SUSTAINABILITY AND FASHION

Do we know that the garbage in the Pacific Ocean is 87,000 tons and covers an area large enough to be called the 8th continent?

Well, while the continent was previously made up of micro-garbage, large pieces of garbage have increasingly surpassed micro-garbage in recent years.

The productions we make in order to live more comfortably and the methods we choose to make these productions expose our world to a waste burden that it cannot cope with. The fact that the waste we create continues to exist in the world as unrecyclable garbage causes rapid environmental pollution. This process, which we cannot control, brings us face to face with problems such as the rapid depletion of the world's natural resources and the extinction of natural life. If we continue to consume at this rate:

• First we enjoy the rain when it falls on our faces,

• The blessings we enjoy when we put them on our table,

• The trees in whose shadow we listen,

• The birds we enjoy with their chirping,

• The streams and lakes in whose waters we play

• We will continue to lose many more natural resources at a rapid pace.

If we don't say stop to this together, we won't have a world to live in.

This is exactly why we are trying to be sustainable in order to improve our alarming health world and prevent it from getting worse. We strive to take the necessary steps to do our part for all sectors and consumers. In the simplest language; What we are trying to do is to reduce our garbage production as much as possible with what we produce and consume in the short term, and to reduce it to zero in the long term.

So what kind of relationship do the Fashion industry and sustainability have?

The main player in environmental pollution in the world is the oil industry, followed by the textile industry, unfortunately.

To better understand, it is necessary to explain the textile industry's share in global pollution with numbers:

• 20 years ago the world population was 6.114 billion. Today it is 7.837 billion. The world population has increased by 22% in twenty years.

• On the other hand, the increase rate of textile production in 20 years is 400%.

• The textile industry produces 80 billion pieces of clothing every year.

• In order to produce and sell this amount, product quality and labor costs must be reduced, and the chemicals used and fashion line must be increased to make a low-quality product feel like quality.

So, let's examine how these products are used after purchase, against all these negative requirements.

Research shows that:

• We own 5 times more clothes than our grandmothers did, and most of the items we buy are not out of necessity but just to stay up to date.

• We only wear every piece of clothing we buy 7 times before throwing it away.

• Most women use 20% to 30% of the clothes in their closets.

• Annual textile waste production of one person in America is 35 kg.

Let's examine the chemicals used in the production of this situation we have reached in textile consumption:

• Greenpeace announced that in its “Dirty Laundry -2” report published by major companies, 11 chemicals that are harmful to human health but are not prohibited to be used were found in 63% of the product groups of the brands.

• For each 1 kg of textile product to have the desired effect, 1 kg of chemicals must be used.

• 23% of all chemicals produced worldwide are used for the textile industry.

• 80% of the world leather industry uses the chemical chromium, which causes ulcers, dermatitis and allergic skin reactions.

Let's examine the use of clean water and wastewater production in the textile industry.

• 20% of the world's wastewater is produced by the textile industry.

• The textile industry consumes 1.5 trillion liters of water every year.

• It releases 200,000 tons of wastewater into the environment every year.

• In Bangladesh alone, 22,000 liters of toxic waste are released into rivers every day.

• 2.6% of the world's clean water is used for cotton production. For our world, where 750 million people do not have access to clean drinking water, this rate is too much to allocate to textile production.

These items I have listed are just the tip of the iceberg, if you want to examine them in more detail, here are the links: Sustainyourstyle, Dirty laundry-1, NYtimes

Due to all these reasons, the world textile industry has entered a period of rapid change. He quickly takes the necessary steps. Major textile brands continue to make the commitments that consumers expect. Positive steps are being taken in this area.

Companies such as Adidas, Nike, Puma, Salomon, On running are leading the way with their investments in ensuring sustainability in their production.

Similarly, Inditex, the most powerful representative of Fast Fashion, also has commitments in this regard.

“A sustainability report by Nielsen in 2015 found that 66% of consumers are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly clothing.

Retail giant Inditex, which owns Zara, announced a sustainability commitment in July, saying it wants all its clothing to be made from sustainable or recycled fabrics by 2025.”

In the same period, new brands started to take their place in the market with sustainable collections made from recycled materials and 'zero carbon' slogans.

At this point, the situation for brands and manufacturers shows that being sustainable is now the primary responsibility of institutions. Brands need to be built based on this awareness of responsibility or quickly implement the necessary transformation plans to be sustainable. Of course, when we consider that many brands whose links are connected to each other do not have production within their scope, all large, medium and small businesses that do subcontract production for these brands need to start this process without wasting time.

When we look at it from the consumer's perspective, the situation is no different. Research shows that consumer movements put an end to fast-fashion. We are changing from a disposable structure to a buy-and-use as much as you need. It turns out that we prefer sustainable products as the new concept of luxury. It seems like there will be no shortage of fashion clothes in the new era... This change in our mindset and the fact that we have become more sensitive to our environment paves the way for changes in production methods.

We are moving from cheap, low-quality and fashionable products to a period of preferring valuable, hybrid and fashionable products.

The fact that we are entering a positive change after all the negative situations at the beginning of my article is hopeful for all of us…

In my next article, I will talk about the work done by brands in this field and how the future of fashion will be shaped in this context.

Wishing you to stay with love and health,

Evrim Berrak