'Dead white man's clothes': The dirty secret behind the world's fashion addiction
For decades, the West's unwanted fashion has made its way to used-clothing markets in Africa. Now it's fuelling an environmental catastrophe.
Fast fashion
Fashion’s efforts to go green cancelled out by shopaholics
Wrap report says 12% reduction in carbon impact negated by 13% rise in textiles produced and sold
While the companies involved have managed to reduce both the carbon intensity and volume of water per tonne used in their clothing manufacture, in its annual progress report, published today, the climate action NGO warns of hard-won gains being “cancelled out” because clothing production is “spiralling upwards”
Textiles and fashion are responsible for up to 10% of global carbon emissions. Catherine David, Wrap’s director of behaviour change and business programmes, said the progress made by 130 brands and retailers involved showed “it’s possible to change this”. But that at the moment, “as fast as positive improvements happen, they’re cancelled out by rising production”.
The companies had reduced the carbon impact of their textiles by 12% and water by 4% (on a per-tonne basis) between 2019 and 2022. However, this was negated by a 13% increase in the volume of textiles produced and sold, according to the report. The increased production rates meant overall water use actually rose by 8% over the period, while the carbon reduction figure stood at just 2%.
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Chile’s Atacama Desert: Where Fast Fashion Goes to Die - EcoWatch
Deep in the Atacama Desert of Chile, new dunes are forming — not of sand, but of last year's unsold clothing from around the world. Piled high atop the previous year's fast fashion casualties and unpurchased lines of clothes, the garments are usually filled with toxins and dyes and do not biodegrade. The result: a fast fashion faux-pas....