Exclusively, if we talk about the fashion retail industry, textiles and clothing are manufactured from eastern to western world in an industry that has great economic influence, but increases a lot of burden to our natural resources.
So, just look around and notice, possibilities are, you’re wearing something made out of fabric material and might also be sitting or standing surrounded by other textile products. Textile is so important in our lives but in last three decades, this industry became a significant part of our lifecycle with countless fiber innovations and their diversified applications and uses.
Let’s start thinking step by step, the farms! the first stage, that grow raw materials and use to make fabrics, including crops like flax, hemp and cotton, demand a lot of rainwater. Furthermore, cotton is exceptionally thirsty plant. In addition, to protect these valued crops, farms also use good enough amount of insecticides (pesticides and herbicides) eventually end up in the environment. Cotton, again, a big culprit, being one of the highest pesticide-intensive crops in the planet.
Now, let’s talk about synthetic or man-made fabrics like polyester and nylon. These textiles are made from petrochemicals and fossil fuels, which requires lots of water and energy. Manufacturing of nylon also creates greenhouse gasses that damage the air we breathe. And synthetic fabrics are not biodegradable, means something built of nylon can take years to decompose. Now, consider some other types of textiles, also use up a lot of natural resources such as manufacturing an artificial textile material, rayon, formulates from wood pulp, results in the loss of many old-growth forests. And during the process of forming the fabric, the pulp is treated with dangerous chemicals that ultimately find their way into the environment.
And this is not it! the whole process of fiber to fabric, also includes fabric’s aesthetics and functions enhancing activities like bleaching, dyeing and washing that use lots of H2O. These processes yield salts, surfactants, which help dyes absorb fabrics, and other surface-active agents like detergent that don’t decompose, end up in our water.
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