TOP FIVE MOST POLLUTING INDUSTRY
Following petroleum, between garment factories, pesticide use, excessive textile waste, and greater consumer demand, the fashion industry is one of the top five greatest polluting industries to the Earth. With major fast fashion brands who have the ability to produce low quality, low priced clothes at high volume, we are seeing harmful short-term and long-term effects on the people and planet behind it all. But fast fashion isn't only to blame. Worldwide consumption has increased by 400% over the last two decades, while 1/3 of textile waste ends up in landfills.
To know why it's important to take a stand shifting fast fashion to sustainable, here a few statistics to better paint the industry impact.
THE PLANET:
25% of chemicals produced worldwide are used for textiles
Cotton represents more than 50% of total fiber used to make clothing today
More than 90% of this cotton is genetically modified
Nonorganic cotton production is responsible for 18% of worldwide pesticide use and 25% of total insecticide use
It requires 2,000 liters of water to make 1 kilo of nonorganic cotton = 1 t-shirt and 1 pair of jeans
1 pair of jeans = 1,800 gallons of water
The leather tanning process is among the most toxic in all fashion supply chain
THE PEOPLE
1-in-6 people work in the global fashion industry
Majority of garment workers are women earning less than $3 a day ages 18-24 years old
There are 40 Million garment factory workers in the world
97% of America’s clothing production is outsourced
250,000 Indian Cotton farmers have killed themselves in the last 15 years
Partly due to high amounts of debt accrued via genetically modified seed patenting
Leather tannery workers are at 20%-50% greater risk of cancer
Only 10% of donated clothing to charity is sold. The rest is exported to the shores of developing countries.
Source: The True Cost Movie
