Fast fashion practices are pumping out cheap clothes worn only a few times before being thrown away, leading to huge amounts of textile waste – and it is the climate and environment bearing the cost. Better quality textiles, greater circularity and consumer awareness are key to hem the waste, with several EU measures aiming to push industry in the right direction.
Textiles are essential to our daily lives, predominately for clothing for survival, comfort and expression. However, society’s relationship with textiles has shifted to overproduction and overconsumption, with widespread impacts on the climate and environment.
Fast fashion reigns supreme, with clothing industry producing more products of lower quality for cheaper prices and consumers increasingly enticed to buy clothes they wear for fewer times.
The average lifespan of clothes has decreased by 36% over the last two decades, with Europeans wearing a garment on average only 7-8 times. This is contributing to 5.2 million tonnes of textile waste in the EU each year, at 12kg per person.
Fast and dirty fashion
This sheer amount of waste has myriad climate and environmental impacts due to the complex and highly globalised processes involved in producing textiles.
Paulien Harmsen, senior scientist and technical lead for the Sustainable Textiles Program at Wageningen University and Research (the Netherlands): “Some textiles have become disposable products instead of durable ones. This is strange, when you realise how much effort it takes: from the raw materials, to the fibres, to the yarns, fabric, to the piece of clothing… It is ridiculous that we use them only a few times and then throw them away. They are also so cheap because we use cheap materials, like synthetics, and use cheap labour. We really should value textiles more as durable products, only then this will change.” – Read the full interview with Paulien Harmsen
Textile consumption per average person in the EU (in 2020) has been reported to require 400m² of land, 9m³ of water, 391kg of raw materials, and incur a carbon footprint of 270kg.
The exact impacts also depend on the types of fibres used. Fossil-based polyester fibres cause micro-plastic pollution when washed, with 8% of European micro-plastics polluting the oceans coming from synthetic textiles. Chemicals used in the dyeing and finishing processes of fabrics also contribute to pollution.
The problem looks to unravel even further, as experts estimate that EU consumption of clothing and footwear will increase by 2030 to 102 million tonnes.
Putting sustainability in style
To kick the wardrobe waste, circular business models and design need to be ‘en vogue’, so that companies make better quality clothes designed for durability, reparability and recyclability.
Diego Peñaloza, senior life cycle assessment researcher at the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE): “we need to make sure that the products are made of good quality and can have a long life and be used many times. Then we can really have something that fulfils its function with a lower environmental impact and is truly more sustainable.”
Read the full interview with Diego Peñaloza
When it comes to circularity, rethinking and reducing consumption should be prioritised, followed by reusing and repairing to extend the lifespan of clothes, and then recycling. While recycling has a role to play in closing the loop, it requires money and energy, and is technically complex.
Blended fabrics are popular for making cheaper clothes with the different qualities of the fibres used, but recycling blended fabrics is complicated. Different fibres need different recycling processes and so blended fabrics must be separated and sorted before being recycled. This is why the design stage of a clothing product is the most crucial to ensure it can be circular and sustainable.
“You cannot buy something that’s really cheap and then expect that it will also have a second life and can be recycled in the end; this is only possible with good quality products and that’s what the industry should make. I also believe that in a sustainable system, clothing is more expensive than it is now”, says Paulien Harmsen. She also pointed to how the use of natural fibres like hemp and linen can produce more sustainable options.
Consumer awareness is also important, so that people can make conscious decisions about the quality and origin of clothes they buy, although lack of information and green washing claims can make this difficult.
Europe’s textile strategy
In the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, the European Union laid out its objectives to tailor a thriving circular economy by 2030 where textiles are durable, recyclable and produced sustainably, with fast fashion out of fashion.
A targeted revision to the Waste Framework Directive proposes an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for all EU textiles. Producers would be responsible for paying for textile waste management and the cost adjusted to the environmental performance of the textiles to discourage fast fashion practices and incentivise designing better quality clothes for circularity.
The Eco design for Sustainable Products Regulation that came into force in July 2024 introduced the Digital Product Passport. This aims to empower consumer choice by detailing product origins, environmental impact, repairability and recyclability. The proposed Green Claims Directive aims to protect consumers from misleading claims about the sustainability of products, including textiles.
As part of this strategy, the Horizon Europe funding programme has launched calls for more projects to develop more circular and sustainable textile technologies and processes.
For example, the EU-funded New Cotton project saw novel technology developed in order to recycle textile waste into a man-made fibre very similar to cotton. Diego Peñaloza, from RISE, which was part of the project consortium, highlights the project’s value: “the fact that the output, made of end-of-life textiles, is so close to cotton and they were able to put it on the market through the project; that means we could successfully have a permanent loop.”
Overall, Peñaloza feels positive about the amount of research being done, and the funding available for textiles. He notes that, “Policies are very important, as are companies, as they’re the ones who put out the products. However, I think us as consumers, we need to be smarter, not only in the awareness of the environmental impact of the clothes we wear, but also of the quality of the products we buy. If companies are forced to take responsibility, then that will increase the prices of garments, especially those of lower quality, which will make consumers think more about their pockets, that is the most effective way to affect consumer behaviour.”
Related content:
• A scientist’s opinion: Interview with Diego Peñaloza on textile and the environment
• A scientist’s opinion: Interview with Paulien Harmsen on textile and the environment