Share of EU consumers considering environmental impact of clothes shopping 2018

When shopping for fashion, European consumers are not completely inattentive to the environmental impacts the clothing items they purchase may have. According to a Europe-wide survey from Fashion Revolution, more shoppers in Italy than other European countries surveyed in this study cared about the potential effects of clothing on the environment. In comparison, only 29 percent of those surveyed in France said they considered the environmental impact of their clothing purchases a great deal.

Environmental impact of clothes

The fashion industry’s impact on the environment includes the amount of waste generated by discarded clothing, toxic chemicals applied in production processes, and the sustainability of materials used when manufacturing clothing and apparel products. Of these, textile waste is a particularly pressing issue, as in Europe as many as 15 kilograms of waste is generated per person annually.

Fast fashion and its problems

Fashion, particularly fast fashion, is increasingly becoming a troubled industry due to the environmental as well as ethical concerns it raises. The vast amounts of production that fast fashion companies drive constitute a big part of the issue, as larger production also means a greater workforce needed in the manufacturing of garments, which is usually outsourced in countries where labour costs are low. Today, China is the leading exporter of clothing products to the rest of the world. China is also the number one supplier of many fast fashion companies such as the Inditex Group and H&M.