Waste Couture Environmental Impact of the Clothing Industry - Environews Focus
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Environews Focus
Waste
Couture
Environmental
Impact of the
Clothing Industry
Jack Hollingsworth
Focus | Waste Couture
O
n a Saturday afternoon, a be disposable. Some call it “fast fashion,”
group of teenage girls leaf the clothing equivalent of fast food.
through glossy fashion Fast fashion provides the marketplace
magazines at a New Jersey outlet mall. with affordable apparel aimed mostly at
Shopping bags brimming with new pur- young women. Fueling the demand are
chases lay at their feet as they talk excit- fashion magazines that help create the
edly about what’s in style to wear this desire for new “must-haves” for each sea-
summer. Far away in Tanzania, a young son. “Girls especially are insatiable when it
man proudly wears a T-shirt imprinted comes to fashion. They have to have the
with the logo of an American basketball latest thing, always. And since it is cheap,
team while shopping at the local mitumba you buy more of it. Our closets are full,”
market for pants that will fit his slender says Mayra Diaz, mother of a 10-year-old
figure. Although seemingly disparate, girl and a buyer in the fashion district of
these two scenes are connected through New York City. Disposable couture
the surprising life cycle of clothing. appears in shopping mall after shopping
How does a T-shirt originally sold in a mall in America and Europe at prices that
U.S. shopping mall to promote an make the purchase tempting and the dis-
American sports team end up being worn posal painless.
by an African teen? Globalization, con- Yet fast fashion leaves a pollution foot-
sumerism, and recycling all converge to print, with each step of the clothing life
connect these scenes. Globalization has cycle generating potential environmental
made it possible to produce clothing at and occupational hazards. For example,
increasingly lower prices, prices so low that polyester, the most widely used manufac-
many consumers consider this clothing to tured fiber, is made from petroleum. With
Environmental Health Perspectives • VOLUME 115 | NUMBER 9 | September 2007 A 449
Focus | Waste Couture
Each step of the clothing production process carries the poten-
tial for an environmental impact. For example, conventionally
grown cotton, one of the most popular clothing fibers, is also
one of the most water- and pesticide-dependent crops (a view
disputed by Cotton Incorporated, a U.S. cotton growers’ group).
At the factory stage, effluent may contain a number of toxics
(above, waste products from a garment factory in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, spill into a stagnant pond).
the rise in production in the fashion indus- used in the United States, the largest purchase approximately 1 billion garments
try, demand for man-made fibers, especial- exporter of cotton in the world, according made in China, the equivalent of four
ly polyester, has nearly doubled in the last to the USDA. The U.S. cotton crop bene- pieces of clothing for every U.S. citizen.
15 years, according to figures from the fits from subsidies that keep prices low and According to figures from the U.S.
Technical Textile Markets. The manufac- production high. The high production of National Labor Committee, some Chinese
ture of polyester and other synthetic fabrics cotton at subsidized low prices is one of workers make as little as 12–18 cents per
is an energy-intensive process requiring the first spokes in the wheel that drives the hour working in poor conditions. And
large amounts of crude oil and releasing globalization of fashion. with the fierce global competition that
emissions including volatile organic com- demands ever lower production costs,
pounds, particulate matter, and acid gases Bringing Clothes to Market Fast, the many emerging economies are aiming to
such as hydrogen chloride, all of which can Global Way get their share of the world’s apparel mar-
cause or aggravate respiratory disease. Much of the cotton produced in the kets, even if it means lower wages and poor
Left to right: Mike Donenfeld/Shutterstock; Zed Nelson/Panos Pictures
Volatile monomers, solvents, and other United States is exported to China and conditions for workers. Increasingly, cloth-
by-products of polyester production are other countries with low labor costs, where ing being imported to the United States
emitted in the wastewater from polyester the material is milled, woven into fabrics, comes from countries as diverse as
manufacturing plants. The EPA, under the cut, and assembled according to the fash- Honduras and Bangladesh.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, ion industry’s specifications. China has Once bought, an estimated 21% of
considers many textile manufacturing facili- emerged as the largest exporter of fast fash- annual clothing purchases stay in the home,
ties to be hazardous waste generators. ion, accounting for 30% of world apparel increasing the stocks of clothing and other
Issues of environmental health and exports, according to the UN Commodity textiles held by consumers, according to
safety do not apply only to the production Trade Statistics database. In her 2005 Recycling of Low Grade Clothing Waste, a
of man-made fabrics. Cotton, one of the book The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global September 2006 report by consultant
most popular and versatile fibers used in Economy, Pietra Rivoli, a professor of inter- Oakdene Hollins. The report calls this
clothing manufacture, also has a significant national business at the McDonough stockpiling an increase in the “national
environmental footprint. This crop School of Business of Georgetown wardrobe,” which is considered to represent
accounts for a quarter of all the pesticides University, writes that each year Americans a potentially large quantity of latent waste
A 450 VOLUME 115 | NUMBER 9 | September 2007 • Environmental Health Perspectives
Focus | Waste Couture
that will eventually enter the solid waste family members, or recycled within the approximate 10% reduction in the pro-
stream. According to the EPA Office of home as rags or quilts. During the war, duction of trash.
Solid Waste, Americans throw away more clothing manufacturers reduced the vari- However, the spirit of conservation
than 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per eties, sizes, and colors of their produc- did not last long; by the mid-1920s
person per year, and clothing and other tions and even urged designers to create consumerism was back in style. Industrial-
textiles represent about 4% of the munici- styles that would use less fabric and avoid ization grew in the twentieth century, pro-
pal solid waste. But this figure is rapidly needless decoration. The government’s viding the means of increased production
growing. conservation campaign used slogans such of all consumer goods. During World War
as “Make economy fashionable lest it II, consumption rose with increased
Everything Old Is New Again become obligatory” and resulted in an employment as the United States mobilized
In her book Waste and for the war. The produc-
Want: A Social History of tion and consumption of
Trash, Susan Strasser, a many household goods,
professor of history at the including clothing, grew by
University of Delaware, 10–15% even in the middle
traces the “progressive of the war and continues to
obsolescence” of clothing expand to this day.
and other consumer goods Industrialization brought
to the 1920s. Before then, consumerism with it as an
and especially during integral part of the economy.
World War I, most cloth- Economic growth came to
ing was repaired, mended, depend on continued mar-
or tailored to fit other keting of new products and
disposal of old ones that are
thrown away simply because
stylistic norms promote their
obsolescence. When it
comes to clothing, the rate
of purchase and disposal has
dramatically increased, so
the path that a T-shirt travels
from the sales floor to the
landfill has become shorter.
Yet even today, the journey of a piece
of clothing does not always end at the
landfill. A portion of clothing purchases
are recycled mainly in three ways: clothing
may be resold by the primary consumer to
other consumers at a lower price, it may be
exported in bulk for sale in developing
countries, or it may be chemically or
mechanically recycled into raw material for
the manufacture of other apparel and non-
apparel products.
Domestic resale has boomed in the era
Top to bottom: Mikkel Ostergaard/Panos Pictures; G.M.B. Akash/Panos Pictures
of the Internet. Many people sell directly
to other individuals through auction web-
sites such as eBay. Another increasingly
popular outlet is consignment and thrift
shops, where sales are growing at a pace of
5% per year, according to the National
Association of Resale and Thrift Shops.
The U.S. government offers tax incen-
Fierce global competition in the garment industry translates into poor working con- tives for citizens who donate household
ditions for many laborers in developing nations. (top) A worker in Phnom Penh, goods to charities such as the Salvation
Cambodia, rests on the floor of a garment factory. More than 2,000 young women Army and Goodwill Industries, which sal-
work in this factory, producing clothes for shops in Europe and North America. (bot- vage a portion of clothing and textiles that
tom) The owner of a textile factory in Dhaka threatens a child laborer, who works would otherwise go to landfills or incinera-
for 10 hours a day to earn US$1.
tors. The trend of increased purchasing of
clothing and other household goods has
served the salvage charities well. For
Environmental Health Perspectives • VOLUME 115 | NUMBER 9 | September 2007 A 451
Focus | Waste Couture
instance, since 2001 Goodwill Industries America to absorb the mountains of Certain brands and rare collectible items
has seen a 67% increase in its sale of castoffs, even if they were given away.” are imported by Japan, the largest buyer
donated goods, most of it clothing. Figures So charities find another way to fund in terms of dollars of vintage or American
from the National Association of Resale their programs using the clothing and high-end fashion. Clothing that is not
and Thrift Shops put Goodwill’s sales of other textiles that can’t be sold at their considered vintage or high-end is baled
donated goods at thrift shops at more than thrift shops: they sell it to textile recyclers for export to developing nations. Data
$1.8 billion in 2006. at 5–7 cents per pound. Since 1942, the from the International Trade Commission
A 2006 survey conducted by America’s Stubin family of Brooklyn, New York, has indicate that between 1989 and 2003,
Research Group, a consumer trends owned and operated Trans-America American exports of used clothing more
research firm, found that about 12–15% of Trading Company, where they process than tripled, to nearly 7 billion pounds
Americans shop at consignment or resale more than 12 million pounds of post- per year. Used clothing is sold in more
stores. The Council for Textile Recycling consumer textiles per year. Trans-America than 100 countries. For Tanzania, where
estimates that 2.5 billion pounds of post- is one of the biggest of about 3,000 textile used clothing is sold at the mitumba mar-
consumer textile waste (which includes recyclers in the United States. At its kets that dot the country, these items are
anything made of fabric) is thus collected 80,000-square-foot sorting facility, workers the number one import from the United
and prevented from entering directly into separate used clothing into 300 different States.
the waste stream. This represents 10 pounds categories by type of item, size, and fiber Imported apparel from America and
for every person in the United States, but content. According to figures from Trans- Europe is bought in 100-pound bales of
it is still only about 15% of the clothing America, about 30% of these textiles are mixed clothing by small entrepreneurs.
that is discarded. turned into absorbent wiping rags for Like opening a piñata, these merchants
industrial uses, and another 25–30% are sort through the contents of the bales to
Handling the Overflow recycled into fiber for use as stuffing for see whether their investment has paid off.
Only about one-fifth of the clothing upholstery, insulation, and the manufac- Prices are set according to the latest fash-
donated to charities is directly used or sold ture of paper products. ions, the condition of the clothing, and its
in their thrift shops. Says Rivoli, “There About 45% of these textiles continue desirability. For example, men’s light slacks
are nowhere near enough people in their life as clothing, just not domestically. in perfect condition and in waist sizes in
Left to right: Justin Jin/Panos Pictures; Nikolay Okhitin/Panos Pictures
A textile worker takes a break at dawn after sanding jeans all night at a clothing factory in Guangdong Province, China. The blue
dust from the jeans is a heavy irritant to the lungs. The factory where this worker is employed uses a wear-and-tear process to
achieve the fashionable distressed look for the approximately 10,000 pairs of jeans it produces every day. Thousands of workers
labor around the clock scrubbing, spraying, and tearing jeans in order to meet the production demand. China is one of the world’s
largest producers of jeans.
A 452 VOLUME 115 | NUMBER 9 | September 2007 • Environmental Health Perspectives
Focus | Waste Couture
the low 30s fetch a premium price of
$5.00. T-shirts sell well, especially those
with logos from winning sports teams or
recognizable athletic gear companies.
Because women in the West tend to
buy much more clothing and discard it
more often than men, the world supply of
used women’s clothing is at least seven
times that of men’s. Thus, in the mitumba
markets around Tanzania, men’s clothing
generally costs four to five times more than
similar women’s clothing. Winter clothes,
although generally more expensive to pro-
duce, command the least value in the sec-
ondhand African markets. Companies such
as Trans-America are therefore seeking to
expand into colder climes such as Eastern
Europe.
Observers such as Rivoli predict that
the trend toward increasing exports of used
clothing to developing countries will con-
tinue to accelerate because of the rise of
consumerism in the United States and
Europe and the falling prices of new cloth-
ing. There are detractors to this view, how- A woman shops at a mitumba (Swahili for “secondhand”) market in Nairobi, Kenya.
ever. For example, the Institute for Middlemen purchase bales of clothing at a set price to resell at the mitumba market.
Manufacturing at Cambridge University Sometimes the bales contain prize garments, other times less desirable items, and
issued a report in 2006 titled Well Dressed? the clothing may be sold by the piece or by weight. People often buy large amounts of
The Present and Future Sustainability of clothing to resell yet again in smaller markets outside the city.
Clothing and Textiles in the United
Kingdom, in which it raised concerns that
trade in secondhand clothes in African
countries inhibits development of local patterns.” The ISO is developing standards Club stores. By the time of a 31 July 2006
industries even as it creates employment in for a labeling system to identify garments report on CNNMoney.com, the company
these countries. And the authors of that meet criteria as environmentally friend- had sold 5 million units of organic cotton
Recycling of Low Grade Clothing Waste ly. However, even without such specific ladies’ apparel.
warn that in the long run, as prices and standards for what constitutes an environ- According to Well Dressed?, about 60%
quality of new clothing continue to mentally friendly garment, industry is tak- of the energy used in the life cycle of a cot-
decline, so too will the demand for used ing a broadening diversity of approaches. ton T-shirt is related to postpurchase
clothing diminish. This is because in the One approach has been to use sustain- washing and drying at high temperatures;
world of fast fashion, new clothing could ably grown cotton, hemp, bamboo, and transportation constitutes only a small por-
be bought almost as inexpensively as used other fiber crops that require less pesti- tion of the energy profile to produce a cot-
clothing. Even so, says Rivoli, “Continued cides, irrigation, and other inputs. Organic ton product. As for whether it is better to
rampant consumerism as well as changing cotton is grown in at least 12 countries. buy locally produced garments, the report
waste disposal practices would seem to Figures provided by the Organic Trade argues that this approach would cut severely
ensure a growing supply of American used Association 2004 Manufacturer Survey into the livelihood of peoples in develop-
clothing for the global market.” show that the sale of organic cotton fiber ing countries where the products are now
grew by an estimated 22.7% over the pre- being manufactured.
Fashion Forward vious year. Sales of organic cotton More innovative eco-fashions are being
To address the environmental impacts of women’s clothing grew by a healthy 33%. developed and made available to con-
fast fashion at its source, and to find a However, organic cotton represents only sumers at different levels of the fashion
niche in this increasingly competitive mar- 0.03% of worldwide cotton production. spectrum, from casual clothing to haute
ket, some manufacturers are aiming to This figure may grow as retailers begin to couture. Patagonia, a major retailer in
develop “eco-fashions.” The International expand their selections of organic cotton casual wear, has been selling fleece clothing
Standards Organization (ISO) has defined apparel. In 2004, Wal-Mart, America’s made from postconsumer plastic soda bot-
eco-fashions as “identifying the general largest retailer, began selling organic cotton tles since 1993. This recycling process
AP Photo/Khallil Senosi
environmental performance of a product women’s shirts at its Sam’s Club stores. takes clear plastic bottles made of poly-
within a product group based on its whole Today the company is the world’s largest ethylene terephthalate (PET), melts them,
life-cycle in order to contribute to improve- buyer of organic cotton, offering several and reconfigures them into fibers that can
ments in key environmental measures and lines of organic cotton apparel and bed- be woven into fabrics and other applica-
to support sustainable consumption ding goods in its Wal-Mart and Sam’s tions. Patagonia is one of the first and
Environmental Health Perspectives • VOLUME 115 | NUMBER 9 | September 2007 A 453
Focus | Waste Couture
Alternative fibers such as bamboo (in yarn and original form, above) and hemp (of a variety that produces only a tiny amount of
the psychoactive component found in cannabis) are coming into greater use in so-called eco-fashions. In February 2005, as part of
New York City’s Fashion Week, retailer Barneys New York and the nonprofit Earth Pledge sponsored FutureFashion, a showcase of
environmentally friendly apparel.
largest clothing retailers to use this material. Tesco on the basis of its carbon emission Öko-Tex Standard 100, a testing and certifi-
The company estimates that between 1993 footprint. This plan was highlighted at the cation program established in 1992. The
and 2006 it saved 86 million soda bottles 2007 Association of Suppliers to the British standard gives the textile and clothing indus-
from ending up in the landfill. Patagonia Clothing Industry Conference. Many in the try uniform guidance for the potential harm
also recycles its cotton T-shirts through industry think such efforts are not only of substances in raw materials as well as fin-
Italian company Calamai Functional good for the environment, but also makes ished products, and every stage in
Fabrics. According to Trailspace.com, an good business sense. Hana Ben-Shabat, vice between—these include regulated sub-
outdoor gear information site, recycling cot- president of goods and retail practice at AT stances as well as substances that are
ton saves 20,000 liters of water per kilogram Kearney, a management consulting firm believed to be harmful to health but are not
of cotton, a water-intensive crop. that works with fashion industry suppliers, yet regulated (such as pesticides). The stan-
Another approach is the use of poly- stated in a presentation at the conference dard also governs elements such as colorfast-
mers created from plant-based materials. that “being green and ethical is no longer an ness and pH value.
One such material trademarked by Cargill, option, it is [an economic] necessity.” Such regulations and standards, cou-
Ingeo, is made of corn by-products that are In the European Union, the Registra- pled with increasing consumer awareness
fermented and transformed into polylac- tion, Evaluation, Authorisation and about less toxic and sustainable products,
tide. This polymer is spun into fibers and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regula- may provide some impetus to revolutionize
woven into fabrics that, under strictly man- tions enacted 1 June 2007 require clothing the garment industry. However, the biggest
aged circumstances, could be composted manufacturers and importers to identify and impacts for increasing sustainability in the
(polylactide, marketed under the name quantify the chemicals used in their prod- clothing industry rests with the consumer.
NatureWorks PLA, is also fashioned into ucts. These regulations may even require Using detergents that work well at lower
wraps, rigid food and beverage containers, manufacturers to inform consumers about temperatures, extending the usable life of
coated papers and boards, and other pack- potentially hazardous chemicals that may be garments, purchasing fewer and more
Left to right: Yahaira Ferreira; Jyothi Joshi/Shutterstock
aging applications). Versace is one of the present in their products and can leach out, durable garments, and recycling these gar-
haute couture designer clothing firms that such as often happens with dyes (details of ments into the used clothing market or
have used Ingeo in their collections. how the regulations will be implemented are into other garment and nongarment prod-
Other retailers large and small are taking still being worked out). Actual end products ucts all would contribute to increasing sus-
different steps to appeal to the environmen- are governed by stipulations of the European tainability. Consumer awareness about the
tally conscious consumer. Tesco, the largest Equipment and Product Safety Act, which fate of clothing through its life cycle may
British retailer, has commissioned a study regulates the use of heavy metals, carcino- be the best hope for sustainability in the
by Oxford University toward developing a genic dyes, and other toxics used in textile fashion industry.
Sustainable Consumption Institute to estab- manufacture. Additional consumer protec-
lish a system to label every product sold by tion is offered by the European Union’s Luz Claudio
A 454 VOLUME 115 | NUMBER 9 | September 2007 • Environmental Health Perspectives
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