Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
Global fiber production has almost doubled since 2000, rising from 58 million tonnes to 109 million tonnes in 2020
The fashion industry produces more than 100 billion garments annually
Clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014
The equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second
The EPA estimates that 17 million tons of textile municipal solid waste was generated in the US in 2018
85% of all textiles thrown away in the US are either dumped into landfills or burned
Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
12% of material used for clothing ends up being downcycled into insulation or mattress stuffing
The textile recycling market size is expected to reach 9.4 billion USD by 2027
The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions
Textile production uses approximately 93 billion cubic meters of water annually
20% of industrial water pollution globally is attributable to the dyeing and treatment of textiles
The average number of times a garment is worn has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago
33% of women wear an item of clothing fewer than five times before discarding it
50% of people believe their trash goes to recycling facilities when it often goes to landfill
Consumer Behavior & Lifespan
- The average number of times a garment is worn has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago
- 33% of women wear an item of clothing fewer than five times before discarding it
- 50% of people believe their trash goes to recycling facilities when it often goes to landfill
- Consumers buy 60% more clothing in 2014 than they did in 2000
- 1 in 3 young women in the UK consider clothes "old" after wearing them once or twice
- 88% of consumers say they want brands to help them be more environmentally friendly
- 59% of millennials are willing to pay more for sustainable products
- The average lifespan of a fast fashion garment is less than 3 months
- UK households have an estimated 30 billion GBP worth of unworn clothing in their closets
- 40% of consumers admit to throwing unwanted clothes in the bin rather than donating
- Returns of online clothing purchases reach up to 40%, increasing waste from packaging and logistics
- 95% of discarded clothing is actually reusable or recyclable, despite consumer disposal habits
- Gen Z is driving the resale market, with 62% looking for secondhand items before new
- The concept of "wardrobe auditing" helps consumers reduce waste, but only 10% practice it
- Extending the life of a garment by just nine months reduces carbon, waste, and water footprints by 20-30%
- 74% of consumers would shop at a brand that offers a buy-back program
- 20% of unsold clothing inventory from major brands is never even worn by a consumer
- Social media "haul" culture encourages the purchase of bulk cheap clothing destined for early disposal
- Rental clothing models are predicted to reach 2.5 billion USD by 2023, shifting ownership behavior
- Only 23% of consumers repair their clothes to extend their life
Interpretation
Our addiction to cheap, disposable clothes has turned wardrobes into a £30 billion graveyard of unworn items — we buy 60% more than in 2000 yet wear garments 36% less and often bin them after one or two wears while mistakenly believing they are recycled, even though 95% could be reused or recycled, and the obvious remedy—more repairs, resale, buy-back programs and extending a garment’s life by nine months—would sharply cut waste, water use and emissions.
Environmental Impact
- The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions
- Textile production uses approximately 93 billion cubic meters of water annually
- 20% of industrial water pollution globally is attributable to the dyeing and treatment of textiles
- Textiles are the largest source of primary microplastics making up 35% of microplastic pollution in oceans
- Producing a single pair of jeans requires around 7,500 liters of water
- It takes 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton shirt, enough for one person to drink for 2.5 years
- The fashion industry releases 0.5 million tonnes of microfibers into the ocean every year
- Conventional cotton cultivation uses 16% of the world’s insecticides
- 43 million tonnes of chemicals are used in textile production every year
- 4% of global freshwater withdrawal is attributed to the fashion industry
- Apparel and footwear generate 8.1% of global greenhouse gas impacts
- Washing synthetic clothes releases 700,000 microfibers per wash cycle
- The carbon footprint of a polyester shirt is double that of a cotton shirt
- Viscose production is linked to the deforestation of 150 million trees annually
- Textile manufacturers discharge 2.5 billion tons of wastewater annually
- 30% of rayon and viscose used in fashion comes from endangered and ancient forests
- Soil degradation due to intensive cotton farming has reduced arable land fertility in major producing countries
- Nylon manufacturing creates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO2
- Leather tanning is one of the top 10 pollution threats globally due to chromium use
- Shipping associated with online retail returns emits 15 million metric tons of CO2 annually
Interpretation
Fast fashion may clothe us cheaply, but it is quietly bankrupting the planet: responsible for roughly a tenth of global carbon emissions, draining billions of liters of freshwater, poisoning rivers with chemicals and chromium, stripping forests and soil, and shedding vast quantities of microplastics and microfibers into the oceans while shipping and returns pile on even more CO2, proving that cheap clothes come at an astronomically expensive environmental cost.
Global Production & Market Scale
- Global fiber production has almost doubled since 2000, rising from 58 million tonnes to 109 million tonnes in 2020
- The fashion industry produces more than 100 billion garments annually
- Clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014
- Polyester, a synthetic fiber, accounts for approximately 54% of total global fiber production
- The global apparel market is projected to grow to 2 trillion USD by 2026
- China is the world’s largest exporter of textiles and clothing, accounting for over 30% of global exports
- The volume of fashion merchandise is expected to triple by 2050 compared to 2015 levels
- Per capita consumption of textiles in the US is approximately 47 kg per year
- Per capita consumption of textiles in the EU is approximately 26 kg per year
- Synthetic fibers have grown from 20% of fiber production in 2000 to over 60% in 2020
- Cotton production accounts for approximately 24% of the global fiber market
- Man-made cellulosic fibers (like viscose) represent about 6% of the global fiber market
- The fast fashion market size was valued at 106 billion USD in 2022
- Up to 10% of 100 billion garments produced annually remain unsold and are destroyed or landfilled
- Global footwear production reached 24.3 billion pairs in 2019
- The luxury fashion market accounts for a smaller volume but higher value turnover in global production
- India is the second-largest producer of polyester and viscose globally
- 65% of all new clothing is made from synthetic fibers derived from fossil fuels
- The sports apparel market is one of the fastest-growing segments, driving synthetic production
- E-commerce sales of apparel are expected to reach 1 trillion USD by 2025, increasing logistics waste
Interpretation
The world’s wardrobe has become a plastic tidal wave: fiber production has nearly doubled since 2000 to over 100 million tonnes, fashion churns out more than 100 billion garments annually, most of them synthetic and often unsold or short-lived, while a booming market and e-commerce promise trillion-dollar growth even as volumes and waste threaten to triple by 2050.
Recycling & Circular Economy
- Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing
- 12% of material used for clothing ends up being downcycled into insulation or mattress stuffing
- The textile recycling market size is expected to reach 9.4 billion USD by 2027
- Germany collects about 75% of used textiles, though not all is recycled within the country
- The lack of technology to separate fiber blends (like poly-cotton) is a major barrier to recycling
- Mechanical recycling of cotton shortens fiber length, reducing the quality of the new yarn
- Chemical recycling accounts for a negligible share of the current market but is projected to grow
- The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles aims for all textiles on the EU market to be recyclable by 2030
- Only 0.1% of donated clothing is recycled back into textile fiber by charity collectors
- 73% of the world's clothing eventually ends up in a landfill or incinerator because it cannot be recycled
- The resale market (secondhand) poses a 24 billion USD opportunity to divert waste
- Secondhand clothing market is expected to grow 127% by 2026
- France has the only Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy for textiles in Europe as of 2022
- Automated sorting technologies for recycling are only available in a few pilot plants globally
- H&M’s garment collection program recycles roughly only 50 to 60 percent of collected items into downcycled products
- Using recycled polyester reduces carbon emissions by 37% compared to virgin polyester
- Textile-to-textile recycling systems could unlock a 560 billion USD economic opportunity
- 70% of the world's population wears secondhand clothing, extending garment life
- Over 350,000 tonnes of used clothing are exported from the UK annually for reuse abroad
- "Circularity" in fashion is currently achieved for less than 10% of global brands
Interpretation
These stats expose a brutal irony: while a projected $9.4 billion recycling market, a $24 billion resale opportunity and a potential $560 billion textile-to-textile prize promise riches, less than 1% of clothing is remade into new garments, 73% ends up in landfill or incineration, only 0.1% of donations return to fiber, 12% is merely downcycled, blended fibers and limited sorting tech hamstring recycling, mechanical processes shorten cotton fibers, chemical recycling is tiny but growing, policy leadership outside France is scarce and the EU’s 2030 recyclability goal still looms, so fashion’s circularity sits below 10% despite recycled polyester cutting emissions by 37%.
Waste Disposal & Landfill
- The equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second
- The EPA estimates that 17 million tons of textile municipal solid waste was generated in the US in 2018
- 85% of all textiles thrown away in the US are either dumped into landfills or burned
- In the UK, 300,000 tonnes of clothing are sent to landfill or incineration every year
- Textiles can take up to 200+ years to decompose in landfills depending on the material
- New York City residents throw away 200,000 tons of clothing and textiles annually
- The average American throws away approximately 81.5 lbs of clothes every year
- 59,000 tonnes of unsold clothing arrive at the port of Iquique in Chile annually, often ending up in the Atacama desert
- Landfills in Ghana receive about 15 million used garments every week from the Global North
- Textiles make up approximately 5.8% of the total municipal solid waste in US landfills
- Incineration of clothes releases toxins and large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere
- In Australia, 6,000 kilograms of fashion and textile waste are discarded every 10 minutes
- Only 15% of used textiles in the US are theoretically recovered for donation or recycling
- The Kantamanto market in Ghana sees 40% of imported bales of clothing become waste immediately
- Synthetic textiles release methane, a potent greenhouse gas, while decomposing in landfills
- Canada generates roughly 500,000 tonnes of textile waste annually
- In France, 2.6 billion textiles were placed on the market in 2019, with vast amounts ending in disposal despite regulation
- 37kg of textile waste is generated per person annually in Hong Kong
- The cost of sending textile waste to landfill in the UK is approximately 82 million GBP annually
- 5.2% of the average landfill mass in Europe consists of textiles
Interpretation
We are burying or burning a garbage truck of clothing every second, with 85% of U.S. textiles tossed into landfills or incinerators and only about 15% salvaged, millions of tonnes circulating globally and often dumped in places from Ghana to Chile where synthetics can emit methane as they rot and incineration spews CO2 and toxins, and garments can persist for more than 200 years, so fast fashion's binge today will be centuries of pollution tomorrow.
References
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