We produce too many clothes, and this excessive consumption cannot be green, sums up this truthful interview

The general public is increasingly aware of ecological problems, which concern in particular the particularly polluting fashion sector. While brands are ramping up communications operations to talk about their efforts to pollute less, global apparel production doubled between 2000 and 2014. So that this sector is responsible for 2 to 4% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, the equivalent of the aviation sector.

“How to dress without destroying the planet? Blast asks Julia Faure

Faced with this observation, the media Gust conducted a fascinating video interview with Julia Faure (who Lose had received in the podcast “Matières Premieres”, around the skins). She is the co-founder of the Loom brand, which aims to produce less but better. We could tax her to be both judge and biased, but on the contrary it is what allows her to give a speech from the heart of the problem that she looks straight in her eyes. And this to try to solve it in the best possible way with the other players in the sector that make up En Mode Climat.

“The more we produce, the more we pollute”

This interview collects several alarming results, key questions and possible solutions for the fashion industry, making it an excellent, accessible and enlightening summary.. Of these 50 minutes, we could especially remember what Julia Faure insists: ” What really pollutes is the volume of clothing produced and consumed each year “. Because to produce is to pollute. Whether it is certified organic cotton, recycled polyester or very French linen, the calculation remains the same: the more we produce, the more we pollute.

As Julia Faure reminds us in this illuminating interview for Gust” the textile industry should not reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 or 20%, but divide them by 3 if we want to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement (i.e. the conditions to stay below 1.5 degrees of global warming) “For this reason, if we want the textile industry to pollute less, it must produce less, rather than take cosmetic measures to improve its practices such as improving the lighting of its shops with LEDs.

We are still far from the ideal of recycling and circular fashion

This video also evokes the way in which the textile industry pollutes biodiversity upstream (with pesticides in the fields of cultivation of raw materials, and above all with the processes of transformation of this, dyeing, etc.), and downstream (when the clothes are disposed of in sorting terminals and most of them end up degrading in open landfills). The reporter from Gust Paloma Moritz and Loom’s co-founder Julia Faure also decipher the concept of extended producer responsibility : how we can force brands to better ensure a better end of life for their products.

They also evoke how far we are from the ideal of recycling. In fact, just 1% of the clothes produced are made from recycled clothes, as it is still complicated today. And recycling clothes to make new ones actually pollutes a lot. Even if we could be able to make something new from old up to 40% recycled clothing, that would only reduce CO2 emissions by 6%., according to a study by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, cited by Julia Faure. The ideal of circular fashion is therefore clearly not for tomorrow.

What can the fashion industry do to pollute less? Possible solutions

In Climate Mode, the collective of players in the sector that wants to revolutionize it, proposes 3 main levers of action: reduce the volume of new garments placed on the market, relocate, repair / reuse. This could in particular involve government measures that avoid vice-premium (because as things currently stand, the more a brand produces in low-paying countries and no biodiversity laws, the less it will cost, much more affordable than brands they would like to do. things in a more ethical way).

Other possible solutions proposed by En Mode Climat could lie in the setting up a repairability index (we may tax harder-to-repair clothes than easier ones). A emotional durability index (penalize brands that encourage excessive consumption through aggressive marketing techniques such as excessive promotions, and then throw away too easily). Or taking into account in the future environmental labeling (equivalent to nutriscore on food packaging) the impact of the entire volume of clothing produced by a brand, and not of a single item. Because, taken in isolation, the production of a 100% certified organic cotton t-shirt can seem low-polluting. However, when we consider that we produce several tens of thousands a year, this puts things in perspective.

To better understand the volumes, remember that the giants Zara and H&M each offer about 10,000 references for sale on their eshop, Asos about 100,000 and Shein 500,000. it is as colossal as it is disturbing.

Front page photo credit: Nur Aziz by Ziez Studio via Canva.