plastic in fashion

Plastic in Fashion

Let’s face it, plastic is omnipresent. Fast fashion and cheap clothing create immense damage to sea life, which automatically affects us too. Before you go out buying your new set of clothes, read the fashion facts below and spend your money wisely and consciously.

Fashion Facts

  • A study showed that fashion items are often worn just seven times before being thrown away!
  • Every person, on average, has 57 (!) unworn items in their wardrobe.
  • Man-made fibres are almost always made from plastic, which means they are non-biodegradable and will never go away.
Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash

  • Non-biodegradable nylon is, by far, the most popular fabric in the fashion industry.
  • When clothes made of plastic are washed, they release lots of tiny fibres, called microfibers, that go down the drains to the sea.
  • Different types of polymers (plastic) that clothes are made of won’t break down or biodegrade.
  • Football shirts, school blazers, sports socks and outdoor jackets are often made from man-made fibres.
  • You can avoid plastic in your clothes by choosing natural alternatives such as wool, cotton, hemp, silk or bamboo.
  • Tiny plastic is one of the most significant sources of plastic in the ocean.
  • The fluff in your tumble dryer goes down the drain every time you wash your clothes. Sewage treatment plants aren’t able to catch the tiny fibres, so instead, they go all the way to a river or the sea where a variety of fish eats them and move up the food chain. Using a ball catching the microfibers before they enter the water system is a fantastic idea.
  • There are many things you can do with your old clothes instead of binning them the instant you decide you don’t like it:
  • Give it away to a charity.
  • Give it to your friends.
  • Learn how to fix your clothes if they have a hole.
  • Try to upcycling your old clothes by using plastic, free dyes.
  • I prefer buying more expensive clothes, which are better quality than the fast fashion shops offer and thus have all of us wear clothes for much longer.
  • Buying second-hand clothes are always a good idea, especially for the kids, since they grow out of them so fast.