Changes to the manufacturing, transportation and customer use of fast fashion will be necessary in order to reduce its carbon footprint, a new study led by researchers at Concordia University has suggested.
‘Fast fashion is built on cheap, short-lived garments, especially cotton and polyester T-shirts,’ the researchers noted. ‘To sustain its profits, the industry relies on high production frequency, short product lifespan and a globalised supply chain. All these elements contribute to making the industry a major source of global pollution.’
From production to waste disposal
The study, From production to waste disposal: A life cycle assessment of fast fashion polyester and cotton T-shirts, which was published in Cleaner Environmental Systems, examined the environmental impacts of fast fashion t-shirts across their life cycle, taking in material production, garment manufacturing, transport to Canada, customer use, and final disposal.
The team also looked at different scenarios, such as alternative shipping methods, disposal options and longer garment lifespans, to measure which changes would have the greatest effect on reducing carbon footprint.
As they found, under the baseline scenario, polyester t-shirts generated ‘substantially more’ emissions than cotton ones – due to the energy and fuel requirements associated with producing synthetic fibres – while cotton t-shirts required significantly more land and water.
Transportation and product lifespan
Transportation and product lifespan were found to ‘outweigh many material differences’ between the two materials, with air freight emerging as one of the largest contributors to the carbon footprint of the garments examined.
If air freight was replaced with sea freight, the researchers noted, the carbon footprint of a T-shirt could be reduced by approximately 30% to 60%, depending on whether the garment was polyester or cotton.
In addition, by doubling the lifespan of a garment, the associated emissions could be reduced by about half, as fewer new garments would need to be manufactured to provide the same amount of usage.
‘The findings suggest that the fashion industry could achieve the greatest environmental benefits by producing fewer garments, designing them with longevity in mind and cutting back on air freight,’ the report noted. ‘For consumers, the researchers say simply wearing clothes for longer may have a greater climate benefit than focusing solely on whether a T-shirt is made from cotton or polyester.’
The research was led by Xinyu Xu, a PhD candidate at Concordia University, and Chunjiang An, associate professor in the university’s Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering. Zhi Chen, a professor in the same department, and Linxiang Lyu of the Shanghai Institute of Technology also contributed to the research. Read more here and here.
