Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
92 million tonnes of textile waste is produced globally every year
The amount of global textile waste is expected to soar to 134 million tonnes per year by 2030
The average US consumer throws away approximately 81.5 pounds of clothes every year
Consumers buy 60% more clothing today than in 2000 but keep each garment for half as long
Clothing utilization has decreased by 36% globally over the last 15 years
In the UK roughly 30% of unwanted clothing goes directly to the bin rather than being donated
Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
87% of the total fiber input used for clothing is eventually incinerated or landfilled
Only 12% of the material used for clothing ends up being recycled in some way (mostly downcycling)
Synthetic clothing fibers can take up to 200 years to decompose in landfills
As textiles decompose in landfills they release methane a potent greenhouse gas
The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined
The fashion industry loses $500 billion annually due to lack of recycling and clothing underutilization
100 billion garments are produced annually for a global population of 8 billion
Overproduction in the fashion industry is estimated to be between 30% and 40% each season
Consumer Habits & Usage
- Consumers buy 60% more clothing today than in 2000 but keep each garment for half as long
- Clothing utilization has decreased by 36% globally over the last 15 years
- In the UK roughly 30% of unwanted clothing goes directly to the bin rather than being donated
- 40% of clothes in our closets are rarely or never worn contributes to waste
- One in three young women in the UK consider clothes to be old after wearing them once or twice
- 25% of consumers admit to throwing away clothing because they are bored with it
- The average garment is worn only 7 to 10 times before being discarded
- 90% of US consumers admit to not donating damaged clothes and instead trash them
- 57% of people discard clothes because they no longer fit
- 59% of consumers say sustainability is important but only 34% are willing to pay for it
- 1 in 2 people throw unwanted clothes straight in the trash
- 18% of people throw away clothes because they are stained or damaged rather than repairing them
- Americans throw away about $70 worth of clothing per person annually
- Only 15% of consumers recycle their old clothes despite nearly 100% of textiles being recyclable
- 72% of teenagers buy new clothes every month fueling the turnover rate
- 50% of people throw away clothes due to poor quality or shape loss after washing
- 41% of 18-24 year olds feel pressure to wear a different outfit every time they go out
- Nearly a third of shoppers buy clothes online with the intention of returning them which often leads to landfill
- 20% of unworn clothes are kept because consumers feel guilty about the money spent
- 25% of annual clothing purchases are strictly for short-term events like holidays or weddings
Interpretation
Our closets have become revolving doors at a fast-fashion party: we buy far more than we need and keep each garment far less, then toss, return, or bin them out of boredom, poor fit, damage, or trend pressure — a costly, avoidable habit that fills landfills while most people still won't pay to fix it.
Environmental Consequences
- Synthetic clothing fibers can take up to 200 years to decompose in landfills
- As textiles decompose in landfills they release methane a potent greenhouse gas
- The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined
- Textiles in landfills release toxic leachates including dyes and bleaches into groundwater
- About 500000 tons of plastic microfibers form clothing are released into the ocean every year during washing and disposal flows
- 35% of all microplastics released into the environment come from laundering synthetic textiles
- Nylon fishing nets and clothing waste typically constitute 10% of marine debris
- Manufacturing a single pair of jeans produces 33.4 kilograms of CO2 equivalent often wasted in landfills
- Burning clothing waste releases micro-particles and nanoplastics into the air
- The water footprint of clothing waste represents 20% of global wastewater
- Decomposing wool releases ammonia and methane in anaerobic landfill conditions
- Polyester production for clothing released 706 billion kg of CO2 in 2015 much of which stays trapped in landfill
- Chemicals found in clothing dyes like azo dyes can be carcinogenic when leaching into landfill soil
- The fashion industry's waste contributes to biodiversity loss through soil contamination
- A cotton t-shirt requires 2700 liters of water to make representing massive resource loss when landfilled
- Viscose rayon decomposition releases carbon disulfide a toxic chemical
- If the lifecycle of clothes was extended by 9 months carbon waste would reduce by 20-30%
- Heavy metals like lead and cadmium used in zippers and dyes contaminate soil near landfills
- Microfibers from synthetic clothing have been found in the stomachs of 73% of deep sea fish
- The carbon footprint of a garment is primarily determined by fiber production so wasting the fiber negates the intense energy input
Interpretation
Treating clothes like disposable goods isn't just messy; it condemns synthetic fibers to centuries in landfills where they emit methane and toxic leachate, pours half a million tons of microfibers into the ocean each year while laundering accounts for 35 percent of microplastics released into the environment, squanders vast water and carbon inputs (a pair of jeans emits 33.4 kilograms of CO2 and a cotton T shirt requires 2,700 liters of water) and makes fashion responsible for roughly 10 percent of global emissions, a crisis we could reduce by 20 to 30 percent if we simply extended garment lifecycles by nine months.
Industry Economics & Overproduction
- The fashion industry loses $500 billion annually due to lack of recycling and clothing underutilization
- 100 billion garments are produced annually for a global population of 8 billion
- Overproduction in the fashion industry is estimated to be between 30% and 40% each season
- Fast fashion brands release up to 52 micro-collections per year exacerbating waste
- Deadstock or unsold inventory costs the US retail industry $50 billion annually
- The volume of polyester fiber production has increased from 5.8 million tonnes in 1980 to 53.7 million tonnes in 2017 mostly ending in waste
- Brands destroying unsaleable goods to maintain exclusivity is a practice worth millions in lost value
- Managing textile waste costs UK local authorities £82 million per year
- The disposable clothing market grew by an estimated 21% between 2017 and 2021
- Production of fiber has tripled since 1975 to meet demand for cheap clothing
- For every $1 spent on manufacturing $0.30 goes to waste in the supply chain
- 15% of fabric is wasted on the factory floor during the cutting process before even reaching consumers
- Global textile production has a market value loss of 73% when materials are landfilled instead of recycled
- The cost of collecting and disposing of textile waste in the EU is estimated at €60-100 per tonne
- Shein adds approximately 6000 new styles to its website every day fueling overconsumption
- By 2050 the fashion industry will use up 26% of the world’s carbon budget if current growth continues
- Off-price retailers purchase 15-20% of department store inventory that would otherwise be discarded
- Returns in the US alone generate 5.8 billion lbs of landfill waste
- The fashion industry's profit margins on fast fashion rely on paying less than 2% of the retail price to workers facilitating disposal culture
- Reducing waste by 20% in the supply chain could save the industry $5 billion annually
Interpretation
The fashion industry is printing money only to throw it away: it loses roughly $500 billion a year while churning out 100 billion mostly polyester garments, overproducing up to 40 percent each season and spawning endless micro-collections and thousands of daily new styles that create deadstock, returns and deliberate destruction, offloading disposal costs onto cities and workers and risking a quarter of the world’s carbon budget by 2050 unless it stops treating clothes as disposable.
Recycling & Disposal Methods
- Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
- 87% of the total fiber input used for clothing is eventually incinerated or landfilled
- Only 12% of the material used for clothing ends up being recycled in some way (mostly downcycling)
- 85% of all textiles thrown away in the US are either dumped into landfills or burned
- Up to 40% of used clothes exported to countries like Ghana and Chile end up in landfills immediately as waste
- Mechanical recycling of cotton can shorten fiber length reducing quality thus limiting recyclability
- Textile incineration generates 1.29 million metric tons of CO2 annually in the US alone
- 60% of donated clothes are exported to developing countries rather than being recycled domestically
- Only 13% of the roughly 50 million tons of clothing production waste is recycled
- The recycling rate for clothing and footwear in the US was only 13% in 2018
- Blended fibers like poly-cotton are notoriously difficult and expensive to recycle
- Chemical recycling accounts for less than 1% of the recycled textile market share
- In the EU only 22% of post-consumer textile waste is collected separately for reuse or recycling
- The secondary market for used textiles is shrinking causing more to go to landfill
- It costs New York City $60 million a year to transport textile waste to landfills
- 30% of clothes produced are never sold and often end up in incineration or landfill
- Downcycling textiles into insulation or rags accounts for most of the recovery rate not true recycling
- Automated sorting technologies for textile recycling are only available in a few pilot plants globally
- Buttons and zippers often must be removed manually making recycling labor intensive and costly
- Shoes can take up to 1000 years to decompose in a landfill due to Ethylene Vinyl Acetate usage
Interpretation
The fashion system is a spectacularly inefficient recycler: under one percent of clothing is remade into new garments while most is downcycled, burned, landfilled, or exported to be dumped, recycling tech and markets lag badly, and the planet, cities, and poorer communities pay the carbon, financial, and waste bill.
Waste Generation & Volume
- 92 million tonnes of textile waste is produced globally every year
- The amount of global textile waste is expected to soar to 134 million tonnes per year by 2030
- The average US consumer throws away approximately 81.5 pounds of clothes every year
- In America alone an estimated 11.3 million tons of textile waste go to landfills annually
- A garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second
- Textiles are occupying nearly 5% of all landfill space
- Since 2000 the global production of clothing has doubled affecting waste volumes
- Waste generated by the fashion industry increased by 35% between 2000 and 2015
- China generates 26 million tons of textile waste annually
- The European Union generates 12.6 million tonnes of textile waste per year
- In Australia 6000kg of cheap fashion and textile waste is dumped in landfills every 10 minutes
- New York City alone generates 200000 tons of textile waste annually
- Textile waste has accumulated to the point where it formed a mountain in the Atacama Desert visible from space
- The UK generates 206 tonnes of textile waste every hour
- In Canada 500 million kilograms of textile waste are created each year
- Hong Kong sends approximately 370 tonnes of textiles to landfills daily
- Post-consumer textile waste is the fastest growing waste stream in many developed countries
- 7% of the total waste in global landfills is composed of dry textiles
- Between 1960 and 2015 textile waste in the United States increased by 811%
- Approximately 20 million tons of textile waste is generated in the EU annually if industrial waste is included
Interpretation
We're drowning in our own wardrobes, with the world producing about 92 million tonnes of textile waste a year and headed for 134 million by 2030, Americans discarding roughly 81.5 pounds each annually, a garbage-truck load of clothes burned or dumped every second and textiles already taking up nearly 5% of landfill space, proof that fast fashion has become a runaway environmental catastrophe visible even from space.
References
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