The fashion industry’s environmental impact has been so prominent that the United Nations established the Alliance for Sustainable Fashion in 2019. Efforts to reduce the clothing industry’s carbon footprint cover the entire life cycle of fashion, from producing raw materials to manufacturing, distribution, consumption, and disposal.
Growing consciousness around polyester’s sustainability has increased momentum for finding more environmentally friendly alternatives, such as recycled polyester. Still, recycled polyester only accounts for 14% of polyester production. Household items, plastic bottles, straws, and other synthetic waste can be melted down to create raw material that is then transformed into polyester yarn for textiles. In 2021, Textile Exchange launched the 2025 Recycled Polyester Challenge, inviting companies to use at least 45% recycled polyester in their products by 2025.
These initiatives are a good sign, but they still do not solve the issue. Even after polyester is recycled, the final clothing product becomes more difficult to recycle again because of the complex process involved in recycling mixed materials and dyed garments.
Apart from systemic solutions offered by large organizations like the U.N. and Textile Exchange, consumers can also participate in the change. The environmental toll of fast fashion’s lightning-fast production cycle is especially alarming because of the consumer behavior associated with it.
According to McKinsey, clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2014, with people purchasing 60% more clothes than before. McKinsey also noted that clothes are thrown away in as little as seven wears, and for every five pieces of clothing produced, about three end up in a landfill or incinerated yearly. Faced with new, eye-catching designs every few weeks, the challenge for the environmentally and sartorially savvy is to resist the temptation of retail therapy and to extend the life of the clothing they own: a plastic fantastic challenge, indeed.
Story editing by Carren Jao. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Paris Close.
This story originally appeared on The RealReal and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
