Key Insights
The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined
The fashion industry is the second-largest consumer of water worldwide
It takes about 2,000 to 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton t-shirt, enough for one person to drink for 2.5 years
The average number of times a garment is worn before it ceases to be used has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago
Consumers buy 60% more clothing items today than they did in the year 2000
In the UK, the average person has 118 items of clothing in their wardrobe
Global production of fiber has nearly doubled in the last 20 years, reaching 109 million tonnes in 2020
Polyester accounts for over 52% of the global fiber market
The fashion industry produces more than 100 billion garments annually
Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
The equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second
The US generates over 17 million tons of textile municipal solid waste per year
The global apparel market is valued at approximately 1.5 trillion US dollars
The global secondhand apparel market is expected to grow 127% by 2026
Fast fashion is expected to reach a market value of $200 billion by 2030
Consumer Behavior
The average number of times a garment is worn before it ceases to be used has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago
Consumers buy 60% more clothing items today than they did in the year 2000
In the UK, the average person has 118 items of clothing in their wardrobe
26% of clothes in UK wardrobes have been unworn for at least a year
41% of Gen Z consumers shop for secondhand clothes before looking at new clothing
37% of women wear an item of clothing less than five times before getting rid of it
On average, people do not wear 50% of their wardrobes
One in three young women generally consider clothes 'old' after wearing them once or twice
74% of consumers engage in "impulse buying" of clothes
20% of returned online clothing purchases are discarded by the retailer because it is cheaper than restocking
60% of consumers say they would pay more for sustainable products, though actual buying behavior lags
Nearly 1 in 6 adults in the US plan to buy secondhand clothing in the next 12 months
The average American family spends $1,700 on clothes annually
40% of consumers have purchased a fashion item simply for the "Instagram moment"
Buying one used item replaces the purchase of a new item for 65% of thrift shoppers
UK consumers send 11,000 items of clothing to landfill every 10 minutes
71% of consumers plan to spend more on higher quality items to own fewer clothes
50% of consumers discard clothes because they no longer fit, not because they are damaged
14% of consumers dispose of clothes because they "don’t like the look of them" anymore
In the USA, the average person throws away 81 pounds of clothing every year
Interpretation
We’ve turned clothing into disposable theater: buying 60% more than in 2000 yet wearing garments 36% fewer times, hoarding around 118 items on average while a quarter sit unworn and thousands of pieces head to landfill every 10 minutes as retailers and shoppers discard returns and impulse buys, so despite talk of choosing sustainable or secondhand options we’re still fueling landfills and the fast fashion status game.
Economic Market
The global apparel market is valued at approximately 1.5 trillion US dollars
The global secondhand apparel market is expected to grow 127% by 2026
Fast fashion is expected to reach a market value of $200 billion by 2030
The resale market is growing 3 times faster than the primary apparel market overall
Global spending on clothing and footwear is projected to reach $3.3 trillion by 2030
The US women's clothing market alone is valued at over $130 billion
By 2030, the secondhand market is projected to be twice the size of fast fashion
The luxury fashion market is valued at approximately $280 billion Euros
The global online clothing rental market lies at $1.26 billion and is growing
The global sustainable fashion market is projected to reach $8.25 billion by 2023
The fashion industry contributes 2.4 trillion USD to global manufacturing
The circular fashion market could be worth $5 trillion
Online fashion sales accounted for about 27% of total category sales in the US in 2020
80% of the luxury market growth in 2021 was driven by Gen Z and Millennials
The sneaker resale market globally is estimated at $6 billion
US consumers spend 2.5% of their household income on apparel
The plus-size women's clothing market is valued at $24 billion in the US
The cost of returns to US retailers is estimated at $428 billion annually, with apparel being a major contributor
Smart clothing and fabrics market size is predicted to reach $5.3 billion by 2024
The global workwear market is valued at approximately $30 billion
Interpretation
The $1.5 trillion apparel industry is being reshaped by a resale revolution growing three times faster than primary retail and forecast to be twice the size of fast fashion by 2030, while rising online sales, rentals, sustainable and smart fashion niches, booming sneaker resale, plus-size and workwear demand and luxury expansion driven by Gen Z and Millennials reveal huge opportunities even as costly returns and only modest household spending expose the waste and inefficiency of a throwaway model.
Environmental Impact
The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined
The fashion industry is the second-largest consumer of water worldwide
It takes about 2,000 to 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton t-shirt, enough for one person to drink for 2.5 years
Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of water globally
Washing clothes releases half a million tonnes of microfibers into the ocean every year, equivalent to 50 billion plastic bottles
Fashion causes 20% of global wastewater
The apparel industry’s global emissions are projected to increase by 50% by 2030
Conventional cotton cultivation uses approximately 16% of the world’s insecticides
Synthetic fibers like polyester rely on 342 million barrels of oil every year
35% of all primary microplastics released into the environment are from laundering synthetic textiles
The carbon footprint of a single polyester shirt is approximately 5.5 kg CO2e, compared to 2.1 kg for cotton
Extended shelf life of clothing by just nine months would reduce carbon, water, and waste footprints by 20-30%
Should the industry continue on its current path, by 2050 it could use more than 26% of the carbon budget associated with a 2°C pathway
Leather production is linked to deforestation in the Amazon, with cattle ranching responsible for 80% of deforestation in some areas
Viscose production is responsible for 30% of global rayon and viscose fiber supply coming from endangered and ancient forests
Fertilizer use for cotton production releases nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO2
Textile production generates 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year
Approximately 70 million barrels of oil are used each year to make polyester fiber for clothes
Chemical usage in textile production accounts for 25% of all chemicals produced worldwide
Footwear accounts for approximately 1.4% of global climate impacts
Interpretation
If your wardrobe were a country it would be a voracious one: the fashion industry produces about 10% of global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and shipping combined, is the world's second-largest consumer of water and uses roughly 2,000 to 2,700 liters to make a single cotton T-shirt, pollutes rivers with textile dyes, releases half a million tonnes of microfibers into the ocean every year which equals some 50 billion plastic bottles, relies on hundreds of millions of barrels of oil to make polyester, and is on track to raise emissions by 50% by 2030 and possibly consume more than a quarter of the 2°C carbon budget by 2050, yet keeping garments just nine months longer would reduce its carbon, water and waste footprints by 20 to 30 percent.
Production Dynamics
Global production of fiber has nearly doubled in the last 20 years, reaching 109 million tonnes in 2020
Polyester accounts for over 52% of the global fiber market
The fashion industry produces more than 100 billion garments annually
Cotton represents approximately 24% of global fiber production
15% to 30% of fabric is wasted during the cutting and sewing process in production
China is the largest textile producer in the world, accounting for over 50% of global production
The production of polyester has grown nine-fold between 1980 and 2014
It takes 10 to 12 months for a typical clothing brand to design and produce a product (excluding fast fashion)
Fast fashion brands can move from design to rack in as little as 2 weeks
Over 40 million people work in the garment industry globally
60% of all clothing produced worldwide involves synthetic fibers
The average utilization of a factory in the garment sector rarely exceeds 75% due to seasonal demand
Yield losses in cotton spinning alone can be up to 10%
The volume of garments produced is expected to rise by 63% by 2030
Asia accounts for almost 60% of global exports of clothing and textiles
Approximately 8,000 synthetic chemicals are used to turn raw materials into textiles
In 2000, 50 billion garments were produced; by 2015, that number had doubled
The market for Recycled Polyester (rPET) is only 14% of the total polyester market
Global yarn production increases by roughly 2-3% annually
Bangladesh uses 50% of its industrial machinery specifically for textile production
Interpretation
We are sewing a polyester dominated tidal wave of clothing, led by China and Asia, that can move from sketch to rack in weeks, relies on millions of workers and thousands of chemicals, wastes huge swathes of fabric and factory capacity, keeps recycled polyester to a tiny fraction of the market, and if trends continue will swell closets and landfills by 63 percent by 2030.
Waste and Disposal
Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
The equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second
The US generates over 17 million tons of textile municipal solid waste per year
Up to 12% of fibers are discarded on the factory floor during the manufacturing process
Textile waste sent to landfills in the US has increased by 78% since the year 2000
Synthetic fibers like polyester can take up to 200 years to decompose in a landfill
87% of the total fiber input used for clothing is ultimately incinerated or sent to a landfill
85% of all textiles thrown away in the US are dumped into landfills or burned
Kantamanto market in Ghana receives 15 million garments a week, 40% of which ends up as waste immediately
The recycling rate for all textiles (including carpets and rugs) was only 14.7% in the US in 2018
Over 300,000 tonnes of used clothing go to landfill in the UK every year
Only 12% of global textile material is downcycled into lower-value applications like insulation or mattress stuffing
Burning 1 kg of clothing generates 1.36 kg of CO2 equivalent
57% of discarded clothes end up in landfills while 25% are incinerated
The Atacama Desert in Chile contains a landfill of unsold myriad clothes weighing over 39,000 tons
In Australia, 6,000kg of cheap fashion and textile waste is dumped in landfill every 10 minutes
The value of lost material in discarded clothing is estimated at $100 billion USD annually
Currently, technology only exists to recycle less than 1% of mixed-material blended textiles
73% of the world’s clothing eventually ends up in landfills
In Europe, only 1% of collected textiles are recycled into new fibers
Interpretation
Fast fashion is a spectacularly expensive magic trick, with less than one percent of textile material becoming new clothing while the rest, equal to a garbage truck of textiles every second and costing about $100 billion a year, is burned or buried, piling up from Kantamanto to the Atacama and leaving polyester that can take 200 years to decompose.
Sources & References
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