The UK fashion industry is under investigation by MPs. Parliamentarians from the environmental audit committee are investigating the environmental impacts generated by the fast fashion industry in the UK.
The investigation was carried out and has growing concerns about the industry which had contributed 28.1 billion pounds to national GDP in 2015 according to the British Fashion Council.
They investigate whether the fast fashion industry treats clothing as a single-use material because this is a dangerous concept that has a permanent impact on society and the environment.
Fashion should not sacrifice the earth as emphasized by Mary Creagh MP, chairman of the committee. But the way they design, make and dispose of clothes has a huge environmental impact.
Producing clothing requires emissions of climate change. Every time we wash, thousands of plastic fibers fall in the sewer and finally goes into the ocean.
UK Fashion Industry and Environmental Impact
As we all know, the fashion industry has become the second most polluting industry after the oil industry, with 87 percent burned or stockpiled every year, according to data revealed at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit.
There are 53 million tons of clothing is produced annually with manufacturing techniques that use water, extraction of fossil fuels, and emissions of toxic chemicals.
A bigger impact is when we consider that we have doubled the number of clothes we have produced in the last 15 years.
Many brands and producers have made a transparency move towards the supply chain, especially after the Rana Plaza 2013 disaster, but there needs to be a standard level of sustainability that all parties must adhere to in the industrial world.
The key to this question is the need to ask consumers to know the system from “end to end” or “circular economy” that the garment can be used longer and renew the product at the end of its useful life.
UK Fashion Industry and Save the Earth
Sustainability fashion pioneers like Stella McCartney have become a breakthrough and prefer fashion that cares for the environment. This is a reminder of the terrible fact that only one percent of the fashion on our planet has been recycled.
If parliament can help change our mindset towards those who care more and become more attentive, this is the right direction to protect the planet and our future.
Fast fashion and its effects on the environment are in the process and the results will be announced as part of an effort to make the industry more sustainable. MPs will look at carbon, resource use and water footprints of clothing throughout the life cycle of the garment and how clothing can be recycled so that waste and pollution can be reduced.
Committee chairman Mary Creagh said the way we design, make and dispose of clothing has a huge environmental impact so it needs more attention.
She also added that producing clothing requires toxic chemicals and produces emissions to climate change. This needs to be avoided or minimally reduced.
Every time we use it and eventually have to wash the clothes, thousands of plastic fibers that have been washed will enter the ocean and we do not know where the toxic waste will end. This needs to be considered especially the brand owners in the UK fashion industry today.
