Sinking, tabitha labrato chase adler

It’s time to stop polluting our oceans.

by tabitha labrato photographer chase adler fashion editors bijan adili, jonathan santos, diane fish

As the emergence of industries such as fast fashion or one-wear items become the social norm in the name of all things trendy, it is easy to be fashion-forward instead of future-forward. Many believe that there is no harm in buying an entirely new wardrobe for every season if they can afford it, such as celebrities or fashion icons, and that cutting back would not make a difference. I hate to burst your Burberry bubble, but that is far from the truth. The fact of the matter is that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world after the Petroleum industry. While cotton, one of the two most popular fibers found in our clothes today, only amounts to 2.4% of the world’s cropland, it still consumes 10% of all agricultural chemicals and 25% of insecticides. As harmful chemicals enter soils and waterways, they quickly contaminate freshwater and destabilize ecosystems. Not only are chemicals released by the croplands that materials are grown, but toxic chemicals are also commonly released from textile factories as well, increasing the amount of water polluted by big companies. Wastewater containstoxic substances such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, among others, that are extremely harmful to the aquatic life and the health of the millions of people living by those rivers’ banks. These pollutants are toxic to the developing brain and nervous system and can cause congenital disabilities if contact is made with a developing child. Contamination can also reach the sea and eventually spread around the globe.

Water pollution caused by the fashion industry is not limited to chemicals discharged when growing materials. More than a half-trillion gallons of freshwater are used in the dyeing process of textiles each year, amounting to20% of global industrial water pollution. It takes around 7,000 liters of water to produce one single pair of jeans – equivalent to the amount of water one individual drinks in 5-6 years. According to Stephen Leahy from The Guardian, 85% of India’s daily water needs would be covered by the mass of water used to grow cotton in their country; 100 million people in India do not have access to drinking water.

It is also important to note the damage to our waterways that clothing does, even after it is created. Every time we wash a synthetic garment (polyester, nylon, teflon), about 1,900 individual microfibers are released into the water, making their way into our oceans. Scientists have discovered that small aquatic organisms ingest those microfibers. These are then eaten by small fish, which are later eaten by bigger fish that eventually end up on our dinner plates. Scientists have found microplastics in 114 aquatic species, half of which are consumed by humans. One example of a commonly enjoyed seafood snack is mussels, with avid mussel eaters eating up to 11,000 microplastics a year.

Another large problem with the fashion industry lies with how we, as consumers, handle the products. The average lifetime of a garment of clothing today is only three years. That means that, on average, after three years of wearing a particular item, we throw it out because it is “out of style.” The short lifetime the clothes combined with the mass amounts of articles produced each year leads to an astronomical amount of clothes in landfills. Only 15% of our clothing is recycled, so the rest of this makes up 5.2% of landfills that are only textiles/cotton. As landfills get larger, more carbon is emitted, furthering the impending doom that is climate change.

As we inhabit this Earth, we must take it upon ourselves to be conscious of how we treat the place we call home. While fashion is significant in popular culture, expensive one-wear items would not be as sought after if audiences did not merely expect them from celebrities; as more fans romanticize unsustainable brands, more carbon is admitted, more garments are discarded, and less time on this Earth is promised.