THE FUTURE OF TEXTILE MANUFACTURING
Textile Waste Background
The fashion industry is well known for its environmentally harmful practices. In recent years, clothing trends like flannel shirts and denim jackets have give rise to “fast fashion” companies. A “fast fashion” company produces low quality clothing that is in style, frequently changing their product lines to take advantage of ephemeral clothing trends. Some examples of this type of company are Forever 21, SHEIN, Zara, and Gap. Fast fashion brands heavily contribute to textile waste and environmental degradation through their use of low quality and unsustainably sourced fabric. We have decided to examine the waste-management practices of the textile industry to explore ways that we can reduce the industry's environmental footprint. We propose a 15% capital gains tax on the use of non-renewable or environmentally harmful raw materials and the subsidization of sustainable alternatives such as hemp.
Textile Waste
The rise of fast fashion has caused a dramatic increase in the production of textile waste. To better understand the textile waste, it is important to understand the difference between pre-consumer textile waste and post-consumer textile waste. Both of these types of waste contribute to the textile industry’s waste, but in different ways.
Pre-consumer Textile Waste
Pre-consumer textile waste refers to the byproducts generated during the textile manufacturing process. The majority of the hazardous waste produced in textile plants is effluent wastewater containing hazardous chemicals used to refine source materials (EPA, 2002). The manufacturing process is known to be relatively inefficient, with some estimates that 15% of raw materials used during this process are wasted (Niinimaki et al., 2020), although some suspect that the true amount wasted is nearer to 25-30% (Niinimaki et al., 2020). Fabric waste is produced during the cutting process. Certain patterns create more waste than others, and mistakes make it so that the garment becomes waste itself.
“Deadstock” is a type of waste that must be understood in order to obtain the whole picture. This type of waste includes new garments that were unsold or returned that were marked as waste by the company (Niinimaki et al. 2020). These clothes are then incinerated, sent to landfills, recycled, or they end up in the second-hand clothing trade (Bick, Halsey, & Ekenga, 2018). Recently, leading clothing companies around the world have been incinerating millions of dollars worth of unsold inventory over five years (Niinimaki et al., 2020). Burberry, for example, incinerated $108,768,600 worth of clothing as of June 2018 (Niinimaki et al., 2020).
Post-Consumer Textile Waste
Post-consumer textile waste refers to the clothing discarded by the consumers. Short garment lifetime paired with increased consumption contributes to the rapid discard of clothing by consumers (Niinimaki et al., 2020). Remy, Speelman, & Swartz (2016) state that garment purchases increased by about 60% between 2000 and 2014. In 2010 alone, more than 150 billion garments were produced globally (Kirchain et al., 2015). As explained before, the clothing is then sent to landfills, are incinerated, recycled, or ends up in the second-hand clothing trade. Bick et al. (2018) explain how about 85% of the clothing consumed by America ends up in landfills. This is approximately 3.8 billion pounds annually or 80 pounds per American per year (Bick et al., 2018).
As Bick et al. (2018) state, about 500,000 tons of used clothing are exported abroad from the US yearly. These clothes are then either sold in the second-hand market or are sordid, categorized, and re-baled typically by low-wage workers in low and medium-income countries, also known as LMICs (Bick et al., 2018). Sadly, the clothes not sold in the second-hand market become solid waste that has the potential to add environmental health hazards to these countries.
Textile Materials and their Environmental Impacts
Each raw material undergoes a distinct set of processes to refine it into textiles, each affecting the environment in different ways. The sourcing of raw materials and the disposal of used textiles (post-consumer waste) also incur ecological damage specific to each material. Because of this, environmental regulations must factor in an analysis of the impacts of each individual raw material to better mitigate the overall damage caused by the textile manufacturing sector. The three most common raw materials in textile production and some examples of their associated environmental impacts are listed below:
Synthetic Fiber
Synthetic textiles are sourced from petroleum, a non-renewable resource. The manufacturing process emits nitrogen oxide, a greenhouse gas. Synthetic fibers are non-biodegradable, and contribute to microplastic pollution. Some synthetic textiles can be recycled.
Cotton
Contemporary cotton farming techniques involve heavy pesticide use, leading to toxic runoff from cotton fields. This may pollute air water and soil, as well as lead to negative health outcomes. Formaldehyde is used in processing raw cotton, which also poses a slew of health and environmental risks.
Wool
Wool requires raising livestock, which heavily contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and soil degradation. Effluent waste products generated throughout the manufacturing of wool textiles contain soaps used to clean the wool, and manure from raising sheep. Both of these can cause eutrophication in aquatic systems and may lead to adverse health consequences.
Cost Benefit
Cost benefit analysis allows us to measure the benefit of a decision, minus the costs associated with taking action.
Who Pays the Costs?
We the consumers, the workers (employees), animals, plants, sea life, all living things!
Cost Estimates
*visit "policy tool" tab, under "regulatory background"*
All numbers calculated for cotton and wool can be found in the "prices for any textile" tab, right above.
These are real numbers that buyers pay per pound according to FRED Economic Data
Potential Consumer Action
Thrifting
1
What does a future with no changes done look like for the ocean and landfills?
2
Why don't policy makers focus more on this topic knowing how much waste is done?
3
Can I, one person, make a difference?