Polyester clothes are the most popular type of clothes that we buy. They’re cheap and relatively easy to maintain (they don’t wrinkle as easily as other fabrics). In fact, 60% of all the clothes produced today are made out of synthetic materials, like polyester.
What does ‘synthetic’ mean then? It refers to materials that are created using chemical processes, and that imitate natural materials. In other words, synthetic materials are an unecological alternative for natural materials.
We are currently on the second week of #PlasticFreeJuly, which is a campaign that encourages people to pay attention to the amount of plastic in our lives. Obviously, once we realize that amount, the aim is to then start thinking of ways to reduce that amount. Easier said than done!
Plastic is everywhere! It’s in the food packaging, in our toothbrushes, in our furniture, in our wallets. There are so many different kinds of plastics as well. I’m not sure it’s even possible to live completely plastic-free. But that’s not the point! The point is that we recognize how much plastic there is in our everyday lives, and attempt to reduce that amount one way or the other.
Because this is such an enormous and overwhelming issue, I suggest that we all pick one area in our life and focus on reducing plastic there first. For example, food is a good place to start. So much of our food products are packed in plastic, some of them for no particular reason. Try and find alternatives to at least some of the plastic-packed goods.
I chose to keep to what I know best: clothes. Because polyester clothes are the biggest portion of clothes manufactured, and polyester is in fact plastic. Synthetic polyester consist of coal and petroleum, which is rather disgusting considering that we basically wear gasoline. Producing this fabric takes twice as much energy as producing cotton does.
Synthetic polyester is used extensively in clothing. Fast fashion brands love it because it’s a versatile material that’s relatively durable and cheap to produce. But as so very often, the easy way is not the right way.
Here are couple good reasons to stop buying polyester clothes TODAY and to make that your contribution to the #PlasticFreeJuly :
Why You Need To Stop Buying Synthetic Polyester Clothes TODAY!
Greenwashing brands love polyester
If you’re not familiar with the term ‘greenwashing’, read my blog post What Is Greenwashing And How To Avoid It?
Fast fashion companies like to disguise their so called “sustainable” collections by mixing polyester with natural fibers. While the natural fibers in a garment are biodegradable, there is no way to separate the polyester fibers from them. This makes the whole garment non-renewable. So, when they tell you it’s “sustainable”, they are just lying to you.
The most polyester-intensive brands are (no surprise!) the biggest high street fast fashion brands (% of polyester clothes):
- H&M 23,2%
- Zara 25,7%
- Forever 21 35,7%
- ESPRIT 48,1%
- Vero Moda 60,5%
There’s something we need to remember, though, and it’s that using environmentally friendly fabrics isn’t yet enough to grant a brand the sustainability stamp.
Sustainability also includes human rights, workers’ rights, and environmentally friendly production methods. Which fast fashion companies are ignoring every day.
And when we take a look at the percentage of the environmentally friendly fabrics (such as Lyocell) used in fast fashion brands’ “sustainable” collections, we quickly see how unsustainable they actually are (% of eco-friendly fabrics used):
- Zara 1,2%
- H&M 1,2%
- Forever 21 0,2%
- Vero Moda 3,8%
- ESPRIT 4,4%
Polyester clothes are non-renewable
As mentioned in the previous chapter, even if a garment is 50% cotton and 50% polyester, the polyester in it makes the entire garment non-renewable. Technologies are being developed as we speak, to separate natural fibers from synthetic fibers, but we’re not quite there yet.
And while we try to get there, the plastic problem keeps growing day by day. Polyester is oil, which makes it a non-renewable and carbon-intensive resource. Producing polyester uses harmful chemicals that cause great damage to soil, air and water.
It’s as unenvironmental as can be. In just one year polyester production releases as much greenhouse gases as 185 coal-fired power plants do in the same time. It’s no wonder the fashion industry is the second biggest polluter in the world right after the oil industry. Fashion industry is very much an oil industry of its own.
We think this pollution doesn’t affect us, but it does. Even if it’s not our soil being destroyed, it is our seas and air being destroyed. Our food production that’s affected, our climate that is affected. We are affected by this!
Polyester has created an unprecedented microplastics problem
It has been estimated that we each eat/drink approximately 5 grams’ worth of plastic each week in the shape of microplastics. Microplastics are basically the leftovers from degraded plastic products in our seas and soil. For example, a degraded plastic bottle in an ocean doesn’t disappear, it just changes its shape. That’s why plastic is so dangerous.
Very recently they discovered that microplastics don’t just enter our digestive systems via the fish we eat. Instead, microplastics are now even able to penetrate plant cells, which means that your onions, salad and potatoes can include plastic as well.
Polyester fibers are the main culprit in this predicament. Polyester clothes release copious amounts of microplastics when washed (496 030 fibers per 6kg of clothes washed). These fibers are washed down into our water systems. Some of them end up in our drinking water, the rest in our seas and oceans to be consumed by the sea creatures that we then eat.
Even if we pledged to stop buying polyester clothes today, our closets are already filled with them. So, we need to make sure to maintain those clothes and wear them for as long as we can!
You can elongate your polyester garments’ life, and reduce the amount of microplastics released, when washing the clothes, though. Wash your clothes in cold water (30°C) and use detergents designed to reduce releasing microplastic fibers, like an EcoEgg.
Polyester clothes keep polluting the planet for hundreds of years
The amount of clothes on the planet at this very moment is enough to dress 6 generations of people. Assuming there are 3 generation’s worth of people alive at the same time, that’s 2 times 7,8 billion people. That means there’s clothes in the world for over 15,6 billion people right now. What the fuck is the point, I ask?
Now, add to this equation the fact that 60% of these clothes will never disappear from the planet. And fast fashion factories are churning out more and more needless, useless pollution (aka clothes) every single day. Nobody’s ever gonna wear most of those clothes!
Polyester takes up to 200 years to decompose, which means that it keeps creating pollution for that whole 200 years.
The numbers are shocking, but they tell you the truth: we are running out of time. The planet is running out of time and it’s literally drowning in plastic. WE are drowning in plastic!
We are also partly to blame for this situation, because we have been persuaded to buy, buy and buy. Even though the truth is, none of us need most of the clothes we buy. We’ve been taught to buy for the sake of buying.
