Or it might be by joining up with communities that sell, swap, rent, mend or upcycle – like Sustainable Fashion Week. It could also be through making: learn to sew, crochet or knit to see just how much work goes into making one simple garment. There’s clearly a huge problem here. These plastics not only pollute the environment – they are even getting into our bodies through water and food, with still unknown impacts on health. the mandatory return of containers that turn out to be filled with low-value textiles by exporters, coupled with fines; and,

Plastic is made from oil and gas. Polyester is a thread made from plastic, woven into fabric. It’s thought over half of the clothes produced today use synthetic materials like polyester. The upcycling and reuse culture in Accra is a great example of what a more sustainable and circular fashion industry could look like.

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But the sheer volume – and poorly constructed fast fashion items that aren’t made to last – means a lot of it is impossible to use and upcycle. Waste: Deficiencies in the UK’s recycling system means that a large majority of this will likely end up in landfill. Some of it will reach our environment before then: petroleum-derived fabrics make up a large amount of the trillions of microfibres that are showing up in our rivers, oceans and food systems – a recent study found that an average 6kg wash releases over 7 million microfibres. There is something rather heartening in this admission, though. As uncomfortable as it is to read about such moments of sartorial disaster and distress (as well as a good dose of defiance), they demonstrate that it's not unusual to endure a moment of rising panic in a suit that leaves us itchily out of place or a skirt that misreads the room. They understand that to exist in public is to potentially feel vulnerable, and that a dress really can make or ruin an evening. As many of us find ourselves navigating new wardrobe choices and the watchful eyes of others once more after a year of minimal socialising, this thought isn't altogether reassuring. However it does offer solace in reminding us that if our garments suddenly make us feel ill at ease, we're certainly not alone. The Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013 sparked a call for change in the global fashion industry. But 10 years on, more than 100 billion clothes a year are made – mostly from oil turned into polyester – by people working in dangerous conditions. This is fast fashion’s impact on people and the planet.

Circular solutions include using fabrics made from recycled ocean plastics, or reusing offcuts of older materials to make new pieces. These solutions limit the need for new fabrics like virgin polyester, or even biodegradable fabrics like cotton, which consumes a lot of water. Because polyester is basically plastic, it takes years to break down. Different synthetic fibres like polyester are often blended to make fabric, making them hard to separate. When we’re none the wiser, we happily pay pennies for ‘bargains’ – and unwittingly let the costs to nature, people and the planet mount to breaking point. The antidote is more conscious fashion production – and consumption We probably know this. But it’s become too easy to ignore. Dangerous, low-paid work for ‘disposable’ clothes President Richard Nixon wore long pants and wingtips to the beach, and was soundly ridiculed for it.

So how can individuals actually make a difference?

It’s a cliche to say that we can’t shop our way out of a climate catastrophe but it’s absolutely true,” said Pham, the professor at Pratt. “The popular emphasis on individuals knowing where their clothes are made and who made their clothes–as ways of buying ‘better’–obscures the reality that the problems with the global fashion industry aren’t individual bad brands that just need to be called out. The problems are structural and systemic,” she said. The truth is, we live in a global economic system that sees the exploitation of people and the environment as a fantastic opportunity to make huge profits. The numbers are stark: only 10–30% of clothes you donate to the charity shops will be sold by them and charity shops are so overwhelmed with clothing that’s basically waste. So where does all this clothing go?

This might look something like: H&M pretending to be able to recycle clothing using its “Green Machine”. But they know it’ll never happen at scale, because it’s so much cheaper to landfill or burn it. Or fast fashion brands Shein, Zara and Pretty Little Thing’s new resale platforms. These moments of fashion disaster pierce the reader because they capture the cruelty of other people's judgments – whether real or imagined – and convey the acute anxiety of standing out in all the wrong ways. This is an anxiety that fashion thrives on, both as an industry (what else are trends but designations of "right" and "wrong"?) and a cultural system that frequently relies on dress codes, uniforms, and an unspoken understanding of what is considered appropriate and attractive. No wonder it sometimes all feels a bit crushing. As well as being inexpensive, polyester doesn't crease and can be washed at low temperatures. However, the laundry process also releases tiny fibers known as microplastics, which can be harmful to marine life. While polyester lasts for years, longevity is a double-edged sword — clothes can be worn many times but will likely end up in landfill, and don't biodegrade.of Mitumba imported to Kenya is of such bad quality that it cannot be sold anymore, meaning in 2019, Kenya had to deal with 150–200 tonnes of fashion and textile waste per day. They don’t even want to reveal how many clothes they actually produce each year. 100 billion pieces a year is an estimate from a decade ago, before the explosion in ultra-cheap, disposable fashion from companies like Boohoo and Shein. Finally, we can develop a deeper connection with our clothing, to slowly but surely change the way fashion works for us – either as individuals or together. Firstly, we can hold companies accountablefor their promises. For example, the UK’s Green Claims Codemight offer a way to call out companies that promise “green” collections or “recycled” garments.

Fresh analysis of more than 10,000 clothes reveals the colossal amounts of plastic going into the clothes we wear. Traders and tailors in Accra’s Kantamanto market work hard to repurpose and sell the clothing that arrives on their shores. This doesn’t mean eliminating the use of plastics in clothing entirely — but it does mean using it carefully. We can no longer use plastics to create poorly-made garments which are designed to be worn only a handful of times. Other materials, such as cotton and viscose, can also create environmental problems, so ultimately it is the scale of production that needs to change.”We buy more clothes per person in the UK than any country in Europe. Around 300,000 tonnes of used clothes are burned or buried in landfill each year. In response to these findings, the RSA is calling for new measures to curb fashion’s plastic usage, including: So what are H&M and Zara going to do? They’re going to just keep recycling stuff. They kind of tweak things all the time anyway. They have something in red? They make it in blue. And you know, what in the end do we mostly wear? T-shirts and jeans. At any given moment of the day, half the planet is wearing jeans. The first table you see when you walk into [Uniqlo or Zara] is jeans. That’s their bread and butter—it’s like when you walk into a luxury store and you see handbags. So they’ll just keep making jeans.