LONDON FASHION WEEK 2024: We have the tools to solve fashion’s plastic problem. Let’s use them.

Blog
Written By Becky Root

By Adam Root, Founder and CEO at Matter

Fashion is a mainstay of human civilisation. But despite this inherent nature, the way in which we interact with the clothes on our back has drastically altered. The 1920’s had flappers, the 70’s flairs, but it’s only in the past two decades that we have thrown ourselves into a model of consumption that favours quantity above all else.

The global fashion industry has exploded to a $1.7 trillion business[i]. Some 300 million people are employed somewhere along global fashion’s value chain,[ii] and the industry is a catalyst for economic growth. But where once we reused and repaired, we have become accustomed to a chronic short-termism that favours low quality and exponential production. Fast fashion has undercut the principles that we once held as the norm. A shirt or jacket is discarded before being repaired; we instead opt to discard before we reuse.

Today for every five garments produced, the equivalent of three end-up in landfill or are incinerated.[iii] Garments are a leading source of microplastic pollution too. Recent research reveals that during the pre-consumer manufacturing stage, approximately one T-shirt is lost to microfibre pollution for every 500 produced[iv]. Meanwhile, at the consumption stage, studies indicate that up to 700,000 microplastic fibres can be released from clothes during each washing cycle before entering sewage networks, posing significant harm to people and the planet.[v]

Matter has been actively tracking microfibre emissions throughout the pre- and post-production stages, and the scale of such is shocking. One-third of the world’s ocean-based microplastics originate from textiles and clothing – contributing to some 171 trillion microplastics floating in our oceans right now.[vi][vii] Microplastics have been found in the blood of nearly 80 percent of those tested in a Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam study, with research suggesting they may cause cancer and mutations to DNA.[viii]

The problem is clear, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Brands are undoubtably moving in the right direction. With 87 percent of fashion executives believing sustainability regulations will impact their businesses in 2024[ix] and consumers increasingly demanding change, they don’t really have a choice but to at least consider their environmental impact. But moving from pilot to scale is of course difficult for a brand that may have a supply chain that spans the globe.

Sustainability teams cannot be the only ones pushing for change within a brand. Circularity must be a core principle of any vision of the future for the industry. The current attitude is to give people the clothes they want now but will never wear again, but clothes aren’t designed to be used once, to be washed, to go to landfill. There is a huge gap between what they’re designed for and what is actually happening.

The textiles industry has a profound opportunity to be at the centre of a transition from a broken linear model to a real circular economy. But this transformation won’t happen without certain key elements.

Brands need to forge a new relationship between manufacturer and customer. This will be one where manufacturers retain responsibility for the clothes they produce long after a shipment has left the factory. This would mean a model in which the products you manufacture remain on your balance sheet and remain your responsibility even after they have fulfilled their use for the consumer. To make this happen the consumer would rent a product from the manufacturer and be given the impetus to return it afterwards. And because the manufacturer retains its responsibility for the product throughout its life, they are incentivised to manufacture products that last - free from the toxic microplastics that endanger the planet and human health.

If we are to see the shift to materials that are reused year on year, they must be returned, raw materials release must be captured and brought back into the supply chain, and legislation must require brands to uphold a level of long-term responsibility that cannot be avoided.

We urgently need to see real transparency right across the supply chain to see this – from the textiles brands themselves right through to every tier of their supplier base. Vast quantities of plastic fibres are released during the manufacturing process of garments and to address such a problem, you must be able to measure the scale. You must acknowledge the footprint of your business. Ultimately, this catalysing transparency will only be fostered through technological innovation from industry, education and global legislation.

The technology to measure and capture microfibres are available - Matter is already working with brands to do so. The data and evidence of fashion’s impact is continuing to rise year on year. Legislation, whether it be Extended Producer Responsibility regulations at a domestic scale, or a UN Global Plastics Treaty are being increasingly being drafted and enforced.

We have the tools for change, we just need to use them.

 
Becky Root
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