Why the world needs circular fashion
It is estimated that a garment travels 14,000 km and touches 100 pairs of hands before it reaches ours. This might seem extreme, but if you consider that 97.7% of all garments sold in the United States are made abroad, it begins to sound like an understatement. Consumers show no interest in avoiding consumption, with the average individual in North America spending $912 on clothing per year. This behaviour contributes to the estimated 14 million tonnes of textile waste produced each year in Canada.
Provinces and municipalities currently do little to address textile waste, despite many of these materials being recyclable or reusable. Landfills are the sixth largest contributor to green-house emissions within Canada and textiles make up roughly 10% of the content. 85% end up in landfills and from there they do not vanish; nylon takes 30 to 40 years to biodegrade, while polyester requires more than 200 years… talk about inheriting your mother’s fashion sense.
Sabine Weber published the first academic paper on textile waste in Canada while pursuing her master’s degree in 2015 at the University of Waterloo’s School of Environment and Resource Sustainability (SERS). Now a professor at Seneca College in the School of Fashion and working towards her PhD in social innovation at the University of Waterloo, Weber continues to study circular economy in fashion and how innovative methods of garment production and waste management can transform the industry.
Weber considers whether we can decouple economy from resource use and environmental degradation, and her optimistic answer is yes. The circular economy lives within the 15% of textiles which are diverted from landfills. Of this, 3% is currently recycled into new fibres in a closed-loop recycling system.
To achieve a circular economy, supply chain, waste sector, regulations and distribution channels must be considered.
There is, in fact, enough clothing and textile in existence today to meet global demand. However, many companies are creating an urgency for overconsumption through planned obsolescence and oversaturation of the market. In the face of this grocery-market-fashion world, we must find solutions for our debilitating waste problem because 60% of all clothing produced will end up in a landfill within one year of its production.
There is more to sustainability in fashion than just design… the whole system has to adapt. Government, industry, and consumers must make necessary changes that involve proper legislations banning textiles from landfills, similar to other parts of the world, such as the EU, as well as the developing a textile recycling industry.
- Sabine Weber
Weber explains that us consumers should make more informed choices about what and how we buy. This includes purchasing higher quality clothes designed to last, as well as paying attention to the fibres our textiles are made from. When you have unwanted garments, consider giving them to family or friends, donating them to charities, or find new purposes for them (like cutting an old shirt into rags). In addition you can look for and support companies within fashion industry who already operate in an environmentally responsible manner.
