① Our Story ② Fast Fashion ③ Slow Fashion ④ Our Standards ⑤ TL;DR ⑥ Fabric Dictionary
■ TL;DR Facts
① The fast fashion industry designs their pieces to be trend-based (and thus only relevant for a few weeks) and to be very poor quality so that customers have to back and buy more when their purchase either goes out of style or falls apart.
② Nearly 3/5 of all apparel ends up in landfills or incinerators within a year of being produced.
③ Washing clothes made of synthetic fibres like nylon and polyester releases half a million tonnes of plastic microfibres into the ocean every year.
④ Less than 1% of material ever used is recycled. ⑤ The world consumes over 80 billion pieces of clothing per year, which is a 400% increase from 20 years ago. ⑥ 1/6 people work in the global apparel industry and only 2% receive a living wage.
⑦ In April 2013, the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh catastrophically collapsed, killing over 1,100 workers and injuring at least 2,000 others, becoming the worst industrial disaster to date. This building was linked to over a dozen fast fashion companies, like Primark, Benneton, J.C. Penney, Mango, Walmart, and more.
⑧ Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned.
⑨ Of the 60-70 million textile workers in the world, three quarter are women of color.
⑩ The purchase and use of clothing (from manufacturing, transportation and usage/laundering) contributes approximately 3% of global annual CO2 emissions. Doubling the useful life of clothing from one to two years can reduce these emissions by 24% while saving massive quantities of freshwater and reducing the release of hazardous chemicals into the environment.
⑪ The footwear and apparel industries combined account for an estimated 8.1% of global climate impacts. ⑫ The UK’s carbon footprint has been reduced by 700,000 tonnes of CO2 since people have been washing their clothes at lower temperatures. ⑬ Clothes are the 2nd highest at-risk product category for modern slavery.
⑭ Most faux fur is made from modacrylic, a derivative of oil and synthetics.
⑮ Only 10%-20% of the clothes people donate to thrift stores or charity get sold. Almost everything else ends up in landfills or flooding markets (and eventually landfills) of emergent nations.
⑯ A study of 1,452 home workers in India's garment industry found that 99.2% were subject to conditions of forced labour.
⑰ Approximately 20-25% of globally-produced chemical compounds are used in the textile-finishing industry. ⑱ Beading and sequins on fast fashion items are a sign of child slave labor. ⑲ Fast fashion garments are likely contaminated with pesticides, insecticides, toxic chemicals like formaldehyde, flame retardants, lead, and other carcinogens.
⑳ Garment workers in developing nations like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand are forced to work anywhere from 10 to 16 hours a day without breaks and overtime pay.
㉑ Need a reason to avoid non-organic cotton? According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 20,000 people die a year in developing countries due to pesticide poisoning from farming, while an additional 3 million people suffer related chronic health problems.
㉒ 10% of the world's total carbon footprint comes from the apparel industry, and apparel is the second largest polluter of fresh water globally. Yeesh.
㉓ Greenpeace reports that the average person buys 60% more clothes and keeps them for half as long as they did 15 years ago.
Next Up: Fabric Dictionary →
■ TL;DR Facts
① The fast fashion industry designs their pieces to be trend-based (and thus only relevant for a few weeks) and to be very poor quality so that customers have to back and buy more when their purchase either goes out of style or falls apart.
② Nearly 3/5 of all apparel ends up in landfills or incinerators within a year of being produced. In fact, every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles are sent to the landfill or burned.
③ Washing clothes made of synthetic fibres like nylon and polyester releases half a million tonnes of plastic microfibres into the ocean every year.
④ Less than 1% of material ever used is recycled.
⑤ The world consumes over 80 billion pieces of clothing per year, which is a 400% increase from 20 years ago.
⑥ 1/6 people work in the global apparel industry and only 2% receive a living wage.
⑦ In May 2013, the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh catastrophically collapsed, killing over 1,100 workers and injuring at least 2,000 others, becoming the worst industrial disaster to date. This building was linked to over a dozen fast fashion companies, like Primark, Benneton, J.C. Penney, Mango, Walmart, and more.
⑧ Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of texts is landfilled or burned.
⑨ Over 80% of garment workers are women.
⑩ The footwear and apparel industries combined account for an estimated 8.1% of global climate impacts.
⑪ Doubling the useful life of clothing from 1 to 2 years reduces emissions over the year by 24%.
⑫ The UK’s carbon footprint has been reduced by 700,000 tonnes of CO2 since people have been washing their clothes at lower temperatures.
⑬ Clothes are the 2nd highest at-risk product category for modern slavery.
⑭ Most faux fur is made from modacrylic, a derivative of oil and synthetics.
⑮ Only 10% of the clothes people donate to thrift stores or charity get sold. Everything else ends up in landfills or flooding markets of developing countries.
⑯ A study of 1,452 home workers in India's garment industry found that 99.2% were subject to conditions of forced labour.
⑰ Approximately 20-25% of globally-produced chemical compounds are used in the textile-finishing industry.
⑱ Beading and sequins on fast fashion items are a sign of child slave labor.
⑲ Fast fashion garments are likely contaminated with pesticides, insecticides, toxic chemicals like formaldehyde, flame retardants, lead, and other carcinogens.
⑳ Garment workers in developing nations like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Thailand are forced to work anywhere from 10 to 16 hours a day without breaks and overtime pay.
㉑ Need a reason to avoid non-organic cotton? According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 20,000 people die a year in developing countries due to pesticide poisoning from farming, while an additional 3 million people suffer related chronic health problems.
㉒ 10% of the world's total carbon footprint comes from the apparel industry, and apparel is the second largest polluter of fresh water globally. Yeesh.
㉓ Greenpeace reports that the average person buys 60% more clothes and keeps them for half as long as they did 15 years ago.
Next Up: Fabric Dictionary →