Fashion Industry Waste Statistics

The fashion industry creates 10% of global carbon emissions

Polyester production releases two to three times more carbon emissions than cotton

The fashion industry creates more carbon emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined

Extending the life of a garment by just nine months reduces carbon footprints by 20-30%

Fashion industry emissions must fall by 45% by 2030 to stay on a 1.5°C pathway

Nylon manufacturing creates nitrous oxide, a a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO2

Total greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production are 1.2 billion tonnes annually

If the industry continues on its current path, it will use 26% of the world’s carbon budget by 2050

Burning unsold stock releases CO2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere at high rates

Producing a polyester shirt emits 5.5 kg of CO2 compared to 2.1 kg for a cotton shirt

The fashion industry requires 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources per year

In the EU, textile consumption ranks fourth highest for impact on the environment and climate change

The equivalent of 2.9 million passenger cars' emissions comes from the UK’s textile consumption annually

Over 8% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the apparel and footwear industries

Using recycled polyester reduces carbon emissions by 37% compared to virgin polyester

Recycled cotton allows for a 75-80% energy saving compared to conventional cotton

In 2015, greenhouse gas emissions from textiles production totaled 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent

The carbon footprint of a garment depends 70% on the production phase

Nearly 70 million barrels of oil are used each year to make the world’s polyester fiber

Fashion production comprises 10% of total global carbon emissions, as much as the European Union

Considerably more than 100 billion garments are produced globally each year

Consumers buy 60% more items of clothing than they did 15 years ago

Global textile production has more than doubled since the year 2000

Clothing items are kept for half as long as they were 15 years ago

30% of clothes produced specifically for the fast fashion market are never sold

Return rates for e-commerce fashion can be as high as 30-40%, leading to massive waste

40% of clothing purchased in some developed countries is never worn

Fast fashion garments are worn less than 5 times on average before disposal

Man-made cellulosic fibers often contribute to deforestation of ancient forests

15% of fabric used in garment manufacturing is wasted on the cutting floor

The average number of times a garment is worn has decreased by 36% in 15 years

Global production of polyester fibers increased from 5.2 million tons in 1980 to 57 million tons recently

Fast fashion brands release as many as 52 micro-seasons per year

9,000 garments are purchased every five minutes in the UK alone

Viscose production wastes 70% of the harvested tree during processing

75% of consumers view sustainability as extremely important but only 25% purchase accordingly (The attitude-behavior gap)

80% of a garment's environmental impact is defined at the design stage

By 2030, it is predicted that we will be using 2 planets' worth of resources for fashion habits

The value of unsold clothes destroyed in France alone is estimated at >€600 million annually

The fashion industry produces 92 million tonnes of textile waste annually

The equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second

85% of all textiles go to the dump each year in the United States

87% of the total fiber input used for clothing is incinerated or landfilled

Textile waste is expected to increase by 60% by 2030

The average American throws away approximately 81 pounds of clothing per year

5.8 million tons of textiles are discarded in the EU every year

73% of the world's clothing eventually ends up in landfills or is incinerated

In the UK, WRAP estimates £140 million worth of clothing goes to landfill each year

57% of discarded textiles in the US are generated by the residential sector

Every year, the US generates 17 million tons of textile municipal solid waste

40,000 tonnes of textiles were imported into Ghana per week in 2020 via the second-hand trade

An estimated 40% of donations to thrift stores are packed into bales and sold internationally, often ending as waste

14 million tons of textiles were landfilled in 2018 alone in the US

The Atacama Desert in Chile is home to a landfill of 39,000 tons of discarded unsold clothing

For every 5 garments produced, 3 end up in a landfill or incinerator annually

China generates 26 million tons of textile waste annually

In Hong Kong, 340 tonnes of textile waste are dumped in landfills daily

5.6 million tons of textiles are landfilled annually in the EU

In Australia, 6,000kg of unwanted clothing is discarded every 10 minutes

Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing

$500 billion in value is lost every year due to clothing underutilization and lack of recycling

Only 12% of material used for clothing ends up being downcycled for uses like insulation

60% of all clothing materials are plastic (nylon, polyester, acrylic)

Current recycling technologies can only process 13% of the world's clothing input

Only 20% of textiles are collected for reuse and recycling globally

Textile-to-textile recycling is estimated at less than 1% due to sorting difficulties

65% of clothing purchases in the US are polyester or synthetic based

Sorting textiles for recycling is still largely a manual and labor-intensive process preventing scale

Only 0.1% of all clothing collected by take-back schemes is recycled into new textile fibers

2.5 billion pounds of office padding and car insulation are made from recycled denim annually

Roughly 95% of the textiles that are landfilled could be recycled or reused

60% of consumers say they would like to recycle their clothes but do not know how

Blended fibers (poly-cotton) make recycling mechanically almost impossible

Most "recycled" ocean plastic fashion is made from PET bottles, not ocean textiles

Only 1% of clothing is recycled into new garments due to lack of technology and infrastructure

Only 15% of unwanted clothes are collected for recycling in the US

Automated sorting can potentially recover 50% more value from textile waste than manual sorting

69% of clothes are made of synthetic fibers which are plastic based

Chemical recycling of polyester consumes nearly 30% less energy than producing virgin polyester

Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of water globally

Washing clothes releases 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean every year

The fashion industry consumes 93 billion cubic meters of water annually

35% of all microplastics in the ocean come from the laundering of synthetic textiles

A single pair of jeans takes 7,500 liters of water to produce

20% of global industrial wastewater comes from textile treatment and dyeing

Synthetic fibers like polyester enter the ocean and can never be retrieved

Approximately 700,000 microfibers are released in a single domestic wash cycle

It takes 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton shirt

The volume of water consumed by the fashion industry could fill 37 million Olympic swimming pools

Cotton farming is responsible for 24% of insecticides and 11% of pesticides globally despite using 3% of arable land

By 2030, global water consumption for fashion will increase by 50% to 118 billion cubic meters

Up to 10% of the microplastics in the oceans could come from paint and tires, but 35% is definitely textiles

Leather tanning utilizes chemicals like Chromium VI, which creates toxic wastewater

Washing synthetic clothes accounts for a third of the microplastics entering the environment

The water footprint of a single polyester t-shirt is roughly 500 liters

200 tons of water are used for every ton of fabric produced

Producing one kilo of cotton requires up to 20,000 liters of water

The volume of water used in fashion production accounts for 4% of all available freshwater globally

Around 20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile treatment and dyes

Major fashion brands use wet processing that creates toxic sludge, often dumped into rivers in Bangladesh