As we all know our basic needs food, clothing, and shelter are considered, among them, clothes are an important part of our needs. However, in today’s time, people feel that wearing expensive clothes shows a rich social status. A Family spends 3.8% of their income on clothes, and worldwide they consume almost 80 billion clothes annually. Which makes the fashion industry the 2nd largest polluter after the oil industry.

What is sustainable fashion?

The fashion that is sustainable and environmentally friendly is considered sustainable fashion, where chemicals and other elements are used in a minimal quantity and clothes are produced using natural fiber like cotton, hemp, bamboo, Tencel, etc. so that it has less impact on our environment.

Why do we need to switch towards sustainable fashion? Effect of fast fashion:-

Carbon Emission 

• According to UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), the fashion industry is the world’s second water consumer and is responsible for 2-3 percent of global carbon emissions.

Water Pollution and Wastage of Water

•  Around 9,700 liters of water is required to make 1 kg of cotton, or we can say that to make 1 cotton t-shirt, it takes approximately 2700 liters of fresh water.
• 20% of global water pollution is caused by the dyeing process of textiles. This is the major effect of fast fashion that should be control.
• From the dyeing process of textiles to making the final product, many chemicals are used like phenol, pesticides, and many heavy metals like copper and chromium, which pollute the groundwater and river water.
• Every time a polyester cloth is washed, It releases 7,00,000 microplastic fibers, which enter into our food chain.

Massive waste production

• Fast fashion means more production, lower prices, and more sales, which produce massive clothes waste.
• It is estimated that only 1% of used clothes are recycled, and the rest end up in landfill.

What are the Solutions for fashion industries’ pollution?

Eco-friendly manufacturing 

• we should adopt an eco-friendly manufacturing process to produce sustainable clothes, avoiding the use of harmful chemicals.
• To reduce waste, we should use every piece of fiber properly.
•  We can adopt Waterless dyeing methods and closed-loop systems to conserve water resources.

Use of Renewal Energy

• Using of Renewal energy like solar and wind power in the manufacturing process is a good approach. It will promote greener production cycles and reduce carbon emissions.

Avoid fast-fashion Trend

• Avoid fast fashion’s trendy and disposable clothes. Instead, we should choose quality and long-lasting clothes to reduced clothes waste.
• We should promote second-hand and thrift stores to use a cloth for a long duration. It will also fulfill the demand of cloth without manufacturing new stock.

Government Intervention 

• The government can set some rules and regulations to stop the use of harmful chemicals in textile production.

Promote Sustainable Clothing Brand

• We should promote sustainable brands and their uses to get aware of it.

How to make your wardrobe ethical and adopt sustainable fashion.

Ethical wardrobe means collecting your clothes or accessories in a way that has minimal impact on the environment. Not just the impact of the clothes, but also the clothes brands or industries that do not exploit labor.

Let us know some precise points which will help you in setting your ethical wardrobe:-

Stop Using traditional Cotton and Polyester Clothes

• Firstly, you will have to stop using traditional cotton or polyester cloth and make sure that you buy only hemp, bamboo, and organic cotton clothes.
• Don’t make clothes a use and throw items. Instead, buy quality clothes which last for a longer time.

Avoid Overconsumption

• To avoid overconsumption of clothes, you can keep versatile pieces of clothes so that you can wear them by mixing and matching.

Go for Secondhand Clothes 

• Secondhand clothing is a great option to fulfill your dressing needs, doing this even you can save some money. There are several online and offline thrift stores that deal in second-hand clothing.

Choose GOTS Certified clothes

• You should choose clothes from such a brand that carries the GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certificate, this certificate is given to the company which deals in organic textiles.
• We should buy such products that use eco-friendly packaging material.

Look Labor Supportive and Ethical Brand

• Ethical wardrobe does not just mean how eco-friendly the clothing is, but how supportive or fair a brand is towards its labor, and how much it cares about labor rights, these are the smart metrics, and we should support such brands. 
• We can choose such a brand or company that keeps transparency about its material and manufacturing process.

Maintain Clothes 

• You can repair minor defects in your clothes; proper maintenance improves its lifespan.

These are some Sustainable approach which you can incorporate in your daily life to reduce the effects of fast fashion Industry.

In conclusion, I want to highlight some points. This is the time we need to adopt all these approaches before getting late to do so, fast fashion is one of the major factors to deteriorate our environment. Therefore, we need to bring changes in it so that we can improve our environment. By doing so, we can give a strong message to our upcoming generation and encourage them to adopt sustainable fashion.