Does Your Clothing Come From Fossil Fuels?
I just wanted to clarify that clothing could be part of plastic products
If you have some shiny, stretchy clothing, then check the tag. If you find words like polyester, nylon, polyamide or acrylic, those materials are plastic.
Each time you wash these fabrics in the laundry they release tons of microplastic / plastic fibers which can then wind up polluting local waterways.
Research by ecologist Mark Browne showed that 85% of the human-made material found on shorelines were actually microfibers such as nylon and acrylic. The same materials used in clothing. That means small organisms readily ingest microplastics - introducing toxic pollutants - into the food chain.
By sampling wastewater from domestic washing machines, Mr.Browne estimated that around 1,900 individual fibers can be rinsed off a single synthetic garment - ending up in our oceans.
That is very bad! And I believe this situation has gotten far as fast fashion's popularity has increased. Look around the mall or online and you will find disposable synthetic clothing everywhere.
Also, look around the supermarket and stores. You know why entire companies are obsessed with plastics? Plastic containers, plastic bottles, plastic packaging… Because it’s cheap! And the majority of companies make decisions only based on their own benefit.
The system of fast fashion made clothing prices lower than ever before. This is partially because the material comes from very reasonable fossil fuel which helps them keep costs down. It turns out that around 62% of all fibers produced annually are synthetic. When clothing is so cheap, people tend to dispose of it much more easily. But is that mindset really the right thing?
What will the solution be? I started to see “recycled synthetic fabrics” more often in fashion brands. But is that really helping the Earth or just marketing - or greenwashing. Because it is much cheaper to make new synthetic clothing vs recycled synthetic clothing. Even though the company sells recycled fabric clothings, what about the rest of what they sell? To me, it sounds like greenwashing. You don’t need additional recycled products along with new synthetic products. If they meant it they would make 100% recycled products. And what about the microfiber issue? Up to a million tons of plastic microfibers pollute oceans and waterways each year from the washing of synthetic clothes.
I feel like “recycled synthetic fabrics” is not the solution for a better environment.
The best solution is to stop producing unnecessary synthetic clothing worldwide. But we are not the sellers. We alone cannot do that. What we can do is tell our friends about this knowledge and buy less stuff, get hand-me-downs from friends or buy organic materials (Click here to learn more). If we, the consumer, change what we're willing to buy - then the seller will have to change what they sell.
If you need to buy clothing from a store, think first: “Where will this wind up after I use it?” And if the answer is “compost into soil” then you are doing something kind to the Earth.