why should we get RedRessed?
Around 170 tonnes of clothes are thrown away everyday in Hong Kong.
Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Making our clothes uses significant amounts of natural resources like water, land, trees and oil, many of which are scarce or nonrenewable, and if they are not used properly they can endanger the health and wellbeing of people, animals and our planet.
For a deeper dive into finding out how we make, buy, use and dispose of our clothes, and the impact that it has on people and our planet check out our online ECF Circular Fashion Toolkit. If you’re interested to see how Hongkongers consume, use and dispose of their wardrobes, take a look at our Clothing Consumption, Usage, and Disposal Habits study.
find out what's in our clothes
▼▲ Land & Forests
The overuse of land for the production of fibres (like cotton, wool and viscose) contributes to deforestation, soil depletion and biodiversity loss. We log over 150 million trees a year to make cellulosic fibres, putting both tree and animal species under threat. The overgrazing of livestock used for leather and wool production is leading to soil depletion, for example the expansion of cashmere goat herds for textile production has led to extensive degradation of Mongolia’s native grasslands. And the production of conventional cotton, which is land-intensive (requiring 10m2 land to produce just one pair of jeans) and involves substantial amounts of fertilisers, pesticides and insecticides to produce, is threatening soil quality as well as biodiversity in and downstream from cotton fields. Land-use for the production of fibres is projected to grow by 35% by 2030.
▼▲ Carbon & GHGs
Fashion is responsible for around 10% of the world’s greenhouse gases, more than the shipping and aviation industries combined, in part due to its long supply chains and energy-intensive production. When we produce and transport clothing, damaging greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere. These gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) trap energy from the sun and cause the earth to warm up, which is why they are known as greenhouse gases. The temperature of the planet needs the perfect balance and warming up even by just 2 degrees or more will have serious consequences such as melting polar ice caps, rising sea levels and extreme weather conditions.
▼▲ Chemicals
It can take up to 3kg of chemicals to produce 1kg of conventional cotton. Pesticides are used in the farming of cotton to make sure that insects don’t eat the crops. When cotton is harvested it is off-white in colour, and to make colourful garments it is often bleached then dyed which uses a variety of chemicals. All these chemicals and pesticides can be harmful and toxic to both humans and the environment. Numerous other chemicals are also used to process and finish our clothes, including water repellent coatings and anti-wrinkle treatments. The fashion industry consumes around 25% of all chemicals produced globally.
▼▲ Water
Fashion is the second biggest polluter of clean water around the world after agriculture. Unregulated textile factories often dump dirty and polluted water from dyeing and washing fabrics back into local streams and water sources. This leaves local communities without safe water to drink and bathe in. Producing our clothes also consumes a lot of water, from the water needed to grow cotton to the production process of dyeing, washing and finishing fabrics. For example, producing just one conventional cotton t-shirt uses up to 2,720 litres of water. That’s approximately the same amount you drink in over 3.7 years.
▼▲ Plastics
Plastics are found all the way through the clothing production chain. Polyester, a man-made fibre, is the most widely used fibre in our clothes. What you may not know is that polyester is also a type of plastic. This can be a very durable fabric when not made cheaply - meaning it has the potential to last a long time. However it also takes its toll on the environment in two ways. Firstly, if polyester clothes are sent to landfill they take over 200 years to decompose - it’s almost the same as trashing single use plastic, like water bottles. Every year, the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles is shed into the ocean from washing our clothes. Secondly, when we wash polyester clothing the fabric sheds micro-plastics into our waterways, which are too small to see but are highly damaging to marine life. During the production process, clothes are often wrapped in plastic bags and plastic wrap to protect them while they are being transported between factories and to the shops where you buy them. We are also often given plastic bags when we buy clothes in shops.
▼▲ Landfills
Clothes are being used and disposed of faster than ever before. The average consumer now buys 60% more clothing items a year, and keeps them for about half as long, as they did about 15 years ago. Globally one full garbage truck of textiles is burned or sent to landfill every second, and in Hong Kong we dump 339 tonnes of textile waste into our landfills every single day, 50% of which is clothing. That’s around 170 tonnes of clothing entering Hong Kong’s landfills every day - or the equivalent of around 1.2 million t-shirts! Clothing can take a very long time to decompose in landfills (for example, a pair of nylon tights takes 30-40 years to decompose), and during the decomposing process they release greenhouse gases and other harmful pollutants into the air.
▼▲ People
Our overconsumption habit and our demand for more on-trend fashion and at cheaper prices have a huge impact on our planet and people, particularly the most vulnerable population who live and work on the production line. An estimated 60 million people in the world are employed in the fashion industry with 67% of the world’s clothing exports coming from developing countries, where labour and environmental laws and regulations can be lax. For example, the garment workers who stitch our clothes together, piece by piece, only receive around 0.9% of the cost of an average t-shirt. So if a t-shirt costs HKD100, that leaves only 90 cents towards their wages. It’s time to ask ourselves, is it acceptable for some clothes to be so cheap? What is the ‘real’ cost on our planet and people?
Download the fact sheet here →
Download the fact sheet here →
ecf ciRculaR fashion education toolkit
The Circular Fashion Education Toolkit is a free bilingual, online educational toolkit – full of practical information, class exercises and resources to explore how we make, buy, use and dispose of our clothes, and the impact that it has on people and our planet.
Access the toolkit
clothing consumption, usage, and disposal habits in hong kong study
In 2020, we commissioned a survey to find out more about Hong Kong’s clothing consumption habits. Our survey found that almost one in three Hong Kong consumers discard their unwanted clothing in the bin, and further revealed that almost one-third of clothes in Hong Kong wardrobes are never or rarely worn.
Looking at the data below, would you say that your wardrobe has a similar make up? Are you inspired to change the way you consume, use and dispose of your clothing? Join our October Get Redressed Month campaign to keep clothing in use for longer and change the way we consume fashion.
The data is based on the “Clothing Consumption, Usage, and Disposal Habits in Hong Kong Study” commissioned by Redress and conducted by Edelman Intelligence amongst n=1000 general public in Hong Kong, August 28-September 1, 2020.
Redress commissioned independent market research firm, Edelman Intelligence to conduct this study in August and September 2020. The study was conducted among men and women aged 18 to 64 years old across Hong Kong. The online survey had 1,000 respondents, and explored three key areas i.e. clothing purchasing behaviour, clothing using habits, clothing disposal practices, to assess Hong Kong public’s perception on fashion waste issue, with an added lens on how COVID-19 has impacted habits.