ECF Circular Fashion Education Toolkit

Online Learning Resources for Students and Teachers

 

Clothing pollution and textile waste

Fashion is one of the most glamourous industries in the world – but you might be surprised to learn that it’s one of the world’s most polluting industries too. Making our clothes uses up large amounts of valuable natural resources, including water, land, trees – even oil! Many of these resources are now in short supply and some are also non-renewable, meaning that when they’re used up, they’ll be gone forever. If not used properly, some of these resources can actually be dangerous for our health, as well as endangering animals and our planet.

In this module, we’ll take a deep dive into fashion’s impact on the environment. We’ll learn more about the pollution and waste that clothes manufacturing causes, as well as understand how these issues affect both people and our planet.

 
 

Guiding Questions of this Module

  • How do our clothes affect the environment, locally and globally? How do our clothes contribute to pollution, waste and climate change?

  • How do our clothes affect people and communities around the world, for example people who live near clothing factories? How does the way that they use their environment differ to how we use our local environment? Why does that make those people more vulnerable to the effects of pollution, waste and climate change from clothing?

  • How do our clothes affect animals like marine life and rainforest animals?

  • How is this relevant to the lives of students? What can students do to reduce their own “fashion footprint”?

 

Curriculum Links

Units of Inquiry:
Sharing the Planet, How We Organise Ourselves, How the World Works

Subjects:
Social Studies, Language & Arts, Maths, Science, Design & Technology

Units of Inquiry:
Sharing the Planet, How We Organise Ourselves, How the World Works

Key Topics

Material matters: The eco-impact of clothes production

  • All our clothes are made from thin strands of material called fibres.
  • These fibres are usually divided into two main groups:
    • Natural fibres like silk, cotton, linen and wool are made from plants or animals, and are harvested by farmers;
    • Synthetic fibres like polyester, nylon and acrylic are usually made from oil, by humans using chemical processes;
    • Semi-synthetic (or regenerated) fibres are a combination of both of these – they come from natural materials but are man-made using a chemical process. One example of this is viscose, which comes from a special type of wood pulp.
  • Polyester is the most commonly used fibre in our clothes. Cotton is the second most common.
  • Even though "natural" sounds like it should be better, there can be problems with both natural and synthetic fibres.
  • Growing natural fibres uses lots of land, water, animals and chemicals – like pesticides, which keep pests that damage the fibres away, but can be dangerous if not managed properly. There are also ethical concerns around some natural fibres, for example fur, which uses the pelts or coats of dead animals.
  • Synthetic fibres use less land and water than natural fibres, but on the other hand, produce more of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming – a polyester shirt actually has double the carbon footprint of a cotton one!
  • Synthetic fibres are made from oil – a non-renewable resource – and producing them uses lots of energy and chemicals. They are also a type of plastic, meaning they are slow to decompose in landfill.
  • Engineers, brands, textile mills, farmers and certification bodies throughout the fashion chain are working to reduce the impact of these traditional fibres. Examples include switching to organic cotton grown without toxic chemicals, using responsibly-harvested wood pulp from renewable forests for cellulosic fibres, or producing wool by regenerative agriculture that prioritises healthy soil. They are also developing innovative new fibres made from all sorts of materials (like pineapple husks and mushrooms) which have less impact on the environment. You can learn about these innovations in Module 3.

The lay of the land: deforestation, land use and biodiversity loss

  • The overuse of land to produce fibres like cotton, wool and viscose contributes to deforestation, soil depletion and biodiversity loss.
  • Cotton, the second-most commonly used fibre in our clothes, comes from cotton plants that require large amounts of land to grow. For example, it takes around ten square metres of land to produce the cotton needed for just one pair of jeans! Producing conventional (non-organic) cotton also uses fertilisers, pesticides and insecticides, threatening soil quality and biodiversity around cotton fields.
  • Cellulosic fibres like viscose and rayon come from wood-pulp, and if the forests where the fibres are sourced are not managed in a responsible way, making these fibres can put tree and animal species at threat. We log over 150 million trees a year to make these fibres.
  • Wool and leather require grazing land for sheep and cattle. Livestock overgrazing for leather and wool production can lead to soil depletion; for example, the expansion of cashmere goat herds to produce textiles has caused extensive degradation of Mongolia’s native grasslands.
  • As the amount of clothing we produce increases, so does our need for land; land use for fibre production is expected to grow up to 35% by 2030.

The role of chemicals in clothing production

  • The fashion and textile industry uses around 25% of all chemicals produced globally, including pesticides used for cotton farming, fertilisers, dyes, water-repellent coatings and anti-wrinkle treatments.
  • If toxic chemicals aren’t well-managed, they can contaminate air, water and soil, causing harm to the workers handling them and the environment. For example, the decline in bees has been linked to the use of pesticides and insecticides; as bees pollinate food crops, this could put global food security at risk.

A deep dive into freshwater scarcity

  • Freshwater is also a scarce resource. Of all of the water in the world, less than 3% is drinkable (fresh), and 2.5% of that drinkable water is frozen in Antarctica, in the Arctic and in glaciers. This means that we rely on just 0.5% of all of the world’s water to serve the freshwater needs of the world’s population.
  • Producing clothing consumes a lot of freshwater, from growing natural fibres like cotton, to production processes like dyeing, washing and finishing fabrics (including washing clothes at home).
  • Producing just one conventional cotton T-shirt uses up to 2,720 litres of water. That’s approximately the same amount of water you drink in 3.5 years!
  • The fashion industry’s intensive water use contributes to global water stress, especially as cotton is primarily grown in arid regions of India and China.
  • This threatens farmers’, factory workers’ and surrounding communities’ basic human right to clean, safe water for washing and drinking.
  • Today, around 2.2 billion people around the world do not have access to safely managed drinking water services and three billion people do not have access to basic handwashing facilities.

The murky truth about water pollution

  • Fashion manufacturing can also pollute clean water; unregulated textile factories dump water polluted by dyeing and washing fabrics back into local water sources, leaving communities without safe water to drink and bathe in.
  • Fashion is the second biggest overall polluter of clean water worldwide, after agriculture.
  • Many governments try to protect waterways from pollution by introducing laws that make it illegal to dump contaminated water. However, clothing is often produced in places where problems like corruption make enforcing these laws difficult, such as Bangladesh.

Microplastics and oceans: from fashion to the food chain

  • The majority of clothing we wear today is made from plastic-based synthetic fibres such as polyester, nylon and acrylic.
  • When synthetic fibres are washed at home, they shed microplastics – extremely small plastic particles – into waterways that feed into the ocean. Microplastics can also come from other plastics like water bottles and plastic bags, which don’t disappear when thrown away but rather breakdown into microplastics when exposed to the sun, sea and waves.
  • Microplastics pose a danger to the marine life who ingest them and in turn, people who eat seafood.
  • On top of the plastic being used to make our clothes, there is even more plastic pollution in the fashion industry from clothes hangers, jewellery, sunglasses, and plastic bags, which are used not only when we purchase clothes, but are also widely used during production when clothes are transported from one location to another.

Emission impossible: energy, greenhouse gases and climate change

  • While turning off lights or using public transport all help reduce our personal carbon footprint, carbon is also embedded in things we use and consume, including our clothes.
  • The fashion industry is responsible for up to 10% of the world’s CO2 emissions.
  • One key issue is the production of polyester, which as we have learnt is the most commonly used fibre in our clothes and is actually a type of plastic made from oil.
  • Around 70 million barrels of oil are used annually to make polyester clothing fibres – equivalent to the oil that a Boeing 747 would burn over 81,666 ten-hour flights. The process of extracting oil and converting it to polyester is energy-intensive and causes high levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Another key issue is transporting clothes by ship or plane between farms, factories and retail stores worldwide. Clothing production happens across many countries; your T-shirt might be designed in England, using American-grown cotton, then stitched together in India, before being shipped to the country where you purchase it.
  • Climate change threatens everyone, but especially vulnerable farmers who may lose the ability to grow crops like cotton, and therefore their income. This is because climate change isn’t just about the planet warming – it also affects weather patterns and rainfall.

Textile waste: think before you throw

  • Globally, one rubbish truck of textiles is either burned or sent to landfill every second.
  • In Hong Kong, we send 339 tonnes of textiles to landfill every day, about half of which is clothing – that’s around 170 tonnes of clothing, or the equivalent of 1.2 million T-shirts, daily.
  • This figure includes clothes that people no longer want or need in their wardrobes, for example casual or going out clothes, sports or school uniforms, fancy dress costumes, pyjamas, socks and underwear. It also includes “dead stock”, the clothes that fashion brands couldn’t sell in-store; this happens when brands produce more clothing than people want to buy.
  • Clothes can take a very long time to decompose in landfill, especially polyester clothing which, as it’s made from plastic, can take over 200 years to break down – almost the same as plastic water bottles. During decomposition, they also release greenhouse gases and other harmful pollutants into the air and land.
  • These mountains of clothes in landfill don’t just represent wasted clothes, they represent all the wasted resources that went into producing them, including land, water and energy.

NGO, business and Government actions: making a change worldwide

Material matters: The eco-impact of clothes production

  • All our clothes are made from thin strands of material called fibres.
  • These fibres are usually divided into two main groups:
    • Natural fibres like silk, cotton, linen and wool are made from plants or animals, and are harvested by farmers;
    • Synthetic fibres like polyester, nylon and acrylic are usually made from oil, by humans using chemical processes;
    • Semi-synthetic (or regenerated) fibres are a combination of both of these – they come from natural materials but are man-made using a chemical process. One example of this is viscose, which comes from a special type of wood pulp.
  • Polyester is the most commonly used fibre in our clothes. Cotton is the second most common.
  • Even though "natural" sounds like it should be better, there can be problems with both natural and synthetic fibres.
  • Growing natural fibres uses lots of land, water, animals and chemicals – like pesticides, which keep pests that damage the fibres away, but can be dangerous if not managed properly. There are also ethical concerns around some natural fibres, for example fur, which uses the pelts or coats of dead animals.
  • Synthetic fibres use less land and water than natural fibres, but on the other hand, produce more of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming – a polyester shirt actually has double the carbon footprint of a cotton one!
  • Synthetic fibres are made from oil – a non-renewable resource – and producing them uses lots of energy and chemicals. They are also a type of plastic, meaning they are slow to decompose in landfill.
  • Engineers, brands, textile mills, farmers and certification bodies throughout the fashion chain are working to reduce the impact of these traditional fibres. Examples include switching to organic cotton grown without toxic chemicals, using responsibly-harvested wood pulp from renewable forests for cellulosic fibres, or producing wool by regenerative agriculture that prioritises healthy soil. They are also developing innovative new fibres made from all sorts of materials (like pineapple husks and mushrooms) which have less impact on the environment. You can learn about these innovations in Module 3.

The lay of the land: deforestation, land use and biodiversity loss

  • The overuse of land to produce fibres like cotton, wool and viscose contributes to deforestation, soil depletion and biodiversity loss.
  • Cotton, the second-most commonly used fibre in our clothes, comes from cotton plants that require large amounts of land to grow. For example, it takes around ten square metres of land to produce the cotton needed for just one pair of jeans! Producing conventional (non-organic) cotton also uses fertilisers, pesticides and insecticides, threatening soil quality and biodiversity around cotton fields.
  • Cellulosic fibres like viscose and rayon come from wood-pulp, and if the forests where the fibres are sourced are not managed in a responsible way, making these fibres can put tree and animal species at threat. We log over 150 million trees a year to make these fibres.
  • Wool and leather require grazing land for sheep and cattle. Livestock overgrazing for leather and wool production can lead to soil depletion; for example, the expansion of cashmere goat herds to produce textiles has caused extensive degradation of Mongolia’s native grasslands.
  • As the amount of clothing we produce increases, so does our need for land; land use for fibre production is expected to grow up to 35% by 2030.

The role of chemicals in clothing production

  • The fashion and textile industry uses around 25% of all chemicals produced globally, including pesticides used for cotton farming, fertilisers, dyes, water-repellent coatings and anti-wrinkle treatments.
  • If toxic chemicals aren’t well-managed, they can contaminate air, water and soil, causing harm to the workers handling them and the environment. For example, the decline in bees has been linked to the use of pesticides and insecticides; as bees pollinate food crops, this could put global food security at risk.

A deep dive into freshwater scarcity

  • Freshwater is also a scarce resource. Of all of the water in the world, less than 3% is drinkable (fresh), and 2.5% of that drinkable water is frozen in Antarctica, in the Arctic and in glaciers. This means that we rely on just 0.5% of all of the world’s water to serve the freshwater needs of the world’s population.
  • Producing clothing consumes a lot of freshwater, from growing natural fibres like cotton, to production processes like dyeing, washing and finishing fabrics (including washing clothes at home).
  • Producing just one conventional cotton T-shirt uses up to 2,720 litres of water. That’s approximately the same amount of water you drink in 3.5 years!
  • The fashion industry’s intensive water use contributes to global water stress, especially as cotton is primarily grown in arid regions of India and China.
  • This threatens farmers’, factory workers’ and surrounding communities’ basic human right to clean, safe water for washing and drinking.
  • Today, around 2.2 billion people around the world do not have access to safely managed drinking water services and three billion people do not have access to basic handwashing facilities.

The murky truth about water pollution

  • Fashion manufacturing can also pollute clean water; unregulated textile factories dump water polluted by dyeing and washing fabrics back into local water sources, leaving communities without safe water to drink and bathe in.
  • Fashion is the second biggest overall polluter of clean water worldwide, after agriculture.
  • Many governments try to protect waterways from pollution by introducing laws that make it illegal to dump contaminated water. However, clothing is often produced in places where problems like corruption make enforcing these laws difficult, such as Bangladesh.

Microplastics and oceans: from fashion to the food chain

  • The majority of clothing we wear today is made from plastic-based synthetic fibres such as polyester, nylon and acrylic.
  • When synthetic fibres are washed at home, they shed microplastics – extremely small plastic particles – into waterways that feed into the ocean. Microplastics can also come from other plastics like water bottles and plastic bags, which don’t disappear when thrown away but rather breakdown into microplastics when exposed to the sun, sea and waves.
  • Microplastics pose a danger to the marine life who ingest them and in turn, people who eat seafood.
  • On top of the plastic being used to make our clothes, there is even more plastic pollution in the fashion industry from clothes hangers, jewellery, sunglasses, and plastic bags, which are used not only when we purchase clothes, but are also widely used during production when clothes are transported from one location to another.

Emission impossible: energy, greenhouse gases and climate change

  • While turning off lights or using public transport all help reduce our personal carbon footprint, carbon is also embedded in things we use and consume, including our clothes.
  • The fashion industry is responsible for up to 10% of the world’s CO2 emissions.
  • One key issue is the production of polyester, which as we have learnt is the most commonly used fibre in our clothes and is actually a type of plastic made from oil.
  • Around 70 million barrels of oil are used annually to make polyester clothing fibres – equivalent to the oil that a Boeing 747 would burn over 81,666 ten-hour flights. The process of extracting oil and converting it to polyester is energy-intensive and causes high levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Another key issue is transporting clothes by ship or plane between farms, factories and retail stores worldwide. Clothing production happens across many countries; your T-shirt might be designed in England, using American-grown cotton, then stitched together in India, before being shipped to the country where you purchase it.
  • Climate change threatens everyone, but especially vulnerable farmers who may lose the ability to grow crops like cotton, and therefore their income. This is because climate change isn’t just about the planet warming – it also affects weather patterns and rainfall.

Textile waste: think before you throw

  • Globally, one rubbish truck of textiles is either burned or sent to landfill every second.
  • In Hong Kong, we send 339 tonnes of textiles to landfill every day, about half of which is clothing – that’s around 170 tonnes of clothing, or the equivalent of 1.2 million T-shirts, daily.
  • This figure includes clothes that people no longer want or need in their wardrobes, for example casual or going out clothes, sports or school uniforms, fancy dress costumes, pyjamas, socks and underwear. It also includes “dead stock”, the clothes that fashion brands couldn’t sell in-store; this happens when brands produce more clothing than people want to buy.
  • Clothes can take a very long time to decompose in landfill, especially polyester clothing which, as it’s made from plastic, can take over 200 years to break down – almost the same as plastic water bottles. During decomposition, they also release greenhouse gases and other harmful pollutants into the air and land.
  • These mountains of clothes in landfill don’t just represent wasted clothes, they represent all the wasted resources that went into producing them, including land, water and energy.

NGO, business and Government actions: making a change worldwide

Individual Actions

Even though the fashion industry’s problems are enormous, there are still plenty of ways us individuals can take action and make a difference. For example, keeping our clothes in use for longer is hugely beneficial to the environment. It means that all the precious resources that went into making our clothes, such as land, water and cotton, are not wasted after only a few wears. Wearing and buying secondhand clothes creates a much lower carbon footprint than buying from new – and if we all do this, think how much of a difference we could make to the world!

Here are some other positive actions we can take:

As people who buy and wear clothes, we need to take responsibility for reducing waste and pollution. Even just a few simple steps can help – like buying fewer clothes and ensuring that the clothes we have are kept in use for as long as possible.

Refuse to buy things you don’t need and choose to wear what you have instead – after all, the most sustainable item of clothing is the one you already own! Studies show that if we doubled the length of time that we kept our clothes for, greenhouse gas emissions would be 44% lower!

Try reducing the amount of new clothing you buy; instead, consider buying secondhand, swapping clothes with friends, or borrowing items from friends and family. Wearing secondhand clothes has significantly less impact on the environment – not only are you giving new life to clothes that might otherwise have ended up in landfill, you’re also reducing the demand for new clothing, which in turn reduces the drain on resources required for their production… It’s a win-win situation!

Repair broken clothes to keep them in use for longer, rather than just throwing them away. Learning a few sewing basics – like how to sew on a button or hide stains or rips with cool patches – are simple, easy steps that help extend your clothing’s lifespan. Meanwhile, upcycling means repurposing or redesigning something that you would otherwise have thrown away. Examples include cutting old jeans into shorts, turning old T-shirts into tote bags or cutting up old T-shirts to make T-shirt yarn, which can then be knitted into new clothes or art like macramé. There are plenty of how-to videos on YouTube, where you can learn new skills that will help you keep and wear your favourite clothes for longer.

When you grow out of your clothes or don’t like them anymore, try your best to extend their lifespan rather than letting them get sent to landfill – attempt to give, swap or sell them to a new owner, or donate them to a charity who will redistribute them to people in need (always remembering to wash them first!). Re-using and re-gifting clothing both delays disposal and means that the person receiving or buying it doesn’t need to buy new, which avoids using materials and new resources to make new clothing. Consider registering your school for Redress’ Get Redressed Month and get involved by organising a clothing drive, a second-hand pop-up shop or even a Get Redressed Day! Check out our Get Redressed Month School Activity Pack for more information.

Rethink your shopping habits – be mindful of how many clothes you buy, your relationship with your clothes, and their relationship with the earth. Start asking questions about how and where your clothes were made. Get to know the brands you support by visiting their websites and looking for information about their social and environmental commitments; if you can’t find anything, ask them about it! Tell them why you want to know by messaging them via email or social media; the more people who take time to contact brands, the more likely it is that they will take notice – and maybe they’ll even be inspired to instigate change themselves. Choose to support brands that are truly committed to reducing their environmental impact.

Don’t underestimate the difference you can make – if we all made just a few of these small changes to our attitudes and behaviour in everyday life, think how much of an impact our positive actions could have on the whole world!

HOW DO JEANS GET MADE?

Almost everyone owns at least one pair of jeans – but what impact does it have on the world? Our Jeans and the Planet is an interactive website that helps explain the process of how jeans are made, the impact this has on the environment and the inspiring, innovative new technologies that are making fashion more sustainable than ever!

Other Learning Modules

1

More, more, more
Overproduction, overconsumption & fast fashion business models

Key Learning Areas

Exploring overproduction and overconsumption in fashion and understanding how business models, marketing, low prices, online shopping and social media encourage us to buy more.

3

The future of fashion
Innovative technology & circular business models

Key Learning Areas

Discovering how innovative new fibres, manufacturing methods and business models can help us to reduce fashion’s waste and pollution footprint in the future.

EDU

For educators
Ideas to incorporate circular fashion into your teaching

Key Learning Areas

Access our rich library of teacher guidelines and student activity ideas to bring circular fashion into your classroom.

 
 

About Redress

Redress is a pioneering Hong Kong based environmental charity with a mission to educate and empower the fashion industry and consumers to reduce clothing’s negative environmental impact by shifting to circular solutions. Our education programme focuses on educating consumers in Hong Kong of all ages about their fashion footprint and empowering them to drive change through circular solutions like buying more responsibly, donating clothes for reuse, or shopping secondhand.

About the ECF Circular Fashion Education Toolkit

This bilingual education toolkit including a handful of student and teacher resources is funded by the Environment and Conservation Fund and the Environmental Campaign Committee. It was designed in consultation with teachers and curriculum advisors from the English Schools Foundation, the Education Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and our wider network of Hong Kong schools, who provided invaluable guidance, support and feedback.