IPSIA G. MARCONI ORTONA
Ed.Civica
ADILE e AURORA
MICHELLE, ELSA e GIUSY
BENEDETTA e FRANCESCA
KREMENA, SUNSHINE e GEMMA
NATASCIA
ELFATINA
FAST FASHION
SUNNY ARIGLIANI
"Fast fashion” is simply a term used by fashion retailers to describe clothes that are inspired by recent style trends seen on celebrities and on the runway for an affordable price for the average consumer. Because of how fast retailers need to keep up with demands for these styles, they often cut costs that increase their carbon footprint.
The apparel industry accounts for 10 percent of global carbon emissions and remains the second largest industrial polluter, second only to oil. Fast fashion items are often worn less than 5 times, kept for roughly 35 days, and produce over 400 percent more carbon emissions per item per year than garments worn 50 times and kept for a full year.
One of the most common fabrics used to make fast fashion is polyester due to its low-cost, versatility, and wrinkle-free properties. But it's also a synthetic petroleum-based fiber, meaning it is made from a carbon-intensive non-renewable resource.
More than 70 million barrels of oil are used to make polyester each year. And not only does making polyester negatively impact the environment in a huge way, but the fabric isn't biodegradable, meaning when it gets thrown out, it ends up in landfills where it takes over 200 years to decompose.
KOLLONI ELFATINA
Fashion’s Environmental Impacts
The fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world just after the oil industry. And the environmental damage is increasing as the industry grows.
However, there are solutions and alternatives to mitigate these problems. The first step lies in building awareness and willingness to change.
GEMMA LANNUTTI
In most of the countries in which garments are produced, untreated toxic wastewaters from textiles factories are dumped directly into the rivers.
Wastewater contains toxic substances such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, among others. These are extremely harmful to the aquatic life and the health of millions of people living by those river banks. The contamination also reaches the sea and eventually spreads around the globe.
Another major source of water contamination is the use of fertilizers for cotton production, which heavily pollutes runoff waters and evaporation waters.
Natascia Langianese
What can we do about it?
Choose clothes made in countries with stricter environmental regulations for factories (EU, Canada, US...)
Choose organic fibers and natural fibers that do not require chemicals to be produced.
AURORA DI NARDO
The fashion industry is a major water consumer.
Huge quantity of freshwater is used for the dyeing and finishing process for all of our clothes.
Also, cotton needs A LOT of water to grow (and heat), but is usually cultivated in warm and dry areas. Up to 20,000 liters of water are needed to produce just 1kg of cotton. This generates tremendous pressure on this precious resource, already scarce, and has dramatic ecological consequences such as the desertification of the Aral Sea, where cotton production has entirely drained the water.
ADILE KASA
What can we do about it?
Choose fibers with low water consumption such as linen, recycled fibers, etc
MICHELLE MASCIARELLI
Every time we wash a synthetic garment (polyester,nylon, etc), about 700.000 individual microfibers are released into the water, making their way into our oceans. Scientists have discovered that small aquatic organisms ingest those microfibers. These are then eaten by small fish which are later eaten by bigger fish, introducing plastic in our food chain.
FRANCESCA TARABORRELLI
A recent study is also showing that wearing synthetic fibers is releasing plastic microfibers into the air. According to the study one person “could release almost 300 million polyester microfibres per year to the environment by washing their clothes, and more than 900 million to the air by simply wearing the garments”.
BENEDETTA SAVINO
What can we do about it?
Choose natural or semi-synthetic fibers
Wash clothes only when you need to
Wash clothes at a lower temperature (30ºC)
KREMENA TSUTSEKOVA
The apparel industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions.
The global fashion industry is generating a lot of greenhouse gases due to the energy used during its production, manufacturing, and transportation of the million garments purchased each year.
Synthetic fibers (polyester, acrylic, nylon, etc.), used in the majority of our clothes, are made from fossil fuel, making production much more energy-intensive than with natural fibers.
Most of our 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.
GIUSY RISO
What can we do about it?
- Choose natural fibers
- Buy less, buy better quality, mend clothes
- Buy clothes made in countries powered by more renewable energy
ELSA ZELA
The soil is a fundamental element of our ecosystem. We need healthy soil for food production but also to absorb CO2. The massive, global degradation of soil is one of the main environmental issues our planet is currently facing. It presents a major threat to global food security and also contributes to global warming.
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.
What can we do about it?
Choose fibers friendly to the soil
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 loss of forests is threatening the ecosystem and indigenous communities, as in Indonesia where large-scale deforestation of the rainforests has taken place over the past decade.
What can we do about it?
Choose Lyocell/Tencel® instead of rayon, modal or viscose.
Inhumane working conditions
Most of our clothes are made in countries in which workers’ rights are limited or non-existent. In fact, production sites are regularly moving location, on the lookout for ever cheaper labour costs.
We often hear company owners saying that "for these workers, it is better than nothing”, “at least we give them a job”, and to a certain extent, they are right. But it is also right to say that they are exploiting the misery and taking advantage of poor populations who have no choice but to work for any salary, in any working conditions. Even the European Parliament is using the term “slave labour” to describe the current working conditions of garment workers in Asia.
We know that if working conditions improve in one country, companies will just move to another. We believe that we cannot expect much from the corporate world or from governments if consumers do not push for a change.
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IPSIA G. MARCONI ORTONA
Ed.Civica
ADILE e AURORA
MICHELLE, ELSA e GIUSY
BENEDETTA e FRANCESCA
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