The North Carolina State University study on plastic waste generated by fast fashion
How much plastic waste is produced by the clothing industry? The answer is now available. A recent North Carolina State University study found that in 2019, global clothing consumption produced more than 20 million tons of plastic waste. The worrying thing is that about 40% of the total would have been mismanaged and ended up in the environment. This phenomenon, which we have always called pollution, is now called plastic leakage.
The research has divided textile waste into two categories: clothing made from synthetic materials such as polyester, nylon, and acrylic and clothing made from cotton and other natural fibers. The researchers analyzed data on clothing imports, exports, and production in various countries, comparing them with global information on the different stages of the clothing value chain to estimate plastic dispersion into the environment.
It’s the synthetics’ fault
Synthetic clothing is the largest source of plastic waste, with 18 million tons in 2019. As a percentage, we are talking about 89% of the total plastic waste in the clothing industry. Approximately 8.3 million tonnes of these synthetic wastes could have ended up in the environment. We are talking not only about discarded clothing, but also about waste that arises directly in the phases of production, packaging and the abrasion of the tyres during transport, in addition to the microplastics released during washing the clothes.
Cotton garments have generated 1.9 million tonnes of plastic waste, mostly from packaging. The study also found that much of the pollution occurs in low-income countries, where these products end up in the secondary market. The culture of fast fashion contributes fully to this phenomenon. The use and rapid disposal of clothes is in fact what today afflicts an industry that makes low cost and low quality its distinctive figure.
Of course, among the solutions, the researchers propose switching to clothes made from renewable and recyclable materials and reducing the use of synthetic fibers as much as possible.