Fashion Waste Statistics

Consumers bought 60% more clothing in 2014 than in 2000 but kept each garment for half as long

The average American throws away approximately 81.5 pounds of clothes every year

In the UK approximately 30% of clothing in wardrobes has not been worn for at least a year

Clothing utilization defined as times a garment is worn has decreased by 36% globally over 15 years

Nearly one in three young women in Britain consider clothes 'old' after wearing them just once or twice

40% of consumers admit to purchasing unwanted clothes simply because the items were on sale or cheap

The average garment is worn only 7 to 10 times before being discarded by the consumer

95% of discarded clothing could currently be recycled or reused yet is thrown away by consumers

The fast fashion model encourages purchasing weekly with some brands releasing over 1,000 new styles a week

One in six young people actively avoid being seen in the same outfit twice on social media

Consumer spending on clothing and footwear worldwide is projected to reach $3.3 trillion by 2030

50% of people throw unwanted clothes directly into the trash rather than donating them

The rise of returns in e-commerce leads to 5 billion pounds of landfill waste annually due to unwanted consumer returns

Gen Z consumers are responsible for driving a 200% increase in second-hand market growth relative to retail

25% of consumers say they would pay more for sustainable clothing but only a fraction actually do

On average a piece of clothing has a lifespan of just 2.2 years in a consumer's closet

1 in 2 people throw unwanted clothes in the bin because they don't know what else to do with them

77% of Americans say they are concerned about the environmental impact of the fashion industry yet continue to buy fast fashion

The average European consumes 26kg of textiles per year and discards nearly 11kg of it

Online shopping increases the likelihood of clothing disposal with return rates for apparel being nearly 30%

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

Globally an estimated 92 million tonnes of textile waste is created each year

In the United States nearly 11.3 million tons of textile waste ended up in landfills in a single year

Synthetic fibers like polyester can take up to 200 years to decompose in a landfill

By 2030 it is expected that there will be 148 million tons of fashion waste annually

Only 12% of the material used for clothing ends up being recycled while the vast majority goes to landfill or incineration

Textile waste occupies nearly 5% of all landfill space

85% of all textiles thrown away in the United States are dumped into landfills or burned

As clothes decompose in landfills they release methane a powerful greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than CO2

The Atacama Desert in Chile acts as a dumping ground for approx 39,000 tons of unwanted clothing annually

In Australia 6,000 kilograms of cheap fashion and textile waste are dumped in landfills every 10 minutes

Incineration of clothes releases toxins and large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere if not properly filtered

73% of the world’s clothing eventually ends up in landfills

In Canada the average person sends 37 kg of textiles to the landfill annually

Ghana receives 15 million used garments every week much of which immediately goes to overflow landfills

The volume of textile trash in US landfills has increased by 40% in the last 20 years

Roughly 5.8 million tons of textiles were combusted regarding energy recovery in Europe annually

Landfilled textiles release toxic leachates consisting of heavy metals and dyes into groundwater

New York City alone disposes of 200 million pounds of clothing annually to landfills

Decomposing wool clothes can release ammonia and methane causing atmospheric pollution

Textiles are the largest source of primary microplastics accounting for 35% of microplastics released into the world's oceans

A single load of laundry of polyester clothes can release 700,000 microplastic fibers into the environment

Approximately 500,000 tonnes of microfibers are released into the ocean annually from washing clothes affecting marine life

Microplastics from fashion have been found in the deepest parts of the ocean including the Mariana Trench

Synthetic fibers make up 92% of microplastic pollution found in the Arctic Ocean

Microfibers released from clothes are ingested by plankton and move up the food chain to contaminate seafood consumed by humans

Wastewater treatment plants cannot filter out all microfibers allowing 40% of them to enter rivers and lakes

It is estimated that we ingest the equivalent of one credit card worth of plastic per week largely contributed to by microfiber pollution

Nylon fishing nets used in fashion accessories and industry contribute 10% of ocean plastic but shed microplastics during degradation

Textile dyes are the second largest polluter of clean water globally after agriculture

In China 70% of rivers and lakes are contaminated by the 2.5 billion gallons of wastewater produced by the textile industry

The Citarum River in Indonesia is considered one of the most polluted rivers in the world largely due to hundreds of textile factories dumping untreated chemical

Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) used for stain resistance in fashion are persistent organic pollutants that do not biodegrade

Microfibers from synthetic clothing have been identified in human lung tissue

Wearing polyester clothing releases microfibers into the air simply through friction and movement not just washing

83% of tap water samples worldwide contain microplastics with textile fibers being a primary constituent

A study found that microfibers account for 85% of human-made debris on shorelines around the world

Heavy metals like lead and mercury used in textile dyes cause severe pollution impacting soil fertility around factories

Sludge from wastewater treatment plants often contains retained microfibers which are then spread on farm fields as fertilizer re-releasing plastic to the soil

The release of azo dyes can result in the formation of aromatic amines which are carcinogenic pollutants in water systems

The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined

Approximately 20% of global wastewater comes from textile dyeing and finishing often affecting freshwater sources

It takes about 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton shirt which is enough for one person to drink for 2.5 years

Around 15% of fabric intended for clothing ends up on the cutting room floor as waste before a garment is even finished

The textile sector uses 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources annually including oil to produce synthetic fibers

Cotton production is responsible for 24% of insecticides and 11% of pesticides used globally despite occupying only 2.4% of agricultural land

Producing a single pair of jeans generates approximately 33.4 kilograms of CO2 equivalent emissions

The fashion industry consumes nearly 79 billion cubic meters of water per year mostly during the fiber production and dyeing phases

Overproduction is rampant with an estimation that 30% of clothes produced are never sold and are often discarded or destroyed

Polyester production for textiles releases about 706 billion kg of greenhouse gases annually

Roughly 60% of all materials used by the fashion industry are made from plastic primarily polyester

The dyeing process uses nearly 43 million tons of chemicals annually contributing significantly to chemical waste

Textile mills generate one-fifth of the world's industrial water pollution

Manufacturing a single kilogram of fabric generates an average of 23 kilograms of greenhouse gases

The volume of water used in conventional cotton farming has caused the Aral Sea to shrink to just 10% of its former volume

Viscose production is linked to the logging of 150 million trees every year often from ancient and endangered forests

35% of the supply chain waste in the fashion industry occurs during the fiber-to-fabric processing stage

Leather tanning utilizes roughly 20-80 cubic meters of wastewater per ton of hide involving chromium and other toxins

Approximately 2.5% of the world's farmland is used to grow cotton yet it accounts for 16% of all insecticide use

Energy consumption in textile manufacturing is estimated at 15-20 MJ per kilogram of finished textile

Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing effectively closing the loop

The fashion industry loses about $500 billion of value every year due to the lack of recycling and clothes being thrown away before their end of life

Currently fiber-to-fiber recycling accounts for less than 1% of the total market

Approximately 13% of global textile input is recycled in some form mostly downcycled into mattress stuffing or insulation

Recycling cotton requires that the fibers be mechanically shredded which shortens them and lowers quality often requiring mixing with virgin fibers

Mixed blends like poly-cotton are notoriously difficult to recycle because the technologies to separate fibers are not yet scalable

The EU aims for all textile packaging to be reusable or recyclable by 2030 but current rates are far lower

Chemical recycling which breaks fibers down to the molecular level represents less than 1% of all textile recycling solutions

Only 21% of clothing collected for recycling stays in the domestic market while the rest is exported often to developing nations

Automated sorting technologies for textiles are only just emerging with less than 20 fully automated sorting plants existing globally

80% of upcycling initiatives are small-scale niche operations rather than industrial solutions

Using recycled polyester (rPET) reduces CO2 emissions by 79% compared to virgin polyester

The global market for recycled textiles is projected to reach $8 billion by 2028

H&M's garment collection initiative collects roughly 29000 tonnes a year but this is a fraction of their total production volume

The resale market is expected to grow 11 times faster than the broader retail clothing sector by 2025 helping circularity

Elastane which is found in stretch jeans makes recycling almost impossible if it constitutes more than 5% of the fabric

Recycling 1 tonne of cotton textiles can save 765 cubic meters of water

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

Circular business models like rental and resale could claim 23% of the global fashion market by 2030

Nearly 60% of consumers believe that 'recyclable' fashion means the item will definitely be recycled which is often not true due to infrastructure gaps