Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
Global clothing production doubled between the years 2000 and 2014
The fashion industry produces approximately 100 billion garments every year
Consumers bought 60 percent more clothing in 2014 than in 2000 but kept each garment for half as long
The fashion industry accounts for about 10% of global carbon emissions
The fashion industry consumes more energy than the aviation and shipping industries combined
It takes about 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton t-shirt
The equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second
In the United States alone 17 million tons of textile waste were generated in 2018
The average American throws away approximately 81 pounds of clothing each year
Less than 1% of materials used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
Only 13% of the total material input for clothing is recycled in some way (mostly downcycled)
The textile recycling industry in the US employs approximately 17,000 people
The average number of times a garment is worn before it ceases to be used has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago
In China garment utilization has decreased by 70% over the last 15 years
33% of women in the UK consider clothes "old" after wearing them fewer than three times
Consumer Behavior & Lifespan
- The average number of times a garment is worn before it ceases to be used has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago
- In China garment utilization has decreased by 70% over the last 15 years
- 33% of women in the UK consider clothes "old" after wearing them fewer than three times
- One in three young women in the UK consider garments worn once or twice to be old
- 20% of clothes in the US are never worn
- The secondhand clothing market is projected to be double the size of fast fashion by 2030
- Extending the life of clothing by just 9 months would reduce carbon waste and water footprints by 20-30%
- 50% of people throw unwanted clothes in the trash rather than donating them
- 25% of survey respondents bought clothing simply because it was on sale
- 90% of returns in the fashion industry are not resold but often landfilled
- The average wardrobe in the UK contains 152 items
- 57 items in the average UK wardrobe are unworn
- Millennial and Gen Z consumers are driving the growth of the resale market growing 2.5x faster than other age groups
- 40% of consumers admit to "wardrobing" (buying wearing once and returning)
- The rental clothing market is expected to reach 2.08 billion USD by 2025
- Only 15% of consumers cite sustainability as a primary driver for purchase
- Consumers in the UK keep clothing for an average of 2.2 years
- Since 2000 the average number of times a garment is worn has decreased by 36%
- Almost half (46%) of consumers have purchased a piece of clothing they never wore in the last year
- 60% of millennials say they want to shop more sustainably
Interpretation
We're dressing to impress the landfill: garments are worn 36% less than 15 years ago and 70% less in China, 20% of U.S. clothes are never worn and 90% of returns often end up landfilled, the average UK wardrobe holds 152 items with 57 unworn while many women call clothes "old" after only a few wears, yet resale and rental markets are booming because younger shoppers want greener options even if only 15% cite sustainability as their top reason, which means keeping clothes just nine months longer could cut carbon and water footprints by up to 30% and proves our throwaway habits are both disastrous and fixable.
Environmental Footprint
- The fashion industry accounts for about 10% of global carbon emissions
- The fashion industry consumes more energy than the aviation and shipping industries combined
- It takes about 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton t-shirt
- Textile dyeing represents about 20% of global industrial water pollution
- Washing clothes releases 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean each year
- Synthetic textiles are responsible for 35% of all microplastics released into the environment
- Making a pair of jeans produces as much greenhouse gases as driving a car for more than 80 miles
- Fashion industry emissions are predicted to increase by 50% by 2030 if current trends continue
- Conventionally grown cotton uses more insecticides than any other single crop
- The carbon footprint of a polyester shirt is more than double that of a cotton shirt (5.5 kg vs 2.1 kg CO2e)
- 43 million tons of chemicals are used in textile production every year
- Leather tanning is one of the most toxic industries globally due to chromium use
- Viscose production contributes to the deforestation of 150 million trees annually
- One kilogram of cotton production requires nearly 0.7 kg of pesticides in India
- Textile mills generate one-fifth of the world’s industrial water pollution
- A single load of laundry can release up to 700,000 microscopic plastic fibers
- If the fashion industry were a country it would be the sixth largest emitter of greenhouse gases
- Soil degradation from over-farming cotton reduces future crop yields by 20-30%
- The water footprint of clothing used in the UK is 8 billion cubic meters annually
- Producing one kilogram of fabric generates an average of 23 kilograms of greenhouse gases
Interpretation
Taken together, these stats show that fashion is no mere frivolity but a planet scale problem, with the industry already responsible for about ten percent of global carbon emissions, consuming more energy than aviation and shipping combined, using thousands of liters of water and vast quantities of chemicals to make single garments, releasing hundreds of thousands of tons of microfibers and microplastics into the oceans every year, driving deforestation, toxic tanning and heavy pesticide use, and on track to increase emissions by fifty percent by 2030 unless we rethink how we make, buy and care for our clothes.
Global Production & Consumption
- Global clothing production doubled between the years 2000 and 2014
- The fashion industry produces approximately 100 billion garments every year
- Consumers bought 60 percent more clothing in 2014 than in 2000 but kept each garment for half as long
- The global apparel market is projected to grow in value from 1.5 trillion USD in 2020 to about 2.25 trillion USD by 2025
- By 2030 global apparel consumption is projected to rise by 63% to 102 million tons
- China remains the largest exporter of textiles and clothing in the world holding over 30% of the market share
- The amount of clothes bought in the EU per person has increased by 40% in just a few decades
- Seven of the ten largest garment producing countries are in Asia
- Production of polyester has grown nine-fold in the last 50 years
- The fashion industry is responsible for 2% of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- Approximately 150 billion articles of clothing are delivered out of factories annually
- Global per capita textile production has increased from 5.9 kg in 1975 to 13 kg in 2018
- The sportswear market alone is expected to reach 479 billion USD by 2025
- Fast fashion brands can now produce up to 52 micro-seasons a year rather than the traditional two seasons
- In the UK roughly 38 million new items of clothing are bought every week
- 300 million people are employed globally by the fashion industry
- 60% of all clothing produced is made from synthetic fibers like polyester
- The volume of fashion retail sales in the United States is estimated at 460 billion USD
- Cotton production covers 2.5% of the world's arable land
- Footwear production has increased by 20% since 2010 to over 24 billion pairs
Interpretation
Our closets have become landfills in waiting, as the fashion industry churns out exponentially more, mostly synthetic garments sold ever faster and kept half as long, inflating a trillion‑dollar market while outsourcing its mounting environmental and social costs around the globe.
Recycling & Circular Economy
- Less than 1% of materials used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
- Only 13% of the total material input for clothing is recycled in some way (mostly downcycled)
- The textile recycling industry in the US employs approximately 17,000 people
- Mechanical recycling of cotton creates shorter fibers which lowers quality
- 95% of discarded textiles can be recycled or repurposed but are not
- Mixed blends like cotton-polyester are notoriously difficult and expensive to recycle
- The recycling rate for textiles in the US was only 14.7% in 2018
- Automated sorting technologies for textiles are only just beginning to be implemented at scale
- Closed-loop recycling could potentially recapture 80-100 billion USD worth of material annually
- Over 70% of the world's population uses second-hand clothes
- In the EU collecting textiles separately will be mandatory by 2025
- Germany has one of the highest textile collection rates in the world at roughly 75%
- Chemical recycling technologies for textiles are currently only available at pilot scale
- Recycling 2 million tons of clothing per year is the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road
- Downcycling (making insulation or rags) creates lower value products than the original garment
- Only about 25% of donated clothes in the US are sold in charity shops
- Using recycled cotton saves 98.5% of the water compared to virgin cotton
- Bottle-to-textile recycling is common but textile-to-textile is rare
- The global market for textile recycling was valued at 5.02 billion USD in 2020
- 48% of consumers believe brands should be responsible for their products' end-of-life
Interpretation
We’re hoarding a buried treasure of recyclable fiber, over 95% technically salvageable, yet we convert less than one percent into new clothes and mostly downcycle stubborn blends, squandering billions in material value and huge water savings that separate collection, better sorting and scaled chemical recycling could reclaim while answering consumers who want brands to take responsibility and cutting impacts comparable to removing about one million cars from the road.
Waste Generation Volumes
- The equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second
- In the United States alone 17 million tons of textile waste were generated in 2018
- The average American throws away approximately 81 pounds of clothing each year
- Annually the EU generates around 5.8 million tonnes of textile waste
- Textiles make up 7.7% of municipal solid waste landfilled in the US
- New York City residents discard 200,000 tons of clothing and textiles annually
- Canada produces about 500,000 tonnes of textile waste per year
- In Australia nearly 6,000 kilograms of fashion and textile waste is discarded every 10 minutes
- 59,000 tonnes of unsold clothing arrives at the Atacama desert in Chile every year to be dumped
- The volume of textile waste is expected to increase by 60% annually between 2015 and 2030
- France disposes of approximately 600,000 tonnes of clothing textiles and shoes per year
- Hong Kong sends about 343 tonnes of textile waste to landfills every day
- 85% of all textiles thrown away in the US are dumped into landfills or burned
- 300,000 tonnes of clothing end up in household bins in the UK every year
- Pre-consumer waste (scraps from cutting rooms) accounts for 15% of fabric used in garment production
- Ghana receives 15 million items of used clothing weekly creating a massive waste crisis
- Around 4% of global municipal solid waste consists of textiles
- It takes 200+ years for synthetic textiles to decompose in landfills
- The fashion industry discards 92 million tons of clothes-related waste each year
- Up to 40% of textile waste sent to the global south ends up as unmanaged trash in the environment
Interpretation
One garbage truck of textiles is burned or buried every second, and with millions of tons tossed each year across rich countries, huge piles of unsold or secondhand clothes dumped on places like Ghana and the Atacama, 85 percent of U.S. clothing ending up in landfill or incineration, synthetics taking more than 200 years to break down, and waste set to surge by 60 percent by 2030, the fashion industry has turned our wardrobe obsession into a fast-moving machine that buries communities and the planet under durable, toxic refuse unless we change how we make, buy and reuse clothing.
References
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