The True Cost of Clothing Waste: Exploring Statistics and Environmental Impact
When did you last bring a dress, a pair of shoes, or jeans to get repaired? Chances are that even though your parents used to mend your clothes several times before donating them, you did not inherit this habit.
Fast fashion has radically changed our relationship with clothes. People around the world feel the need to constantly buy new clothing items and don’t think twice before throwing away something when it’s no longer in vogue. But this waste is unsustainable.
Clothes Waste In Numbers
According to data published by Earth.org, we produce roughly 92 million tonnes of textile waste annually¹. To put this data in perspective, this is equal to a rubbish truck full of clothes discarded in landfills every second. As of today, the average American consumer throws away 37 kg of clothes every year², while EU citizens tend to be slightly better, throwing away an average of 11 kg³.
Unfortunately, recycling is not always an option. For instance, in Europe, some clothes are exported outside the EU, while the vast majority, accounting for 87%, are either incinerated or end up in landfills. Currently, only 1% of EU textiles are properly recycled into new clothes. Regarding the US, roughly 15% of used textiles are ‘recycled’. Unfortunately, however, roughly half of this 15% is shipped overseas where it ends up in landfills. But why all this waste?
Why All This Waste?
We can answer this question with a clear and simple answer: fast fashion. In less than twenty years, the amount of clothes Americans throw away has doubled. People are also way less likely to keep wearing the same clothes over time². In only 15 years, the number of times a garment is worn has declined by 36%, with many people nowadays wearing a piece of clothes from seven to ten times before throwing it away¹.
On top of this, fast fashion companies are producing new clothes at an incredible speed. Massive corporations used to have a maximum of four seasons per year. However, the trend now is to launch up to 11, sometimes even 15, new seasons per year, more than one per month².
To produce clothes in such huge numbers and at such low prices, companies often compromise on quality, choosing bad materials that harm the environment and producing low-quality pieces bound to last only a few months, if not weeks. But how does all this waste impact our environment?
The Environmental Impact of Clothes Waste
Landfills are rarely a good solution to our waste problem. Unlike what some may believe, textiles don’t decompose well. While some materials, such as cotton, silk, and linen, are fully biodegradable, most synthetic fibres aren’t. These types of fibres often shed so-called micro-fibres, consisting of materials such as polyester and nylon, in the environment. Despite being incredibly small, these can cause massive damage to our ecosystems, especially when entering bodies of water. This is because micro-fibres get ingested by aquatic animals, making their way up the food chain and reaching humans.
According to estimates, roughly 10% of microplastic in our oceans is derived from micro-fibres shredding from our clothes. Today, approximately half a million tons of these contaminants reach our oceans every year. To put this in perspective, this is equal to 50 billion plastic bottles¹.
Unfortunately, switching to biodegradable textiles is not enough to fix the issue. Natural materials, including cotton, often release harmful greenhouse gases, such as methane, back into the atmosphere. Considering that it takes years—sometimes even decades—for fabrics to decompose, we need to find new solutions while limiting our waste as much as possible⁴.
To this, we must add all the CO2 emissions and water waste caused by clothes production. According to Florida State University, it takes roughly 2700 litres of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt⁵. This is equal to the amount of water drunk by a common person for up to 900 days! The fashion industry is also responsible for plenty of CO2 emissions, roughly 10% of all carbon emissions³. Other problems with this industry concern soil degradation caused by the many pesticides and fertilisers used to grow cotton and other crops and the damage caused by chemical dyes on workers and ecosystems.
While the direct effects of clothes waste are sometimes hard to see in the Western world, the problems are more than evident in some African countries.
Ghana and the Problem With Clothes Waste
Obroni wawu, translated as ‘dead white man’s clothes,’ is the term Ghanaians use to refer to second-hand clothes from Western countries. In 2021, Ghana imported a total of $214 million of used clothes, becoming the world’s leading importer. Today, roughly 15 million items of second-hand clothes reach the country weekly.
These come from countries such as China, the UK, and the US and are then sold to local vendors operating in cities such as Accra, the capital of Ghana. Kantamanto market in Accra remains one of the biggest second-hand markets in the world to this day. Here, vendors sell clothes produced from all sorts of Western brands, such as H&M, Tesco, Strauss, and more.
Unfortunately, however, the quality of clothes received is worsening, with some pieces arriving with huge steins on them. Consequently, roughly 40% of all clothes in Kantamanto are now burned at the edge of the market, dumped in informal landfills, or—in some lucky cases—picked up by waste management services.
A few miles from Kantamanto market, the Old Fadama neighbourhood is now home to 80,000 people. Once a thriving community, today, this area is buried in trash, including plenty of fast-fashion clothes. The nearby Korle Lagoon is also experiencing the impact of clothes waste, with local fishermen facing unprecedented challenges. “We are suffering. When I go out to fish, I come back with more clothes in my nets than fish,” said a local fisherman⁶.
Comments