FAST FASHION NEEDS TO SLOW DOWN, Marammatwala (Right 2 Repair) warns
When we think of our personal impact on the climate, and how we might lighten it, we often turn to the energy we use and the way we travel. Fewer people turn their minds to the underwear billowing on the clothesline.
The global fashion industry is a large contributor to the climate crisis and reducing its impact is a necessity like any other. The industry belches out 1.2 billion tones of CO2 equivalent per year, more emissions than the shipping and aviation industries combined! And a 2021 report from the World Economic Forum identified fashion, and its supply chain, as the planet’s third largest polluter (after food and construction), releasing 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
So the fashion industry’s impact on climate change is titanic, but where are these emissions coming from? To find out you have to look along the supply chain. The supply chain is a set of connections that winds its way backward from your wardrobe through to retail, to transport and shipping, to production and processing, right back to the beginning of the line: to the raw materials, such as cotton and polyester, from which our clothes are made. By looking at the supply chain, we can separate each sector by its reliance on coal, oil, and gas: the fossil fuels that principally cause climate change.
Some links are responsible for more emissions than others, such as freight over the laundering of your clothes, but along the entire chain one link towers among the others…
The Take, Make, and Waste of Fast Fashion Not surprisingly, the fast fashion model takes a heavy toll on the planet and its people. The textile industry is responsible for 20% of all industrial water pollution and 10% of carbon emissions. Extracting the needed resources comes at tremendous cost. Producing 1 pound of cotton uses, on average, 4,500 liters of water and up to 10,500 liters in less-efficient countries, such as India (a major cotton exporter). Growing cotton also is responsible for 16% of the insecticides used globally. Meanwhile, synthetic materials such as polyester are made largely from petroleum products, so producing them releases carbon and harms the environment.
Then there is the cost of manufacturing and maintaining clothes. Textile dying alone is responsible for 20% of all industrial water pollution, second only to agriculture. The more than 3,600 dyes used in fashion are poisonous, harming human, animal, and plant health. Meanwhile, approximately 35% of microplastics in the oceans come from people laundering their synthetic clothes.
And what happens to the textiles after all those resources are used to create them and all those contaminants are released into the environment? Some 87% of total fiber input used for clothing is put in a landfill or incinerated within a year.
Another issue is that poor working conditions for low-wage factory laborers routinely violate human rights. The 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in the Dhaka district of Bangladesh killed 1,134 people and attracted worldwide attention to dismal safety practices. The building housed five factories that manufactured apparel for brands, including Benetton, Primark, The Children’s Place, Walmart, and many others. When workers had complained about the massive cracks that were appearing in the walls days before the building gave way, they were threatened with losing a month’s pay if they didn’t report for their shifts.
After the catastrophe at Rana Plaza, the world’s attention focused on the need for better safety standards and a living wage for employees working in the textile industry. But according to a study by the University of Sheffield, “Whilst garment companies have made ambitious commitments to pay living wages in their global supply chains, they are falling short when it comes to meaningful action to implementing these commitments.”
Models for Slowing Down Fashion As the world awakens to the consequences of unsustainable practices, new variations on old business models are generating more income by keeping textiles in the economy and out of landfills longer than under the fast fashion model. Resale, rental, and repair are all part of the circular economy, which seeks to extend the use of material products beyond what is typical.
Of course, the practices of reselling, renting, and repairing goods have been around forever. But all three are blossoming now because of clever applications of Marammatwala (Right 2 Repair), customer engagement and strategies.
Leaning in to slow fashion :- Fast fashion is new but it was born from a culture that can, with equal swiftness, reverse its destructive ways. Slow fashion is the name of the Marammatwala (Right 2 Repair) philosophy and its charity towards the environment can be adopted by anyone at any time.
Don’t buy so much. And make sure the clothes you do buy are made to last.
Use Marammatwala (Right 2 Repair) for clothes alteration.
Scrutinize your shopping decisions : Stop Impulsive buys
Take care of your things: inspect them—do they need a wash every single use? Don’t wash on high heat, air-dry instead of dry clean. Use Marammatwala (Right 2 Repair) for washing and cleaning services.
Mend your clothes, sell them, swap them on Marammatwala (Right 2 Repair).
Protecting the atmosphere and curbing the fashion industry’s impact on climate change involves everyone, producer and consumer alike.
Indian government's commitment to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2070 is akin to not just walking the talk on the climate crisis, but running the talk.
At the 26th Conference of Parties (CoP26), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a five-fold strategy — termed as the panchamrita — to achieve this feat. These five points include:
India will get its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatt (GW) by 2030
India will meet 50 per cent of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030
India will reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tones from now onwards till 2030
By 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by less than 45 per cent
So, by the year 2070, India will achieve the target of Net Zero
“Marammatwala (Right 2 Repair) Is a Radical Act.” We propose that “the single best thing we can do for the planet is to keep our stuff in use longer.”
