The fashion industry’s love affair with synthetic fibres is proving disastrous for the environment. While these fibres may add durability and style to clothing, their environmental footprint is colossal. But how exactly does this contribute to melting ice caps? Let’s take a closer look.
The Environmental Impact of Textile Waste
Textile waste is one of the major contributors to environmental degradation, with petroleum-derived synthetic fibres such as polyester, nylon and acrylic being the worst culprits.
As they are non-biodegradable, these fibres have the potential to remain in the environment for centuries, but not as whole garments. Over time, the fibres break down into particles of less than 5 millimetres, called microplastics. Released into water systems, they travel along streams and rivers to the oceans, absorbing pollutants on their journey. Ingested by marine animals, they enter the food chain.
The manufacturing and eventual degeneration of synthetic fibres both release greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane which are believed to contribute towards the rising ocean temperatures that are accelerating the melting of polar ice caps.
Fast Fashion and Its Role in Climate Change
The development of synthetic fibres has led to the rise in popularity of fast fashion – clothing production that relies on high production volumes to achieve economy of scale. This often results in overproduction, so many garments are sent to waste before they have even hit the shops.
Designed as cheap, short-term commodities rather than well-made, long-term investments, fast fashion garments are worn fewer times and discarded sooner, further adding to the accumulation of textile waste and the amount of microplastics released into the environment each year.
Textile Disposal: Landfills and Ocean Pollution
As we have previously commented, textile disposal has become a global environmental issue of gigantic proportions. Western nations have donated or sold discarded clothing to African countries and India, where enormous landfill sites overflow with garments that nobody wants or needs. In an effort to reduce the pressure on landfill sites, some textile waste is incinerated – another cause of environmental pollution. Textiles that are neither sent to landfill sites nor incinerated are blown by winds or carried along waterways until they reach the oceans.
Our oceans play a crucial role in absorbing carbon dioxide, but this process is disrupted by the same microplastic pollution that endangers marine life. As a result, atmospheric carbon levels, another contributor to global warming, are increased.
How Avena’s Textile Shredding Service Reduces Carbon Emissions
While the overall outlook on synthetic fibre pollution is bleak, companies such as Avena are stepping up to tackle the problem. Offering a sustainable solution by transforming textiles into reusable materials, their textile shredding service reduces waste and minimises carbon emissions. By shredding surplus and discarded garments, Avena prevents them from ending up in landfills or being incinerated, which in turn decreases methane and carbon dioxide emissions.
As the Avena process allows a high percentage of shredded textile fibres to be spun into new yarn, it also reduces the demand for new fibre production, leading to a decreased need for raw materials and the energy required to produce them. Lower-quality fibres can also be made into material used for upholstery padding and sound-absorbent panels.
By repurposing shredded fibres into new products, Avena promotes a circular economy and paves the way for a more sustainable fashion industry.
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