Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
The fashion industry produces approximately 100 billion garments annually for a population of 8 billion
Clothing production has doubled between the years 2000 and 2014
Approximately 30% of all clothes produced are never sold and are often destroyed or discarded
92 million tonnes of textile waste is created annually by the fashion industry
The equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or incinerated every second
85% of all textiles go to the dump each year worldwide
The average garment is worn only 7 to 10 times before being discarded
Clothing utilization the number of times a garment is worn has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago
Consumers in the UK have an estimated $38 billion worth of unworn clothing in their wardrobes
The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined
Textile production uses around 93 billion cubic meters of water annually contributing to water scarcity in some regions
About 20% of industrial water pollution globally comes from textile dyeing and treatment
Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
Only 12% of discarded clothing is recycled globally mostly downcycled into lower value applications like insulation
87% of the total fiber input used for clothing is ultimately incinerated or sent to landfill
Consumer Consumption & Garment Utilization
- The average garment is worn only 7 to 10 times before being discarded
- Clothing utilization the number of times a garment is worn has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago
- Consumers in the UK have an estimated $38 billion worth of unworn clothing in their wardrobes
- One in three young women in the UK consider clothes old after wearing them once or twice
- 20% of clothes in the average person's closet are never mistakenly actually worn
- 20% of consumers discard clothing simply because they are bored with it not because it is worn out
- 56% of consumers cite fit as the primary reason for returning or discarding clothes fueling waste
- In China clothing utilization has decreased by 70% over the last 15 years
- 9% of consumers admit to buying clothes solely for social media posts and returning them
- The average American buys a new piece of clothing every 5 days
- A survey revealed that 40% of consumers hoard clothes they know will not fit them
- Gen Z consumers are 30% more likely to purchase second-hand but also purchase fast fashion at higher rates
- Extending the life of clothing by just nine extra months of active use would reduce carbon waste and water footprints by around 20-30%
- On average women own $550 of unworn clothing
- 25% of consumers have thrown away a garment after just one wear
- 50% of people throw unwanted clothes in the trash rather than donating or recycling
- 33% of women consider clothes old after three wears
- The average consumer now buys 400% more clothing than they did just two decades ago
- In the US 85% of people do not know what to do with their clothes at the end of their life
- Impulse buying accounts for nearly 40% of consumer spending on fashion items leading to lower utilization
Interpretation
Fashion's runaway production has turned wardrobes into guilty museums where people buy new items every few days and wear most pieces only a handful of times or once for Instagram, leaving billions in unworn clothes, sending half of unwanted garments to landfill, and fueling a wasteful carbon and water footprint that could be cut significantly by just nine more months of actual use, yet fit problems, impulse buying and ignorance about disposal keep the fast-fashion machine grinding.
Environmental & Resource Impact
- The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined
- Textile production uses around 93 billion cubic meters of water annually contributing to water scarcity in some regions
- About 20% of industrial water pollution globally comes from textile dyeing and treatment
- Washing synthetic clothes releases 500000 tons of microfibers into the ocean each year
- Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions
- It takes 2700 liters of water to make one cotton shirt enough for one person to drink for 2.5 years
- The fashion industry accounts for about 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions
- 35% of all microplastics in the ocean come from the laundering of synthetic textiles
- Without change the fashion industry will use up 26% of the world’s carbon budget by 2050
- 70 million barrels of oil are used each year to make the world's polyester fiber for clothing
- Cotton farming is responsible for 24% of insecticides and 11% of pesticides globally despite covering only 2.4% of arable land
- The carbon footprint of a single polyester shirt is approximately 5.5 kg CO2e compared to 2.1 kg for a cotton shirt
- Leather production requires large inputs of water and chemicals leading to significant wastewater issues
- Viscose production is linked to the deforestation of 150 million trees annually
- The fashion industry contributes to biodiversity loss through land use for cotton and other fibers
- Producing one pair of jeans generates 33.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent
- Textile dyeing treatment accounts for nearly 20% of global industrial water pollution
- 1.5 trillion liters of water are used by the fashion industry every year
- Nylon manufacturing creates nitrous oxide a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide
- If the industry continues on its current path by 2050 it could use more than 26% of the carbon budget associated with a 2C pathway
Interpretation
Treat fashion's runaway output as a dark punchline: it already accounts for roughly 10 percent of global carbon emissions, drinks and pollutes staggering amounts of freshwater, releases hundreds of thousands of tons of microfibers into the ocean each year, drives deforestation and heavy pesticide use, and if left unchanged could eat up more than a quarter of the world's carbon budget by 2050, which means our collective wardrobe choices are quietly dressing the planet for disaster.
Production Volume & Unsold Inventory
- The fashion industry produces approximately 100 billion garments annually for a population of 8 billion
- Clothing production has doubled between the years 2000 and 2014
- Approximately 30% of all clothes produced are never sold and are often destroyed or discarded
- The number of garments produced annually is expected to reach 102 million tons by 2030
- Fast fashion brands can release as many as 52 micro-collections per year instead of the traditional two seasons
- Ultra-fast fashion retailer Shein adds up to 6,000 new items to its website every day
- Inventory distortion including shrink and overstock costs the retail industry an estimated $50 billion annually
- Up to 40% of clothing purchased online is returned with much of it ending up in landfills due to processing costs
- Luxury brands burnt over $37 million worth of unsold goods in 2017 to protect brand value
- The average fast fashion lead time has dropped from several months to just two weeks enabling massive volume surges
- Global apparel consumption is projected to rise by 63% to 102 million tons in 2030
- Since 2000 the average consumer buys 60% more clothing but keeps each garment for half as long
- Deadstock fabric which is leftover and unsold accounts for a significant portion of industry waste before reaching consumers
- In the EU textile production per person has increased by 40% in just a few decades
- 80% of all apparel is currently produced in developing countries where regulation on volume is often lax
- The volume of clothing produced is growing faster than the global GDP
- Overproduction is built into the business model as brands plan for markdown budgets of 13% to 15%
- Some ultra-fast fashion brands produce batches of only 50-100 items to test demand driving high turnover
- The fashion industry requires 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources annually to fuel production
- The average number of collections in Europe more than doubled from two in 2000 to five in 2011
Interpretation
Fashion now churns out about 100 billion garments a year for 8 billion people, doubling output since 2000 and flooding markets with micro-collections, tiny test batches and 6,000 new Shein items a day, while roughly a third of production goes unsold or is destroyed, returns and deadstock overwhelm landfills, luxury houses burn unsold goods, and the industry burns nonrenewable resources and budgets for markdowns; overproduction is not an occasional mistake but the business model, and the planet is left holding the hanger.
Recycling & Circular Economy Deficits
- Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
- Only 12% of discarded clothing is recycled globally mostly downcycled into lower value applications like insulation
- 87% of the total fiber input used for clothing is ultimately incinerated or sent to landfill
- The recycling of blended fabrics such as cotton-polyester mixes remains technologically difficult and economically unviable at scale
- Currently there is no large-scale textile-to-textile recycling technology commercially available for most materials
- Chemical recycling accounts for less than 1% of the recycled textile market
- The sorting of used textiles is highly labor-intensive and costly hindering efficient recycling pipelines
- Only 13% of the total material input in the clothing industry is recycled in some way after clothing use
- A loss of value of more than $100 billion worth of materials occurs annually due to lack of recycling
- Elastane which is found in many stretch fabrics makes recycling almost impossible with current technology
- For every 1000 tonnes of clothing produced less than 10 tonnes are recycled back into clothing
- The resale market is growing 11 times faster than traditional retail but does not solve the underlying lack of recycling infrastructure
- Most recycled polyester used in fashion comes from PET bottles not old clothes meaning it is not a closed loop for textiles
- The lack of circular infrastructure causes the fashion industry to lose $500 billion of value every year
- Downcycling textiles into rags or insulation terminates the material loop preventing future recycling
- Government collection rates for textiles in the US are as low as 15% meaning most recyclable items never reach facilities
- Recycling cotton mechanically shortens the fibers reducing quality and requiring virgin fibers to be mixed in
- Buttons zippers and threads usually have to be removed manually before recycling complicating the process
- Only 1% of clothes are recycled into new garments due to the complexity of sorting mixed fibers
- By 2030 it is estimated that we will be discarding more than 134 million tonnes of textiles a year largely due to poor recycling rates
Interpretation
Fashion is sewing a one way street for garments: under one percent are remade into new clothes, most are downcycled, incinerated, or landfilled, blended fabrics and elastane block recycling, sorting is painfully labor intensive, true textile to textile and chemical recycling are essentially absent, and the industry is squandering hundreds of billions of dollars while heading toward over 134 million tonnes of textile waste by 2030.
Textile Waste & Landfills
- 92 million tonnes of textile waste is created annually by the fashion industry
- The equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or incinerated every second
- 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year worldwide
- In the USA alone approximately 11.3 million tons of textile waste ended up in landfills in 2018
- The Atacama Desert in Chile receives approximately 39000 tons of discarded unwanted clothing annually
- Approximately 15 million used garments arrive in Ghana every week much of which is unusable waste
- Synthetic fibers like polyester take between 20 to 200 years to decompose in landfills
- The UK sends 300000 tonnes of clothing to landfill or incineration every year
- New York City residents throw out 200000 tons of clothing and textiles annually
- Textile waste has increased by 811% since 1960 according to EPA data
- 40% of the clothing imported to Kantamanto Market in Ghana becomes waste almost immediately upon arrival
- Incineration of discarded clothes releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases contributing to global warming
- The average American throws away approximately 81 pounds of clothing every year
- In Canada the average person throws out 37 kilograms of textiles annually
- Textile waste accounts for about 5% of all landfill space
- France passed a ban on the destruction of unsold non-food products including textiles to curb landfill waste
- The volume of textile waste generated in the EU is 12.6 million tonnes per year
- It is estimated that textile waste will increase by 60% drastically between 2015 and 2030
- Up to 5% of the global landfill space is occupied by textile waste
- Australian charities spend $13 million annually sending unusable donated clothing to landfill
Interpretation
By sending a garbage truck of textiles to landfill or incineration every second and 92 million tonnes a year, the fashion industry has turned global wardrobes into a polyester graveyard that buries deserts, overwhelms markets from Ghana to Chile, and pumps greenhouse gases into the atmosphere for centuries to come.
References
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