Hello, everyone!
You are welcome to my blog.
My name is Deborah Akerele a fellow at African Climate Stories. I am sure you will love to read this interesting write-up about climate.
The impact of fashion waste on climate.
Why fashion? Have you ever thought that there is a connection between fashion and climate?
As a fashion enthusiast, who has been in this sector for years, I have come to tell you how this can affect our climate.
The fashion industry has a large market because every day more and more people are being recruited into this sector, and more businesses are been set up due to its large market space.
Everybody needs to be clothed, some for occasion, work, and other purposes.
You know you can't step out of your house without a cloth, you need to cover up. So you need a cover,
Who would have thought that your leftover fabrics from your clothes with the tailor or your used shirts, and dresses can affect or alter our climate?
I am very sure, the majority won't think in that aspect because how does this even connect?
Follow me, as I dive in on how fashion waste affects climate change.
According to researchers, it has been proven that the fashion industry contributes about 40% each season of waste which affects and alters climate action. And this is more the emission of maritime shipping and international flights combined. The fashion sector is one of the second largest contributors to global emissions aside from the plastic industry and contributes 10% of global carbon emissions.
Take a look at your used clothes, which were dumped in the trash bin.
When those clothes are being transferred to the dumping site they cause more harm than we can ever imagine.
One of the ways to tackle the issue of plastic pollution is to focus on the fashion industry. Because polyester is the most commonly used fiber in the textile industry. These clothings when they are dumped in the dumping site and they end up as landfills.
These wastes in landfills often do not decompose but are been leached into the soil which can make our water unsafe for drinking and also unsafe for planting crops because of the harmful chemicals in our clothing.
These wastes also produce methane a powerful greenhouse gas that is 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
Imagine all these harmful effects on our environment and the impact if we don't act fast.
The Environmental Footprint of Fast Fashion
The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second (UNEP, 2018)
Approximately 60% of all materials used by the fashion industry are made from plastic (UNEP, 2019)
500,000 tons of microfibers are released into the ocean each year from washing clothes — the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017)
The fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of humanity’s carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined (UNEP, 2018). If the fashion sector continues on its current trajectory, that share of the carbon budget could jump to 26% by 2050 (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017)
Some 93 billion cubic metres of water – enough to meet the needs of five million people – is used by the fashion industry annually, contributing significantly to water scarcity in some regions (UNCTAD, 2020)
Around 20% of industrial wastewater pollution worldwide originates from the fashion industry (WRI, 2017)
How to reduce fashion waste?
Upcycling should be encouraged to reduce fashion waste for sustainability. This can be achieved by:
1) People should buy fewer clothes that are of good quality than buying more clothes with less quality which doesn't last and in the end contributes to fashion waste in the environment.
Moreover, second-hand clothing of lower quality should not be encouraged because most times these clothes don't last.
2)Improving our local fashion sector should be encouraged: The government should improve our local fashion sector to avoid importing dresses, especially second-hand clothing. This will help to reduce fashion waste.
The desire to purchase these cheap clothes oftentimes makes our local industry of no value.
3) Used clothes/bags can be converted to something else. They can be repaired or transformed into something more beautiful. This can help spice up the creativity of the local fashion industry.
Pictures showing the process of a handmade Ankara mixed with leather bag
4) Waste/leftover fabrics can be merged and used to create something more beautiful, instead of trashing them into the bin.
5) Renting should also be encouraged for some occasions as this will also help reduce cost and waste in the environment.
Why we look for a way out of this, let us in our own way do our best to rescue a nation, continent and the world at large.
Let us preserve posterity for our future generation. Let's take this opportunity to reach out to many people and educate them on the harmful effects of fashion waste on our environment. You can be the change, so I can.
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Reference:
.zurichmedia.com
www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org
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