200 tonnes of waste a year: the inside story of the fight to regulate UK "fast fashion"

“I didn't even know this existed!” exclaimed my flatmate as she pulled a jumper out from the depths of her wardrobe.

Did you know that every Briton spends over £980 on new clothes every year? A recent study released by LABFRESH placed the United Kingdom as the fourth-largest producer of textile waste in Europe. Think overflowing wardrobes, towering landfills and over 200 tonnes of waste per year.

In total, they estimated that in 2015 EU citizens bought 6.4 million tonnes of new clothing and over half of that ended up in landfills. One can only begin to imagine the effect that has on our environment.

As the age of fast fashion continues to grow, prices fall and consumerism festers. This is the cycle that governs the textile waste crisis. With brands such as Zara churning out 24 new collections each year, buyers begin to see clothing as perishable goods that should be thrown out once they are no longer “in.”

The textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world, second to oil, and due to our unconsciously persistent desire for the new, the environmental impact is immense. The production of raw materials is responsible for a large share of this environmental impact, with cotton accounting for more than 43 per cent of all fibres used for clothes on the EU market.

Umair Zaveri, Director of Alliance Ginneries Ltd, a company specialised in cotton ginning, told Prospect that the biggest factor for waste is fast fashion where garments are affordable but not made to last. Unfortunately, businesses run on margins, and sustainability doesn't quite go hand-in-hand with maximising profits.

That’s why one University of Warwick student and co-founder of startup Icycle, Jonathan Karl, urged up and coming businesses to disrupt the cycle of consumption and waste. New start-ups can provide sustainability while still maintaining functionality and aesthetic in their products—something Icycle has proved possible through their 100 per cent recycled plastic glasses. But remaining sustainable can make it hard to keep up with an ever-evolving industry where trends have an expiry date.

[su_pullquote]“Often brands don't want to be transparent because then you have to be transparent about everything”[/su_pullquote]

A recurring word in discussions around sustainability is “transparency.” Salwa Zaveri, who has worked with Cotton Made in Africa which promotes sustainable cotton practices with Alliance Ginneries Ltd, highlighted the importance of marketing sustainability from the cotton picked to the label on the garment. “Often brands don't want to be transparent because then you have to be transparent about everything,” Zaveri told Prospect. It can be frustrating to know that “these big labels have the means to be sustainable but are happy making high profits for quite average quality garments.”

When asked what our next steps should be in combating textile waste, founder of sustainable British streetwear, One for All, Joe Hassett, simply said “research.” As consumers, it is our duty to know what we are buying instead of mindlessly sifting through clothes racks or scrolling through online sales. The fashion industry is a two-way process; change our habits and we will start to see a change in the world’s leading labels. When it was found that H&M were using child sweatshop labour in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Cambodia, there was a public outcry, and H&M kicked off their 2018 with over £3.3 billion worth of unsold garments. But buying tactfully and sustainably is harder than it sounds, with many UK brands not knowing themselves where their cotton comes from and how it is produced.

There are three big players in the fashion industry: the brand, the consumer and the government. Both Umair and Salwa Zaveri are of the opinion that the government was the only regulatory body who had the power to stop fast fashion, through import and export sanctions. But it is also the case that, with most large business rooted in several locations, stopping imports in one country would simply divert their market elsewhere, limiting the power of any one government to force change. BlackRock Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink told Bloomberg that the “biggest risk” in forming a carbon-neutral economy is being too dependent on the government to take action—since they are not equipped to handle the task alone.

The textile waste crisis has no intention of slowing down unless a global effort is made. Through LABFRESH’s data we are reminded of our obligation to shop responsibly despite it costing a little extra. We only have to turn on the news to Australia's raging bush fires to find out what will happen if we don’t.