toxic cycle?
