ABSTRACT
The environmental damage caused by end-of-life fashion product disposal – most commonly occurring as landfill and incineration in low-income countries – has made this arguably the highest priority sustainability issue in the industry. Disposal to landfill, whilst environmentally unattractive, actually has a relatively low greenhouse gas (GHG) impact in comparison to alternative routes.
As a result of significant investments over the last decade, textile-to-textile recycling and circular manufacturing have been proposed as a sustainable solution to both waste disposal and GHG emissions associated with manufacturing. Unfortunately, whilst circular manufacturing may address waste, it is currently unlikely to result in significant GHG reductions.
Instead, the industry should be focussing on increasing the longevity and number of wears per item to reduce the GHG impacts after the end of a product’s “first life”. The emergence of large-scale second-hand markets in combination with design for longevity has the potential to make a significant impact on the overall GHG emissions of the industry.
