### Reader’s Letter to The Guardian, 28th August 2024 ###
* Key players: British Fashion Council, Climate Ready Index, Collective Fashion Justice, Fashion Revolution, Emma Håkansson, Aja Barber, Hannah Rochell, Lauren Bravo, *
Dear Editor,
I read Rebecca Cope’s article on CO2 emissions in the fashion industry (The Guardian, 28th August 2024, link below) and strongly agree that this problem needs to be brought under control.
One key issue lies in the name “fashion” with the primary goal being for people to change their style as often as possible, regularly re-stocking their wardrobe. So, until the term “fashion” is replaced by “clothing”, I don’t see much hope.
But the biggest “elephant in the room” is the issue of “microfluff” with a massive 35% of all ocean microplastic being toxic, invisible particles that have been scuffed from synthetic clothing during washing. As highlighted in an article by Chris Michael in The Guardian in 2022 (link below) … with particles from the tread of tyres coming in second at 28%!
That is a monumental problem which threatens to seriously compromise both the environment and, by consequence, our health with those particles finding their way deep into human organs and tissue.
So surely this situation should be the catalyst for a complete ban on synthetic clothing? A step which would, at the same time, solve all the problems that we have with “fast-fashion”: There simply wouldn’t be any of that as clothing would be made of natural fibres and would be designed to last much longer than is currently the case.
Yours,
Alan Mitcham
Link to original article: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/article/2024/aug/28/profit-is-being-prioritised-over-climate-action-british-fashion-is-falling-behind-on-sustainability
Link to article on ocean microplastic: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/25/plastic-in-the-depths-how-pollution-took-over-our-oceans
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