ECOS FACTSHEET – Microplastic pollution: The new runway trend for season 2023-2050
Fast fashion is leading the microplastic pollution trend. After World Environment Day, ECOS highlights that synthetic textiles are one of the major sources of microplastic pollution – they have dominated the fibre market in fashion since the mid-1990s.
“Plastic pollution” immediately brings to mind countless plastic bottles littering our beaches. However, there is much more to it, and fast fashion greatly contributes to this notorious picture.
The more clothes are produced, the more we buy, the more we wash, the more polluting substances enter the environment.
We all need clothes. The quantities and the way we produce and use them, however, need to change – urgently.
The textile industry must move away from the “buy–use–throw away” pattern and adopt a real circular model. Microplastic pollution needs to be addressed by reducing production volumes and the use of plastic, as well
as promoting reuse, and setting EU-wide binding Material Footprint Reduction Targets – with specific objectives for textile products.
The European Strategy for Plastics identified microplastics as one of the key challenges, and two years later, the EU Circular Economy Action Plan pointed to the textiles value chain as a priority. Consequently, a new initiative is now upcoming, titled “Microplastics pollution – measures to reduce impacts on the environment”.
Find the full factsheet, HERE.
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