When you’re idly adding bargains to your ASOS cart, what do you think about? Whether you’ll actually wear a sequined one-shouldered jumpsuit? If you should spend your last $79 on something you’ll put on once and then discard at the back of your cupboard? If you maybe don’t need another pair of pink trainers?
Well, now there’s another consideration to throw into the mix: What our seemingly insatiable appetite for fashion is doing to the environment.
A new report out today has highlighted the astronomical effect that the clothing industry has on the planet and it’s breathtaking.
- More than half of “fast fashion” is thrown away with a year.
- The fashion industry generates 1.26 billion tons of greenhouse emissions every year, which is more than the amount created by international flights and shipping combined.
- Less than 1 percent of material every used is recycled.
- Every second, a truckload of clothes are wasted.
- Half a million tons of plastic microfibres are shed during washing and end up in the ocean — and therefore in the food chain.
- The average number of times a piece of clothing is worn has dropped 36 percent.
The report, put out by the MacArthur Foundation and which has the backing of H & M and Nike, has called for the fashion industry to become more sustainable.
Designer Stella McCartney, who has long advocated for and uses, environmentally-sound fabrics in her collections, has said the paper “opens up the conversation that will allow us to find a way to work together to better our industry.”
Look, we all love shopping and it’s party season — we need lovely things for parties. But maybe it’s time to remind yourself you’re never going to wear that jumpsuit again. Maybe you should think about slipping into something you already own. After all, not only Captain Planet but Stella would approve.