British Parliament to investigate fast fashion’s eco-footprint

British Parliament puts fast fashion under inspection. The UK’s environmental audit committee has kick-started an investigation to measure the impact that the fast fashion industry has on the environment. The analysis challenges the environmental viability of this business model based on a swift product rotation.

“Fashion shouldn’t cost the earth, but the way we design, make and discard clothes has a huge environmental impact,” said Mary Creagh, chairwoman of the environmental audit committee. “Producing clothes requires toxic chemicals and climate-changing emissions”, she added.

Investigations will measure fast fashion’s impact on global carbon emissions and water footprint. The committee has begun to invite professionals from the sector for next September to discuss the environmental impact of fast fashion, as well as to discuss the working conditions in garment factories in the United Kingdom.

Among the questions that committee members will ask are how to encourage people to buy less clothes and to make them think on how they are discarded. “Every time we put on a wash, thousands of plastic fibers wash down the drain and into the oceans: we don’t know where or how to recycle end-of-life clothing,” Creagh said.