fashion brief: problematic sustainability
Apparently, sustainability efforts in the fashion industry aren’t doing that much. This isn’t breaking news, though. This Op-Ed puts it into the best words: it’s not sustainable, it’s “less bad.” Anytime you see the word sustainable in the same sentence with any fashion headline, replace it with “less bad” and that’s a more accurate description of where things are at. To add more fuel to the flame, not only are most of these initiatives not working, but some of them are doing more damage than before. One big trend in sustainable fashion is using deadstock fabric or fabric from recycled plastic bottles. In theory these appear to be sound band-aids for the problems. However, in using these materials that have been cast aside and therefore aren’t supposed to exist, it’s creating a demand for them.
These types of materials are the leftovers of mass-production and by continuing to purchase these materials it gives purpose to their continued existence. In the case of making fabric from recycled plastic bottles, it incentivizes the over consumption of plastic now that there are multiple industries fighting for the plastic. Those plastic bottles can be made into water bottles again, so drink companies are fighting to be sustainable by getting their hands on the recycled bottle with the fashion industry as a new competitor. The real downside is that plastic water bottles can continue to be recycled and made into water bottles repeatedly. But if those water bottles are used to make textile…that’s the end of the recycle lifecycle. Meanwhile, take back programs are practically a scam. Companies are encouraging consumers to come in and drop off their old clothes to encourage them just to buy more that’s going to enter the never-ending cycle of unsustainable clothing.
The issue lies with the brands. It seems that everyone is coming up with marketing solutions to the problem, rather than digging deep to the root of the issue. Overproduction is a massive contributor that none of these initiatives eliminate--some of them actually increase it. Additionally, using haphazard materials of poor quality that end up being dumped within a few months. Brands need to keep sustainability in mind in every part of the journey from idea to sale. Creating on-demand technology for factories to lessen production and creating materials designed to be disassembled and used again.
I had always kind of known that a lot of the sustainability initiatives were bogus, but I never thought to see if they were making a worse impact. The deadstock material thing I get: the material isn’t meant to exist, hence why it was thrown aside, but then by using it a demand is created for something that isn’t supposed to be there due to overproduction. Which then just results in further overproduction. That concept was too difficult to comprehend. I didn’t stop to think that recycled plastic materials could be causing harm instead. I had always questioned the legitimacy of it actually helping in any way considering that it was still a material that can’t biodegrade, and it was just going to end up in landfills or the ocean. Didn’t occur to me that by the fashion industry snagging some of these recycled bottles, that beverage companies are then having to produce more plastic bottles because they have less recycled material to choose from. Also, a water bottle can be recycled and made into a new water bottle over and over and over again. But a polyester t-shirt made from recycled plastic? That’s a one and done kind of deal.
