Fashion's Plastic Addiction

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Whether you like it or not, plastics are a part of your everyday life. In today’s fast-paced fashion industry, plastics have become a pervasive material due to their versatility, low cost, and ease of production. This addiction to plastic has come at a significant environmental cost. With microplastics being released into the ocean every day, it is no doubt that this issue has to be addressed promptly.

In this edition, we will be delving deep into plastics in fashion and sustainable measures taking place that might not be as sustainable as you might think. The video below gives an outline of one of the many ways that plastics from our clothes end up in the ocean.

Hooked on Plastic

Fashion has an obsession with incorporating plastics into clothing with fabrics such as polyester, nylon, or acrylic. These plastics incorporated into clothing account for around 73 percent of the microfiber pollution in the Arctic waters. Additionally, the plastic packaging that these clothes are shipped and sold in creates even more plastic waste. 

Not all hope is lost however, there are signs that the fashion industry is realizing that sustainability is a necessity and not an added option. The United Nation’s Fashion Industry Chart for Climate Action put down a target of hitting net zero carbon emissions no later than 2050, with over 130 companies and 41 organizations already signed up to support the initiative. 

Although it is good that there are signs that the fashion industry is realizing that sustainability is a necessity, sourcing sustainable materials is one of the biggest challenges that the fashion industry is facing in its transition to sustainability.

Read the article below:

Recycled Plastics from the Ocean

One of the ways that the fashion industry is sourcing sustainable materials is by collecting plastic from the oceans and recycling them to create plastic-based fabrics such as polyester. Recycled polyester is known as rPET and is as good as virgin polyester and costs 59% less energy to produce than virgin polyester.

Although recycled polyester has its pros, some cons come with using recycled plastic for clothing. For one, there are limitations with the usage of rPET since not all clothing uses just polyester. There are also certain finishes and laminations applied to some clothes that render the fabric unrecyclable. Along with this, plastic can’t be recycled forever. Each time plastic goes through a mechanical recycling process, the plastic loses some of its integrity and will need to be mixed in with virgin fiber to make up for it. 

Although rPET might not be the end-all-be-all solution to solving the sustainability issue with plastics in fashion, it is a step in the right direction toward a more conscious and sustainable environment. We have seen the trend of alternative fabrics on the rise, but it will take a lot more effort before we are able to stop relying on the use of plastics.

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Microplastics are not a Micro-Problem

The biggest issue that comes with using plastics in clothing is the microplastics that are emitted from garments every single time you wash them. Approximately 35% of all microplastics that are released into the ocean originate from washing synthetic textiles; with an estimated 13,000 tons of microplastics released to surface water every year in just Europe alone. 

It isn’t just the oceans that are being polluted by microplastics. The manufacturing, wearing, and washing of plastic-based textiles releases microplastics into the air, water, and soil. This, in turn, increases the potential of these microplastics ending up in our food chain. A study done in 2020, by Shruti et al., found that approximately 84% of soft drinks, cold tea, and energy drinks contained microplastics. 

There have been three main suggested solutions when it comes to tackling the microplastic issue: shifting textile designs toward natural fibers, taking extra precautions to filter out microplastics when washing, and taking care of textile waste in landfills/wastewater. Each of these proposed solutions has its pros and cons and all of them could be utilized in the future to reach a more sustainable environment.

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Overall, the fashion industry still has a long way to go when it comes to sustainability and the usage of plastics. rPET is a step in the right direction for recycling plastics back into clothing, but this still results in the emission of microplastics throughout the lifecycle of the clothing. There is no one solution that is able to solve fashion’s plastic addiction, but taking steps in the right direction toward a more sustainable environment will help us one day get rid of fashion’s plastic addiction.

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