Consumables
Fashion, electronics - non-essentials that have become essentials. How do you chose the most sustainable option ? Should you recycle ? Upcycle ?
Sustainable consumption: a mindset
From electronics to garments, in the past decades a shift was felt from producing and using components for decades to switching for newer alternatives every 6 months. This change in mindset is costly from an environmental point of view. The concept of fast-fashion, where every 6 months or a less a new fashion is adopted and all new clothes must be bought, is responsible for about 2% of world-wide CO2 emissions. A change in mindset to more durable options, but also to repairing and exchanging goods, can help in mitigating this impact of consumables on Earth.
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REFURBISH - REUSE - RECYCLE
Science based actions
- Researching better fabrics
- Wash your clothes less often
- Choose a better phone or tv and learn how to repair them or where : there are many repair shops that can prolong your electronics life. Bring them there before you throw them away!
Learn more about electronics selection and recycling from the United State Environmental Protection Agency
Fashion - the problem
Want to know more about the problem with fashion ?
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One of the current concerns in relation to fast fashion is that customers discard garments before the end of their technical lifespan.The increase in practical service life of garments are therefore expected to be environmentally beneficial if performed between localized regions.
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Political action
- Demand for electronics to have uniformised plugs
- Demand for electronics not to have a self-sabotage mechanism to extend their life and chose electronics with interchangeable components and durable parts
- Demand for effective control of green washing fashion companies
Educate
- Before shopping for clothes, use the Good On You app : it will provide you with the list of fashion companies and their sustainability performance
- Learn to do more with less : buy less clothes, exchange with others, teach and learn how to sew, how to repair.
Different countries have different recycling capabilities and methods. Switzerland and France for example have different bins for cardboard, paper, glass, vegetation, waste, and have extensive recycling facilities that split hard and soft plastics, aluminium, wood and more. In the UK, there are only two bins, one for recycling and one for the waste. Have a look at your country's policy on recycling and how and where to recycle!
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Find below what can be recycled and use this tool to find a recycling centre near you!
What Our Clients Say
Fashion - the problem
The clothing and fashion industry have a disastrous impact on the environment and the 2nd largest polluter in the world, behind the oil industry. Clothing industry impacts the environment in the following aspects :
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1. Water pollution : treatment of textiles often used environmentally detrimental chemicals. These are often released directly in rivers and profoundly affect aquatic life as well as human health, due to the presence of arsenide, lead, mercury and other toxic waste. In addition, the use of fertilizers in the fields for the growth of cotton is reflected in the evaporated and runoff water.
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2. Greenhouse gases emissions: The fashion industry is generating a lot of greenhouse gases due to the energy used during its production, manufacturing, and transportation.Synthetic fibers (polyester, acrylic, nylon, etc.), used in the majority of clothes, are made from fossil fuel, making production much more energy-intensive than with natural fibers. Most of clothes are produced in China, Bangladesh, or India, countries essentially powered by coal. This is the dirtiest type of energy in terms of carbon emissions.
3. Water consumption: For a ton of dyed fabric, up to 200 tons of fresh water are needed for the dyeing process. In addition, raw material such as cotton need a lot of water to grow and heat, and is grown in the wrong climates, requiring additional water. Up to 20 000 L of water are needed for 1kg of cotton !
4. Rainforest destruction: Every year, thousands of hectares of endangered and ancient forests are cut down and replaced by plantations of trees used to make wood-based fabrics such as rayon, viscose, and modal. This threatenes the ecosystems, reduces the absoprtion of Co2 and endangers indigenous communities.
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5. Microfibers released in the ocean: Microfibers present in synthetic garments such as polyester, nylon release about 1900 individual microfibers in oceans. These are then eaten by small fish which are later eaten by bigger fish, introducing plastic in our food chain.
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6. Waste accumulation: Clothing has clearly become disposable. As a result, we generate more and more textile waste. A family in the western world throws away an average of 30 kg of clothing each year. Only 15% is recycled or donated, and the rest goes directly to the landfill or is incinerated. Synthetic fibers, such as polyester, are plastic fibers, therefore non-biodegradable and can take up to 200 years to decompose. Synthetic fibers are used in 72% of our clothing.
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7. Chemicals for dyeing and treatment: Chemicals are one of the main components in our clothes. They are used during fiber production, dyeing, bleaching, and wet processing of each of our garments. The heavy use of chemicals in cotton farming is causing diseases and premature death among cotton farmers, along with massive freshwater and ocean water pollution and soil degradation. Some of these substances are also harmful to the consumer
8. Soils degradation: The fashion industry plays a major part in degrading soil in different ways: overgrazing of pastures through cashmere goats and sheep raised for their wool; degradation of the soil due to massive use of chemicals to grow cotton; deforestation caused by wood-based fibers like rayon.
Page prepared by Eleonore Poli
Working on the EcoFashion project, now the called the Shaping Fashion project from Global Shapers, I learned that fashion shopping was not as innocent for the environment as thought. Fashion is an extremely large polluter.