Did you know Canadians throw out nearly 500 million kilograms (or about a billion pounds) of clothing and fabric-containing home goods every year? Globally, textiles waste has increased dramatically due to the rise in clothing consumption and production.
The way we currently produce clothing and textiles is linear: we take resources, make clothing, and then dispose of them. The materials used to make clothing are often not sustainable and have a large environmental impact. These clothes either do not last very long or are discarded after only a short period of time, after which the materials are mostly sent to landfill or incinerated.
Facts & Stats
- Thinking circular about our clothing and textiles has more benefits than you might realize!
- It improves the wellbeing of our communities by factoring in living wages, creating local jobs, and increasing our resiliency against things like climate change.
- Doing “circular” business becomes more affordable. Materials become cheaper when there is higher demand, so recycled materials become cheaper for businesses to use in their products.
- By being mindful of what and how much we’re buying, and what we do with our clothing after we’re done with them, we reduce our impact on the environment.
- A circular economy for textiles is designed sustainably from the start: clothes, textiles, and fibres are kept at their “highest value” during use. Once these textiles can’t be used anymore in this form, they are reimagined into other useful items, always avoiding becoming waste.
- The rise in production of textiles can be attributed to the rise of fast fashion, with quicker turnaround of new styles, increased number of collections offered per year, and lower prices.
- Canadians on average purchase 70 new articles of clothing a year.
- Designing and producing clothes of higher quality and providing access to them through circular business models—such as rental services, clothing swaps, and repair services—will shift our perception of clothing from being disposable to becoming long-lasting.
- The textile, apparel, and footwear industries have historically been a leading force of industrialization around the world. With their experience and expertise in production, marketing and sales brands are in the best position to pursue and position circular business models as attractive and fashionable options.
- The easiest thing we can do is increase the average number of times our clothes are worn.
- By purchasing clothing made with reused and sustainable materials, we send a clear message to companies that sustainable textile production is important. These practices will become more commonplace if the demand is there.
- Plastics and textiles go hand-in-hand: every time we wash synthetic materials like polyester and nylon, tiny plastic fibres break off and up to 40% of these microfibres end up as ocean plastics.
- By only washing what really needs to be washed, air-drying our laundry when possible, and spot-washing to extend time between washes, we can decrease the wear and tear on our clothing and reduce the amount of microfibres entering our waterways.
- According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation:
- From 2000-2015, clothing production approximately doubled, driven by a growing middle-class population across the globe and increased per capita sale.
- Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing, which is equal to more than USD $100 billion worth of materials lost to disposal each year.
- The textiles industry relies mostly on non-renewable resources – 98 million tonnes in total per year – including oil to produce synthetic fibres, fertilisers to grow cotton, and chemicals to produce, dye, and finish fibres and textiles.
- It is estimated that more than half of fast fashion produced is disposed of in under a year.
- After clothing is used, almost all the value in the materials they are made from is lost.
- Of the total fibre input used for clothing, 87% is landfilled or incinerated, representing a lost opportunity of more than USD $100 billion annually.
- As much as 73% of material going into the clothing system is lost after final garment use, 10% is lost during garment production (e.g. as offcuts) 60 and 2% is sent to landfill or incineration from garments that are produced, yet never make it to market.
- In total, people around the world dispose clothing at a rate equivalent to an entire garbage truck load per second.
- In 2021, a report estimated over 1.3 billion kg (1.3 million metric tonnes) of used and waste apparel were disposed of in Canada. Of this, about 240,000 tonnes were diverted for reuse, though some of this was downcycled into rags—not keeping these materials at their “highest value”.
- South of the border, the United States was estimated to produce approximately 17.3 billion kg (17 million imperial tons) of textile waste in 2018.
- Each year, people consume more than 80 billion pieces of new clothing, making the clothing industry one of the world’s biggest polluters.
- It takes 2,700 litres of water to make one new t-shirt.
- On average, we only wear 50% of our clothes – the rest sits unused in our closets.