Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
The fashion industry is responsible for 20% of global wastewater
Approximately 93 billion cubic meters of water are used by the fashion industry annually
It takes around 2,700 liters of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt
The fashion industry accounts for 8-10% of global carbon emissions
The rampant consumption of clothes produces 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year
The apparel industry's CO2 emissions are expected to increase to 2.8 billion tonnes by 2030
92 million tonnes of textile waste is produced globally each year
A truckload of clothing is burned or sent to a landfill every second
Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
69% of all clothing is made from synthetic fibers (mostly polyester)
Cotton farming consumes 16% of all insecticides worldwide
342 million barrels of oil are used every year to produce the plastic-based fibers for textiles
Global clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014
The average consumer buys 60% more clothing items now than in 2000
Clothing items are kept for half as long as they were 15 years ago
Carbon & Energy Emissions
- The fashion industry accounts for 8-10% of global carbon emissions
- The rampant consumption of clothes produces 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year
- The apparel industry's CO2 emissions are expected to increase to 2.8 billion tonnes by 2030
- Fashion production emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined
- The carbon footprint of a polyester shirt is approximately 5.5 kg CO2e, compared to 2.1 kg for cotton
- Nylon manufacturing creates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO2
- Synthetic fiber production for textiles consumed approx 1.35% of global oil production in 2015
- Carbon emissions from the fashion industry are projected to increase by 50% by 2030
- If the fashion sector continues on its current trajectory, it could use 26% of the carbon budget for 2 degrees warming by 2050
- Up to 80% of a garment's energy footprint is generated during manufacturing
- Online shopping returns in the US alone created 15 million metric tons of carbon emissions in 2019
- Buying a used garment replaces the need for a new one, reducing its carbon footprint by 82%
- Washing and drying clothing accounts for a significant portion (approx 20-25%) of the total lifecycle energy usage of a garment
- Producing one metric ton of polyester releases about 14.2 kg of CO2
- The footwear industry alone accounts for 1.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions
- A single pair of running shoes generates 30 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions
- Fast fashion brands transport raw materials and finished goods multiple times globally, increasing logistics emissions
- Air freight of clothing creates 40 times more CO2 emissions than sea transport per ton-mile
- Only 60% of fashion companies are disclosing their carbon emissions
- The energy used to produce the amount of polyester for one year of textiles equals 100 fully operational coal-fired power plants
Interpretation
Cheap clothes are an expensive climate bet: the fashion industry already emits more CO2 than international aviation and shipping combined, pumps out over a billion tonnes a year and could near 2.8 billion tonnes by 2030 thanks to oil-hungry polyester, nitrous-oxide‑producing nylon, wasteful global logistics and return-heavy online shopping, and energy-intensive manufacturing and laundering that together account for most of a garment's footprint, so unless we choose reuse and far less disposable buying the sector could consume roughly a quarter of the remaining carbon budget for 2°C warming by midcentury.
Chemical & Material Impact
- 69% of all clothing is made from synthetic fibers (mostly polyester)
- Cotton farming consumes 16% of all insecticides worldwide
- 342 million barrels of oil are used every year to produce the plastic-based fibers for textiles
- Over 8,000 chemicals are used to turn raw materials into textiles
- 99% of cotton farmers live in the developing world and suffer the health impacts of pesticide exposure
- 150 million trees are logged every year for viscose/rayon production
- 43 million tonnes of chemicals are used to dye and treat textiles annually
- Aldicarb, used in cotton farming, is one of the most toxic chemicals to humans and enters the water table
- Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs) are banned in the EU but frequently found in imported fast fashion items
- 70 million barrels of oil are used annually to make polyester for clothing
- Conventional cotton farming uses 4% of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers globally
- Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) used for water repellency stay in the environment for hundreds of years
- Less than 1% of the cotton grown globally is organic
- Formaldehyde is used in clothes to prevent wrinkling and is a known carcinogen
- Production of viscose releases carbon disulfide which causes neurological damage in factory workers
- Heavy metals like lead and cadmium are common in textile dyes and accumulate in the human body
- Wool scouring often uses organophosphate insecticides which harm aquatic life
- More than 2.4% of the world's tillable land is planted with cotton
- Recycled polyester (rPET) usually comes from bottles, not clothes, breaking the textile recycling loop
- Bamboo fabrics often require chemically intensive hydrolysis processes similar to viscose
Interpretation
Fast fashion is basically a toxic, petroleum-fed assembly line: nearly seven out of ten garments are plastic or chemically treated, cotton and rayon production devour land, pesticides and fertilizers and logging poison ecosystems and workers, dyes and finishes dump persistent poisons into water, and supposed "recycling" usually just turns bottles into new garments — all to clothe people for a season and leave the planet to deal with the fallout.
Production Volume & Consumption
- Global clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014
- The average consumer buys 60% more clothing items now than in 2000
- Clothing items are kept for half as long as they were 15 years ago
- Some fast fashion brands produce 52 "micro-seasons" a year
- The number of times a garment is worn has declined by 36% in 15 years
- 100 billion items of clothing are produced globally every year
- By 2030, global apparel consumption is projected to rise to 102 million tonnes
- In the UK, the average garment is worn only 7 times before being discarded
- One in three young women in the UK consider clothes "old" after wearing them once or twice
- 40% of clothes bought in some countries are never worn
- Shein adds anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 new styles to its app every day
- The average American household spends nearly $2,000 on apparel and footwear annually
- Global production of polyester fibers grew from 5.8 million tonnes in 1980 to 63 million tonnes in 2022
- 20% of garments produced globally are never sold to a consumer
- The global fast fashion market size was valued at $106 billion in 2022
- Chinese consumers toss out 26 million tons of old clothes every year
- Australians buy an average of 27 kilograms of new textiles each year
- The resale apparel market is expected to grow 11 times faster than the primary retail clothing sector by 2025
- Ultra-fast fashion companies have shortened production cycles to as little as 3-7 days
- If the number of times a garment is worn were doubled on average, GHG emissions would be 44% lower
Interpretation
Humanity now produces about 100 billion clothing items a year, we buy roughly 60% more and keep garments for half as long as we did 15 years ago while ultra-fast brands flood apps with 2,000 to 10,000 new styles a day and 20% of items never even sell, turning wardrobes into disposable landfill tickets and driving polyester-fueled pollution that could be reduced by roughly 44% if we simply doubled how often we wore what we already own.
Waste & Landfill
- 92 million tonnes of textile waste is produced globally each year
- A truckload of clothing is burned or sent to a landfill every second
- Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
- The average American throws away approximately 81 pounds (37kg) of clothing each year
- In the Atacama Desert in Chile, at least 39,000 tons of unsold spare clothes are dumped
- 85% of all textiles thrown away in the US are either dumped into landfill or burned
- The volume of textile waste is expected to increase by 60% between 2015 and 2030
- Only 12% of material used for clothing ends up being recycled for other uses (like insulation)
- 30% of clothes produced are never sold and often end up destroyed or landfilled
- Ghana receives 15 million items of used clothing every week, 40% of which is waste
- Synthetic fibers like polyester can take up to 200 years to decompose in a landfill
- The estimated cost to the UK economy of sending clothing and household textiles to landfill is GBP 82 million per year
- Hong Kong sends approx 343 tonnes of textiles to landfills daily
- 73% of the world's clothing eventually ends up in landfills
- Textile waste has increased by 811% since 1960 in the United States
- Fashion waste creates methane in landfills, a greenhouse gas 28x more potent than CO2
- Up to 59,000 tonnes of used clothes are shipped to the port of Iquique, Chile annually, largely to be dumped
- The EU exports 1.7 million tonnes of textile waste annually
- Nearly 60% of all clothing produced ends up in incinerators or landfills within a year of being made
- Germany collects about 1 million tons of old clothes annually, but most is exported rather than recycled
Interpretation
Fast fashion is brilliantly efficient at producing disposable clothes and disastrously efficient at wrecking the planet, generating 92 million tonnes of textile waste a year while recycling less than 1% into new garments, exporting and dumping mountains of unsold items abroad, and leaving polyester to linger for centuries and emit potent methane, which proves that the true cost of a bargain T‑shirt is paid by the environment.
Water Usage & Pollution
- The fashion industry is responsible for 20% of global wastewater
- Approximately 93 billion cubic meters of water are used by the fashion industry annually
- It takes around 2,700 liters of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt
- Producing one pair of jeans requires approximately 7,500 liters of water
- Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of water globally
- Around 0.5 million tonnes of microfibers are released into the ocean every year from washing synthetics
- Microfibers from synthetic clothing account for 35% of all primary microplastics released into the environment
- The Aral Sea has shrunk to 10% of its former volume largely due to cotton irrigation
- 20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile treatment and dyeing
- Producing 1kg of cotton can require as much as 20,000 liters of water
- The Citarum River in Indonesia is considered one of the most polluted rivers due to 400+ textile factories
- One load of laundry can release 700,000 microplastic fibers
- 44 trillion liters of water are used annually for irrigation of cotton
- 85% of the daily water needs of the entire population of India would be covered by the water used to grow cotton in the country
- Leather tanning utilizes highly toxic chromium which contaminates local water supplies
- By 2030, water consumption in the fashion industry constitutes a 50% increase from 2015 levels
- In China, 32% of the total wastewater discharge comes from the textile industry
- Textile mills generate one-fifth of the world's industrial water pollution
- Viscose production wastes high volumes of water and releases carbon disulphide into waterways
- Traditional cotton farming is responsible for high rates of salinization of fresh water
Interpretation
Fast fashion is literally drinking the planet dry, guzzling trillions of liters of water overall and thousands of liters for a single garment, while dye houses, tanneries, and viscose mills turn rivers into toxic soup and our washing machines release half a million tonnes of microfibers into the ocean, so unless we change how we buy clothes we will keep trading thriving ecosystems and clean water for throwaway trends.
References
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