In Australia 6,000kg of clothing is dumped in landfill every 10 minutes. This is the life cycle of polyester T-shirt
In Australia 6,000kg of clothing is dumped in landfill every 10 minutes. This is the life cycle of polyester T-shirt
Many of us are now dressed head to toe in plastic thanks to the invention of cheap and durable textiles like polyester. But the extent of the environmental impact from these garments might surprise you — we've tracked the life cycle of a polyester top from an oil field, through to when you chuc...
Many of us are now dressed head to toe in plastic.
A textile derived from the same non-renewable source as takeaway containers, has grown to make up more than half of the clothes bought in Australia.
Polyester is durable, cheap, and dries quickly. It’s also easy to print patterns on.
It’s commonly used by itself or as a blend with other textiles. It’s used for gym clothes and sports uniforms, party dresses, work attire, and many cheap fast fashion items.
And every purchase is taking an environmental toll.
One Australian study by RMIT found a single 100 per cent polyester T-shirt has a carbon footprint — from creation through to when you dump it in the bin — equivalent to 20.56 kilograms of CO2 emissions (CO2e).
That’s equivalent to driving 140 kilometres. Buy just six tops, and that gets you all the way from Melbourne to Sydney.
So, what’s involved in getting a T-shirt from a fossil fuel, to the one you might be wearing right now? Here’s its journey along the supply chain.
Systemic problems require systemic solutions. Enough of this cop-out environmental policy of shifting blame to consumers, we need to put the onus on producers and importers.
48Agreed. Why can I buy this t-shirt for $4.50? https://www.kmart.com.au/product/plain-crew-neck-tee-s140827/
8Also those shirts are so shit that after a few dozen times of wearing the neck is all stretched and curly and look like crap that you essentially have to throw it out (or repurpose as a rag)
5
Australians buy on average 56 new garments a year or 14.8kg of textiles.
Excuse me what?! Does the average Australian buy an item of clothing more than once a week?
I doubt our family of four between us would purchase 56 items of clothing in a year. Maybe in the 40's (10ish items each)?
15Clearly the statistics include fast fashion georg
8Maybe it’s socks.
8Seriously, I doubt I've bought 56 new garments over the last decade. If you include the clothes that I already owned as of 10 years ago, I have probably owned less than 3 years worth of garments over the last decade. It's not that I couldn't afford it, it's just...I don't know why I would throw away perfectly good clothes?
7And here I am contemplating if I should throw my 18 year old singlet out as it’s a bit ratty on the neckline now.
4Maybe that is a household figure or something? Or maybe it's actually the total across the entire country divided by the population, which would include many pieces of clothing companies buy, not individuals?
4I’m very confused by this statistic
2It would be interesting to know if returns were taken into account as well. I know these days certain brands will not only delivery the clothes you purchased to you, they will come and collect the clothes you decide you don't like. These clothes are sometimes repurposed but often just thrown out as well. The below article discussed this. I can remember seeing an article more specific to Aus a while back but this is the best I can find for now.
Edit: spelling and grammar
1
I definitely try to aim for more durable clothing. A lot of my friends are into op-shopping, but that only suits particular demographics and body types. I have a few friends that get flow hippy-wear which is apparently sustainably sourced material (whatever that means), but those clothes tend to be both more expensive and less durable. Also, more durable clothing tends to be warmer because of the heavier weave, which is making me dread summer (Perth). idk what do as an individual. (my shirt that I have 10 of says it is 100% cotton)
9I think bamboo is a good up and coming fabric. Bamboo grows like a weed so it's pretty sustainable and I'd say it's pretty durable as well. I've got some bamboo work socks a couple of years ago and they are still going hard. Super soft and comfortable too.
I don't think there are heaps of options available in terms of shirts and shorts, pants, etc yet. I'd say the ones that are out there would be more expensive than polyester or even cotton. But hopefully as the industry grows they get cheaper.
Edit: I think bamboo breathes really well too. Well it at least seems to with those socks I have. So it could be a good fabric for hot weather too.
6I have bamboo sheets and they are great for hotter weather. I find them quite cool.
2
Future op shops will probably one day be dreading the lack of retro cool clothes for their sweet as profits.
6Wow that's a much bigger impact than I'd considered. Do you know the environmental cost of a cotton alternative? You seem like someone who might have that answer lol
6I cant say for certain, but I can definitely speculate. I do know cotton requires a fair amount of water to grow, but I don't think it would use as many petrochemicals in the production. Though it would still use some, even if that is just in the supply chain through things like diesel for trucks and ships. The chemicals they use (like pesticides) may be derived from petrochemicals, but even if they aren't they could be damaging to the environment in many other ways. So I think polyester could have the greatest emissions of the two.
I guess it could depend on the scale of production too. Like if we were to try and replace all polyester clothing with cotton, that could have a massive impact due to the amount of land and water needed to produce such quantities of cotton clothing and such. But at the same time, creating clothes out of plastic isn't going so well either.
Ultimately we will probably still have to have some diversity materials for sustainable clothing production. It will really come down to a balance of land use, water use, what uses the least amount of chemicals, and probably a lot of other considerations.
7It's complicated to calculate precisely, but cotton is widely considered to be almost as awful as polyester. Production takes up huge areas of land and a bunch of water, and the carbon footprint (depending on production type and how it's calculated) can end up being roughly the same as polyester. Here's a Guardian piece for more info.
There are some efforts to push for more sustainable cotton production, and it is making a change. So buying organic/sustainably sourced cotton could possibly half the climate footprint without any visible change to the material - it's not necessarily just a green washing marketing trick.
As with everything else, the best you can do is to make sure you don't buy more than you need, that you make sure to keep things as long as they can last, and repair them whenever possible. The lowest climate footprint you're going to get is obviously from the clothes already in your wardrobe; the follow-up is buying second hand. It's beyond obvious, but it bears repeating.
4There's also the fact that cotton does not shed microplastics. Afaik textiles & car tires are part of the biggest contributors globally.
For clothes in general, I try to buy from proper brands now though. All those cheap brands might be a cheaper purchase, but in my experience they fall apart so quickly and are often also cut weirdly which does not make them fit well, that you always end up buying more than when you could've just gotten a better quality product (not talking about overpriced stuff where you pay premium for the brand name alone).4
One certainly doesn't break down into microplastic though
1
im doing my part by wearing visibly old and 'ratty' clothes. as long as its in one peice, it has a place. and if something somehow reaches the end of its genuine useful life, it goes into my rag bin for use as a rag (and here ive only thrown out a few rags that have exceeded their uses)
5I'm here still wearing a 20 year old Veritas t-shirt I got at a conference. I bought some warmer underwear when I moved from Australia to Canada. Nothing gets thrown out until it's worn transparent and then "thrown out" means moved to the garage to use as rags. I really really don't get the whole disposable fashion thing.
5Carbon footprints are a joke.
Go after the companies pumping this harmful shit out, anything less is an attempted distraction from the cause.
4Aussies be like
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