The Truth Behind the Environmental Harm Caused by Textiles

The fashion industry is known to have many different ways in which it produces waste, but what we may not know is just how damaging this can be to us. One thing that we all look over is the waste of the materials being used in the first place. According to the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), 17 million tons of textiles ended up in landfills in 2018 alone! This number should not be acceptable by any standard because it puts us at risk.

There are also problems with the textiles that we are using to make clothing. How often do we really think of how our clothing and how its materials affect the environment? The cultivation of the most popular clothing fabric, cotton, can lead to many unintended consequences like the contamination of water from runoff of pesticides and fertilizers coming from cotton fields. According to TRVST, cotton growers used 48 million pounds of pesticides in the U.S. in 2017. Constant farming of cotton can also lead to soil degradation and the loss of habitats.

Courtesy of Pesticide Action Network UK

Textiles can also be harmful to us during their process of decomposition. They release methane greenhouse gases that warm the atmosphere. This surely isn't helping the situation with global warming that we are already in! However, the most shocking thing to find out is that these textiles aren't going away anytime soon, either. According to RoadRunner, it takes over 200 years for these textiles to decompose! Taking all of this into consideration, it is not an exaggeration to think that these textiles are causing us a lot of trouble.

Courtesy of Huffington Post UK

However, this does not mean that there isn't something you can do about this situation. Circular Fashion LA can help repair and refit your clothes to make them last longer, ReDye and ReDesign what may not be for you, and recycle what you don't want to give it new life. You can shop here to find styles that you'll love, while also making sure nothing goes to waste!