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How do you feel when you hear the term ‘circular used by a fashion brand? Do you feel better buying a product? Do you fully understand how your item will be reused? This term describes how a product’s end-of-life can be regenerative. But, environmentalists and circular economy experts agree that some fashion brands misuse this term to spark emotions in consumers that it’s okay to buy more; even when their products aren’t circular.
“Whenever activists or environmentalists point to the ecological nightmare that is the modern-day fashion industry, brands respond by telling us not to worry.” They were the first words that activist and founder of the Green Carpet Challenge, Livia Firth, says in her new documentary, ‘Fashionscapes: A Circular Economy’. Her opening statement sets the framework for a documentary that exposes the greenwashing and marketing habits of an industry that has no problem with blatantly lying to consumers.
False advertising isn’t beneficial in the long run. Fashion has such a big impact environmentally, economically, and socially. At its best, this impact can be positive and empowering for communities. At its worst, it can be disempowering to our most vulnerable communities and can have a detrimental impact on our planet. That translates to issues such as poverty wages (a topic discussed in other episodes of Fashionscapes) and plastic pollution by way of our clothing.
Livia’s interviews with researchers, designers, and farmers share their thoughts on how the idea of a circular economy is often just that- an idea sold to consumers without being put into action. But, her film also highlights what happens when brands take steps to design better and the importance of consumers learning to buy less.
The Greenwashing Of Plastic Clothing
One of the central stories the industry continues to tell is the idea that synthetic man-made plastic fibers are somehow more sustainable than natural fibers, leading to the sky-rocketing production of polyester.
Polyester production, a man-made plastic fiber, is on the rise. According to A New Textiles Economy Report, in 2017 342 million barrels of oil were used to make polyester. That number is steadily rising and it turns out that polyester accounts for 80% of fast fashion clothing brands’ items. That’s including brands that claim to have ‘take back’ or ‘circular’ programs. What Livia’s film exposes is that these programs are oftentimes nothing more than advertising campaigns meant to encourage conscious consumers that they can continue to buy more, even if it is harming our planet.
“We are told there is no need to slow down our runway consumption,” she says in the film before leading into a discussion about the ‘pay to play’ studies financed by these very brands to show consumers that it’s okay to continuously buy their plastic-based clothing. “This story is hugely financed and largely unchallenged and gives brands permission to continue producing more than 100 billion garments per year, most of them cheaply made and quickly thrown away.” That’s a lot of plastic.
From Linear To Circular
We use 100 billion tons of the Earth’s resources each year.
Making clothes follows a take, make and dispose model that has used a staggering amount of our planet’s natural resources and has created a staggering amount of waste. This is another point that Fashionscapes makes. “Why are you comfortable killing the world,” Samuel Oteng is an up cycling designer based in Ghana. His statement is a question posed to the CEOs of fast fashion brands. His viewpoint is one that comes from an understanding that fashion is not a closed bubble. It is an entire ecosystem composed of farmers, factory workers, designers, and more. And each of us is impacted by the decisions along this production line. For instance, if pesticides are used in cotton for jeans, that fabric pollutes water resources where it’s grown and the factories where it’s made, and the soil where it’s thrown away after a consumer like you or me is done with it. “If you’re human and living on this planet, you’re supposed to be concerned by this issue,” he says.
Circular fashion, at its best, is a way of thinking and operating that confronts the harm that comes from the take, make and dispose model. Take regenerative agriculture- a mode of farming where crops are rotated to replenish nutrients in the soil. In the film Charles Massy, a wool farmer based in Australia shares how he changed his way of thinking from industrial practices based on generating the highest yield in the shortest amount of time to regenerative farming. “In our case, virtually no fossil fuels, no industrial fertilizers, no harming of the landscape so it is a very green healthy fiber,” he says about his wool. “Regenerative agriculture is healing. It’s bringing the systems back to life.” And, that life results in a fabric that can decompose naturally as opposed to plastic-based fabrics which are the bulk of fast fashion.
What Can We Do As Consumers?
Plastic is a material where you can find a problem at every single stage of it’s life cycle.
One point made in ‘Fashionscapes’ is that plastic is a cheap material that has a big negative footprint. It’s the material that has allowed fast fashion brands to survive. But, our planet won’t, because it is not circular because it cannot be returned to its natural state at its end of life. But, there are alternatives. Natural materials will always trump man-made plastic fabrics on a sustainable scale. And, new technologies rely on plants and modern science to create materials that are truly biodegradable.
As a consumer, the most sustainable thing we can do is to educate ourselves so that we can hold brands accountable for greenwashing about producing polyester garments that we don’t need. And, we can stop supporting these brands. Invest in and hold onto well-made clothes from sustainable and ethical brands instead. Shop your closet first and curate a small capsule wardrobe made of pieces that you can wear again and again, not cheaply made pieces that break apart quickly. We don’t need more clothes to pollute our planet. We need transparent solutions that will heal our planet.
Read more about circular and slow fashion:
Buzzword Breakdown: What’s That Circular Thing I Keep Hearing About?
Designer Tamara Davydova Shares How She Creates Her Circular Fashion Label
Guide: Where To Recycle Your Clothes From The Comfort Of Home
