Implications

Implications
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Fast Fashion
“The clothing industry is the second largest polluter
clothes and it is a huge problem. Your clothes continue
in the world ... second only to oil,” the recipient of an
to impact the environment after purchase; washing and
environmental award told a stunned Manhattan audience
earlier this year. “It’s a really nasty business ... it’s
cause more harm to the planet than you realize.
final disposal when you’re finished with your shirt may
a mess.”
Is the Second
Dirtiest
Industry in
the World,
Next to Big
Oil
Glynis Sweeny
August 2015
Ecowatch
While you’d never hear an oil tycoon malign his bonanza
in such a way, the woman who stood at the podium,
Eileen Fisher, is a clothing industry magnate.
On a warm spring night at a Chelsea Piers ballroom on
the Hudson River, Fisher was honored by Riverkeeper
for her commitment to environmental causes. She was
self-deprecating and even apologetic when speaking
about the ecological impact of clothing, including garments
tagged with her own name. Fisher’s critique may
have seemed hyperbolic, but she was spot-on.
When we think of pollution, we envision coal power
plants, strip-mined mountaintops and raw sewage piped
into our waterways. We don’t often think of the shirts on
our backs. But the overall impact the apparel industry
has on our planet is quite grim.
Fashion is a complicated business involving long and
varied supply chains of production, raw material, textile
manufacture, clothing construction, shipping, retail, use
and ultimately disposal of the garment. While Fisher’s
assessment that fashion is the second largest polluter
is likely impossible to know, what is certain is that the
fashion carbon footprint is tremendous. Determining
that footprint is an overwhelming challenge due to the
immense variety from one garment to the next. A general
assessment must take into account not only obvious
pollutants—the pesticides used in cotton farming,
the toxic dyes used in manufacturing and the great
amount of waste discarded clothing creates—but also
the extravagant amount of natural resources used in
extraction, farming, harvesting, processing, manufacturing
and shipping.
While cotton, especially organic cotton, might seem
like a smart choice, it can still take more than 5,000
gallons of water to manufacture just a T-shirt and a
pair of jeans. Synthetic, man-made fibers, while not as
water-intensive, often have issues with manufacturing
pollution and sustainability. And across all textiles,
the manufacturing and dyeing of fabrics is chemically
intensive.
Globalization means that your shirt likely traveled halfway
around the world in a container ship fueled by the
dirtiest of fossil fuels. A current trend in fashion retail
is creating an extreme demand for quick and cheap
Fisher is right, the fashion industry is truly a mess.