How fast fashion fuels climate change, plastic pollution, and violence, P4

Shidonna Raven
13 hours ago
1 min read

By Helle Abelvik-Lawson

September 22, 2023

Photo Source: Unsplash

So the use of synthetic fabrics is a huge part of fashion’s role in climate change.

Clothing is a source of microplastics

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 it’s left to break down in landfills, it pollutes the air, soil, and water with plastic microfibres and hazardous chemicals.

Each year, half a million tonnes of plastic microfibres shed from washing plastic-based textiles such as polyester, nylon, or acrylic, ending up in the ocean. That’s the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles.

Microplastics are everywhere – they moult off our fleeces into the air we breathe, and drain out of our washing machines and into the oceans.