Fashion - the untrendy disaster #9

Hi Human!

Welcome to Survivaltech.club’s newsletter! It’s time for Expedition - deep dive #7. This time we are making a deep dive into the fashion industry.

I am not a big fashionista myself. I like to spend my free time anywhere other than in shopping malls.

However, the next week’s interview guest at Survivaltech.club inspired me to take a closer look at it. (Stay tuned for next week’s interview with an awesome founder, who is tackling fashion waste!)  

The unpleasant realization

The more I’ve read about the fashion industry, the more shocked I’ve been by it. I knew that the fashion industry had many problems. But, I hadn'trealized how severe these problems were.

In previous deep dives, I’ve mainly been concerned about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of different sectors and solutions to reduce those emissions. However, when looking at the fahsion industry, one cannot neglect its other terrible environmental consequences (pollution to freshwater, clothing waste).

Lastly, I want to point out that the fashion industry has severe social and ethical problems. Many workers have unsafe working conditions, are working inhumane hours with a salary that is not enough to live with, and are treated terribly.

Furthermore, the EU and the USA ship most of their clothing waste to several African and Asian countries..  

Even though I am focusing on the environmental factors of the fashion industry in this newsletter for the sake of Survivaltech.club’s mission, I want everyone to be aware of its severe social and ethical problems.

The curse of fast fashion

The story goes back to the beginning of the 2000s when the fashion industry invented its lucrative new strategy: fast fashion.

You can feel the extreme pace of it yourself. Whenever you walk to H&M or Zara, you always face new clothes with the latest trends. Instead of having four collections (spring, summer, fall, winter), fast fashion giants produce 52 collections each year. One for each week.

Fast fashion relies on “cheap manufacturing, frequent consumption, and short-lived garment use”.

Since the 2000s, clothing sales have doubled, while clothing utilization has declined.

Growth of clothing sales and decline in clothing utilization since 2000 (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017)

The fashion industry produces over 100 billion garments of clothing every year. However, we nowadays wear our clothes 36% fewer times on average than in the beginning of the 2000s, which significantly increases the GHG of these garments.

The linear model - from oil fields to landfills

The introduction of fast fashion has been damn lucrative for fashion retailers but detrimental for the planet and humanity.

Producing clothes and footwear is an energy and resources intensive practice.

Firstly, one has to grow either a plant (cotton) or (sheep, silkworm) or extract fossil fuels from the bottom of the sea (oil → polyester and other plastic-based/synthetic fibers). Then the fiber is turned into fabric and finally, into a garment.

You would think that as the supply chain of garment manufacturing is long and takes up a lot of energy and resources, we would not waste any more resources.

But that's unfortunately not the case. Altogether 87% of all the produced clothes end up in landfills or are burnt. The fashion industry is said to employ a linear model of production (Niinimäki, 2018).

12% is lost already before usage in factory offcuts and as overtstock liquidation (some garments are shockingly just burnt by fashion brands).

Only 13% of textile fibers are recycled into new materials and products. The vast majority (12% of fibers) is turned into lower-value applications like insulation and wiping cloths.

The scale of fashion’s problems for humanity

The fashion industry causes every year:

1. GHG emissions: 4-5 Gt of CO2 emissions (8-10% of all CO2 emissions)

Most GHG emissions originate from upstream operations like raw material production (38%) and preparation and processing (33%) (McKinsey & Company and Global fashion Agenda, 2020).

2. Textile waste: 92 million tons

See the earlier section "the linear model - from oild fields to landfills"

3. High usage of freshwater: 79 trillion liters

For more information, see Pulse of the Fashion Industry report in 2017.

4. Water pollution: 20% of global industrial water pollution

Textile treatment and dying are using highly toxic chemicals. The used chemicals are toxic for the environment as well as for humans. For example, the traditional viscose process uses carbon disulfide as a solvent.  

5. Microplastic: 500,000 tonnes of plastic microfibers leak into the ocean  

63% of all produced fibers are made out of plastic. A common plastic-based fiber is polyester. When consumers wash their clothes, tiny plastic microfibers are released from these clothes and end up in the ocean.

These numbers are so colossal that I am having trouble understanding their scale...  

Fiber types on the molecular level

Now let’s have a look at fibers. And, of course, on a molecular level at Survivaltech.club style!

Fibers can be divided into three categories:

1. Plastic-based / Synthetic (from oil)
2. Cellulose-based (from plants)
3. Protein-based (from animals)

1. Plastic-based fibers

Plastic-based, also known as synthetic fibers are today the most common source of our clothes. 63% of all clothes are plastic-based (made from oil). Polyester is the dominating plastic-based fiber. The demand for synthetic, fossil-based fibers is predicted to keep rising.  

Chemists call plastic a synthetic polymer. A polymer is a macromolecule (macro = large) consisting of many smaller units, monomers. There are many different types of polymers like there are ice-cream flavours. For example, polyester contains an ester functional group in its repeating unit.

For further science, check out this video on polymers by CrashCourse  

Want to see how nylon is made? Check out this video by NileRed.

2. Plant-based fibers

Plant-based fibers are derived mainly from the cotton plant (27% of all textile fibers).

Plant-based fibers are made out of cellulose, an important structural building block of plants. Cellulose is a polysaccharide, a type of carbohydrate. A polysaccharide is a long linear chain of monosaccharides. The monosaccharides are bound together by glycosidic linkages.

That was a lot of scientific terms, so check out at this point this great introductory video into biomolecules by Amoeba Sisters [especially carbohydrates and proteins are relevant for understanding plant-based and animal-based fibers].

3. Animal-based fibers

Animal-based fibers refer to fibers from animal sources like wool and silk. These animal-based fibers are a minority in fiber production, comprising only 2% of all fibers used.

Animal-based fibers are made out of proteins (just like your hair!). Proteins are complex macromolecules that consist of amino acids.

Proteins are incredibly fascinating structures and play many important roles also in our human bodies! Check out this video about protein structure and folding by Amoeba Sisters.  

Now, how do these different types of fibers compare to each other in terms of environmental impact?

‍

Note that plant-based and animal-based fibers are biodegradable if no substances of concern are used in producing them. On the other hand, plastic-based fibers are not biodegradable and are contributing to the microplastic problem in the oceans.  

Bast fibers (linen, hemp, jute) seem to be a great option from an environmental perspective. They require only a little water and fertilizers to grow. In addition, they can be grown on land that is unsuitable for food production.  

I was especially shocked by the relatively high CO2 emissions of wool. However, when you think about it, this makes sense. Making wool requires a large, methane-burbing mammal, a sheep, to live in a dedicated land area.  

“A New Textiles Economy” - report by Ellen MacArthur Foundation has a great overview of common textile materials in their Appendix A.

This Youtube video by Mr.Hainey Science explains well the differences between fibers on a molecular level.

Pioneering science-based startups and companies

Tackling the environmental problems of the fashion industry offers numerous opportunities for science and startups.  

Here are some of the science-based startups and larger companies that I’ve been following. All are tackling the problems of the fashion industry with science.

• Bolt Threads - Making alternative leather from mycelium
• Infinited Fiber - Turning cellulose-rich waste into new textile fibers (cellulose carbamate fiber)
• Kleiderly - Converting fashion waste into eyewear
• Spinnova - Turning wood pulp and leather waste into textile fibers. A recent IPO last June.

Shocking documentaries and investigative journalism

The following documentaries and videos have been produced by Yle, the Finnish national television channel and producer. All documentaries include English subtitles. However, Yle may limit access to these documentaries to Finland.

All of these videos and documentaries were eye-opening to me. I highly recommend watching them.

• Yle (2020). Blood, tears, and T-shirts - documentary series [Verta, hikeä ja T-paitoja].
• Yle MOT (2020). Tracing used clothes [Käytetyn vaatteen jäljillä].
• Yle MOT (2021). The irresponsible clothing rally [Vastuuton vaateralli].

‍

Further reading

• A New Textiles Economy by Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017)
• Fashion or Climate report by McKinsey & Company and Global Fashion Agenda (2020)
• Sustainable Fashion in Circular Economy, edited by Niinimäki (2018)

Cool science videos

• DoS - Domain of Science (2016). The Map of Physics.

Questions that I left wondering

• What on Earth is happening in the fashion industry? How has humanity been able to create such a monster?
• What could be the most effective way to achieve the combination of slashed GHG emissions, reduced water pollution, and reduced microplastics in the ocean?
• Why is there no more recycling of used clothes into textile fibers? How could most common fibers, polyester and cotton be best recycled? Started reading on this here (Chapter 9).  
• Why aren’t bast fibers used more extensively in fashion? What could be done to them to help their wider adoption as an alternative to polyester and cotton?

I hope you enjoyed this week's newsletter and learnt a ton!

I would love to hear any feedback or ideas from you! Email me at pauliina@survivaltech.club.

Until next week!

Best,

Pauliina

Sources

• Amoeba Sisters (2016). Biomolecules (Updated). Link
• Amoeba Sisters (2018). Protein Structure and Folding. Link    
• Changing Markets Foundation (2021). Fossil Fashion: The hidden reliance of fast fashion on fossil fuels. Link
• CrashCourse (2014). Polymers: Crash Course Chemistry #45. Link
• Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017). A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future. Link
• Global Fashion Agenda and The Boston Consulting Group (2017). Pulse of the fashion industry. Link
• McKinsey & Company and Global Fashion Agenda (2020). Fashion on climate: How the fashion industry can urgently act to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions. Link
• Mr. Hainey Science. Fiber & Textiles (Chapter 4) - Forensic Science. Link
• Niinimäki, K. (2018). Sustainable Fashion in a Circular Economy. In Niinimäki, K. (Ed), Sustainable Fashion in a Circular Economy, 12-41. Aalto University. Link
• Niinimäki, K., Peters, G., Dahlbo, H. et al. (2020) The environmental price of fast fashion. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 1, 189–200. Link
• NileRed (2017). Making nylon. Link
• Siegle, L. (2018). Destroying Unsold Clothes Is Fashion’s Dirty Secret. And We’re Complicit. Huffpost. Link  
• Yle (2020). Blood, tears, and T-shirts - documentary series [Verta, hikeä ja T-paitoja].
• Yle MOT (2020). Tracing used clothes [Käytetyn vaatteen jäljillä].
• Yle MOT (2021). The irresponsible clothing rally [Vastuuton vaateralli].