The 21st century is a consumerism driven era, one’s affluence is determined through the clothing they wear, the brands they can afford and its relevance in the current stream of trends in the fashion industry. I noticed this behaviour at a young age when kids my age would boast about their brand-new pair of Nikes. It reminds me of watching the movie adaptation of Sophie Kinsella’s book, Confessions of a Shopaholic. Rebecca Bloomwood, the protagonist of the movie, is flooding with credit card debt but cannot resist the urge to shop. In the scene wherein we see her and people alike in a Shopaholics Anonymous meeting she quotes, “I love shopping, is there something so wrong with it? The rush you feel when you swipe your card and it is approved that it all belongs to you.”
Shopaholsim and Fashion Brands:
Based on research done at Stanford University, just seeing an image of a product you like, opens dopamine receptor channels in your brain. This rush of dopamine sends a sense of gratification to a person while making a purchase. Brands, especially fast fashion brands, use the role of advertising, strategic pricing and constantly changing trends to keep the consumers constantly wanting more, playing on the idea of “if you don’t have it now, you will never get it again.” This eventually leads to sales for the company, but the consumers are left with a closet full of things out of which only 30% gets worn.
It is estimated that more than 80 billion items of clothing are manufactured in a year. By the year 2050 the global clothing sales will more than triple in amount. The Global Fashion Agenda and Boston Consulting Group predicted that by the year 2030 a staggering “102 million tonnes” of textiles will be manufactured in a year, a 64% increase from the year 2015 when 62 million tonnes were produced. If the fashion industry keeps growing at the rate it is now by the year 2030 we will have to use 35% more land and 50% more water than what is being used to manufacture clothing today. It takes approximately 200 gallons of water to make the jeans you are wearing; close to 285 showers and 2,700 litres of water to make your favourite t-shirt, the same amount of water you drink within 3 years of your life.
Cotton Demand and Water Consumption:
The fashion industry utilises a large amount of cotton. A 2015 report by European Clothing Action Plan (ECAP) accounts that more than 43% of cotton being manufactured is for clothing. Cotton requires plenty of water, production of one kilogram of cotton requires 10,000 litres of water. Annually, 250 billion tonnes of water is used just to produce cotton. Most of the raw fabric needed for the manufacture of clothes is cultivated in developing countries of the world which suffer from medium to high levels of water shortage. Cultivation of cotton is drying up water bodies, like the Aral Sea on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, once the largest inland water bodies, had lost half of its water by 2005 and exposed 30,000 km2 of its sea bed because of irrigation channels. Stephen Leahy of The Guardian noted that over 100 million people in India do not have access to clean drinking water, yet it is one of the largest producers of cotton in the world, in 2019 India produced 5.7 million metric tonnes of cotton, 85% of water shortage and daily consumption needs of Indians would be covered by the water utilized in its cultivation.
It also requires a lot of pesticides for ample yield of the fibre to supply for the demand of clothing, about 10% of the pesticides made in the world is used for cultivation of cotton. Alternatively, the use of Organic Cotton has increased since the concept of sustainable and ethical fashion came into the limelight of the industry, using organic cotton for the manufacturing of clothing only causes a quarter of the environmental impact. The water footprint of cultivating organic cotton is 10% lower than conventional cotton, there are no fertilizers or pesticides used in its production, reduces soil erosion and has a considerably lower rate of emission of CO2. However, organic cotton has 10-20% less yield. Currently, the demand of organic cotton has surpassed the supply with almost 3.6 billion tonnes of organic cotton being produced as compared to 18 million tonnes of conventional cotton in a year. This is a deadly reminder of what this demanding industry is doing to the natural resources of our planet. As the demand for clothing increases as the population rises, the scarcity of water will lead to a dilemma in the cotton-growing countries between choosing water for irrigation or clean water for drinking.
If we reduce the cotton production in the world by 30% an estimated € 18 billion can be saved in annual water savings. Alternate fabrics, such as synthetic material, are as harmful to the environment as cotton, like the petroleum-based fibre, Polyester or Nylon. Even though they utilize less water in production, it can discharge about 700,00 microplastic fibres in a single household wash. Microfibres are small fragments of plastic that, over time, accumulate in the water and in the bodies of aquatic creatures. The use of Polyester had increased from 8.3 million in 2000 to 21.3 million in 2016. Fibre production requires a large number of chemicals in the manufacturing of garments for dyeing, bleaching and wet processing which is usually dumped directly in water bodies without any treatment. More than 8000 synthetic chemicals are used to turn raw fabric into clothing with approximately 200 tonnes of water used to produce 1 tonne of dyed fabric. The fertilizers used in the cultivation of raw fabric leads to unnecessary amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil that can lead to nutrient bleeding that runoff into the water bodies. The result is excessive algal growth on the surface of water that shrinks the supply of sunlight and the amount of oxygen in the water. Organic and inorganic materials such as mercury discharged from processing factories to water bodies cause bioaccumulation in aquatic life and alter the food web.
Where Do We Go From Here?
As I go back to the example of Rebecca Bloomwood, Yes, there is a problem with liking shopping. We are substituting a sense of emptiness within ourselves by the immediate satisfaction of receiving the package from our recent online shopping spree. Consumerism has seeped as a part of our daily lives, festivals and special occasions, which increases the number of items manufactured daily, therefore increases the amount of solid waste produced in the world. This lowered price tag on clothing as well as ease in buying through online shopping has led to a larger humanitarian and environmental crisis than the momentary pleasure of owning a new pair of shoes. The current fast fashion industry is driven by profit, with a linear economic channel the idea of “throwaway fashion” has become very common. If the overconsumption of fashion continues we will drain all the natural resources in order to get a new pair of denim or a dress. Garments should be manufactured with the idea of what is better for the bottom line and the death of the garment. The industry should move to a circular economic chain wherein the garments are produced with its death in mind, they should be produced with non-toxic dyes and completely biodegradable or compostable. This will require a complete reformation of the production chain including making long-lasting garments, with investment in sustainable methods of cultivation of raw materials and educating the consumers of ethical buying and consumption of garments. As Libby Peake of the Green Alliance says:
“Slow fashion is the only sustainable future for the industry and the planet.”
We need to produce better and buy less, this will lead to a better future for fashion.
Written By Maithreyee Arun
[Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay]
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