Is the fashion industry really the second largest polluter in the world?

After studying sustainable fashion for my Textiles A Level, i became fascinated with the idea of fast fashion and the question of ‘is fashion really the second largest polluter in the world?’  With fast fashion being on the rise, more and more waste is being pumped into the environment.  However, it is not only the waste that is destroying the environment, it is the increasing demand of others which adds to this, as the processes used to make clothes is polluting in itself.

Fashion trends are constantly changing and most people often crave the most stylish clothing from the current season.  As a result of this, people don’t wear their clothes the recommended 30 times before chucking them away and sending them to land fills.  This idea is called fast fashion.  When clothes are chucked away by people, they are sent to land fills where they will be left to decompose.  However, most items of clothing take a long time to decompose, especially if they are made out of synthetic fabric such as polyester, and its not only the fabric that takes a long time, it is also the different components such as buttons and zips. Landfills cause pollution as the chemicals in the clothes, from things such as bleach, leach themselves into the ground and air.

The process of making clothes is also very damaging to the environment.  You have to take into account air miles and the pollution from transporting resources and clothes from place to place.  This puts Carbon Dioxide into the air and uses up a valuable resource, oil.  One of the most polluting fabrics to make is cotton.  Personally,  I think that the production of cotton is one of the main reasons why the fashion industry is said to be the worlds second largest polluter.  Firstly, to grow the cotton, farmers have to use a number of different pesticides and herbicides to stop weeds and pests eating the cotton.  This is damaging to the environment, as when it rains, these chemicals are washed away into rivers which cause some animals in the rivers to die.  Cotton also needs a vast amount of water to be grown.  In fact, the water consumed to grow India’s cotton exports in 2013 would be enough to supply 85% of the country’s 1.24 billion people with 100 litres of water every day for a year. The production of cotton has also led to the Aral Sea (which was once the worlds 4th largest lake) to completely dry out.  Therefore cotton is extremely damaging to the environment.

With all this being said, yes i agree that fashion is a hugely polluting industry to the world, but i’m not sure that it can be called the worlds largest polluter as there are many other damaging industries such as mining, tanneries and the food industry in general.  I also feel that people are increasing their efforts to try and make the fashion industry less polluting, such as using capsule wardrobes and wearing organic materials.  Therefore although it is damaging, things are being done to help this and there are other industries just as bad, if not worse.

I hope you found this debate interesting,

Katie x