(CBS DETROIT) – Cheaply made clothing is piling up in landfills, and experts are now alarmed by another way the fast-fashion industry is impacting the environment.
Consumers may not realize that cheap clothing contains a major pollutant.
“A lot of the clothing these days, especially cheaper clothing, is synthetic,” said Gillian Miller of the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor. “A lot of it is polyester. It is a plastic. People don’t always think of fabrics as plastic, but they are plastic fibers unless it’s a natural material. And the synthetic fabrics are particularly bad at shedding microplastics.”
Miller and her team have partnered with the city of Ann Arbor for the “More Life, Less Stuff” campaign to connect community members and help them reduce waste.
She said one way to address the issue of microplastics in clothing is to change the way you consume and wash clothes.
“Keep clothes as long as you can, quality over quantity, also washing clothes less when you can – jeans, for example, maybe don’t need to be washed as frequently,” said Miller. “Pre-owned clothing is a great option.”
When doing laundry, microplastics shed from synthetic clothing and eventually make their way into waterways and landfills.
Clothing production also takes significant resources.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, it takes 713 gallons of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt.
“The fast-fashion industry is the world’s number one polluter behind oil,” said Kaylan Mitchell, co-owner of The Getup Vintage.
Mitchell said clothing made decades ago tends to be much higher quality than the clothes found in stores today.
“You don’t find fabric like [deacads-old clothing] when you go to Forever 21 or H&M or another fast-fashion retailer. You touch it, and it feels like plastic because it is,” she said.
Miller said another way to reduce one’s carbon footprint is to buy clothes made of organic or natural materials when possible.
