Fashion Waste Facts and Statistics

There’s nothing more unfashionable than waste but unfortunately, the fashion industry produces plenty of it. Some fashion waste is unavoidable while others could be better managed to reduce rubbish across the sector – or at least ensure it’s reused or recycled.

For an insight into how much refuse the industry creates here are some hip fashion waste statistics:

• 100 billion new garments are produced annually around the world
• The worldwide fashion industry is responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions
• The UN Environment Programme estimates that today people buy 60% more clothes and wear them for half as long
• Around 20% of worldwide industrial wastewater pollution is from the fashion industry
• It takes around 2,700 litres of water to make one cotton shirt
• Of all the clothing thrown away across the world 57% is sent to landfill
• 25% of global clothing waste is incinerated
• Clothes made using synthetic fibres such as polyester and acrylic are responsible for more than 60% of global apparel purchases
• Synthetic fibres take 80 to 800 times longer to decompose than natural fibres like cotton

The UK has produced many world-leading fashion designers from Vivienne Westwood to Stella McCartney, Paul Smith, and Alexander McQueen. Unfortunately, it’s also generated mountains of textile waste – as the fourth-highest producer in Europe. The country’s passion for fashion means we’re constantly buying new items, filling charity shops with old outfits, and sadly binning lots of garments.

Check out some fascinating fashion waste statistics for the UK:

• Each Briton throws away 1kg of textiles every year on average – the fourth highest in Europe
• 7kg of fashion waste per person goes to landfill yearly
• About 30% of unwanted clothes end up in UK landfill sites
• Every year Brits chuck out 300,000 tonnes of old clothes in their household rubbish bins
• It’s estimated £140 million worth of clothing goes to landfill in the UK every year
• Less than a fifth of used clothing is recycled in the UK
• Across the country, more than two tonnes of clothing are bought every minute
• The average Brit spends £980.50 on new clothes each year

The fast fashion industry is all about the cheap and quick production of clothes that aren’t worn many times. It drives a desire and demand among consumers to buy new and more clothes even if they don’t need them. The manufacturing, transport, and disposal of fast fashion comes at a huge environmental cost.

These fast fashion waste statistics highlight the impact it has on our planet and behaviour:

• How many times an item of clothing is worn before being discarded has fallen by 36% in the last 15 years
• Fast fashion brands produce 50% more items today compared to the year 2000
• An average American throws out 37kg of clothes every year
• Buying a single white cotton shirt produces the same emissions as driving 35 miles in a car
• Extending clothing life by nine months would reduce carbon, water, and waste footprints by 20 to 30%
• Using clothes for an extra nine months would also save £5 billion in resources used to supply, launder, and dispose of clothes

Every second a truckload of textile waste is incinerated or disposed of in landfill around the world. Fast fashion and the desire to buy more new clothes more often are leading to higher volumes of textile waste across the planet. To get an idea of the scale of things, here are some uncool clothing waste facts:

• About 25% of clothing waste is incinerated around the world
• Just 8% of old clothes are reused and only 10% are recycled across the globe
• It can take more than 200 years for clothing to decompose in landfill sites
• 60% of new clothing materials are plastic
• The average lifespan of clothing is just over three years
• An average clothing item should last between 100 and 200 wears, though most are thrown out before then
• In America, the average person throws away just over 30kg of clothing every year
• Less than 1% of clothing waste is recycled into new clothes – mainly due to the challenges existing recycling systems face

The way we buy, wear, and throw away old clothes at home also has a big impact on waste from the fashion and textile industry. More considerate purchasing and disposal methods could help reduce the amount of clothing waste created and help better protect the environment. Here are a few facts about clothes waste at home:

• From 2012 to 2017 clothing waste produced by UK households decreased by 50,000 tonnes
• Charity shop sales increased four-fold from £133m to £732m in 20 years
• Only 70% of the clothes in our wardrobes are worn by Brits
• There’s a total of around 7 billion items of unused clothing sat in wardrobes across the UK
• 4 million school uniforms are thrown away every year in the UK

There are various charities across the UK working to reduce clothing waste in a few different ways. These include:

• Salvation Army – the Salvation Army has around 8,000 clothing banks across the UK where you can donate old garments. These are resold, reused, or recycled.
• Love Not Landfill – a non-profit campaign that runs events to encourage young fashion fans to buy second-hand, swap, recycle, and give old clothes to charity.
• TRAID – this charity turns clothes into funds by increasing reuse and funding international development projects that improve working practices and conditions in the textile industry. TRAID provides 700 charity clothes banks in the UK.