How much damage making clothes really does, and where it happens.
By Shreya S · Last reviewed 15 November 2026
How much does fashion contribute to climate change?
The UN Environment Programme puts the fashion and textile industry at between 2 and 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The range is wide because supply chains are hard to measure. Most of the emissions come not from shops or shipping but from growing fibres and from spinning, dyeing and finishing fabric, often in mills powered by coal.
What about water?
Cotton is a thirsty crop, often grown in dry regions with irrigation. The bigger problem is pollution: dyeing and finishing use large amounts of water and chemicals, and in some textile hubs untreated wastewater ends up in rivers. The World Bank has estimated that textile dyeing and treatment cause a significant share of industrial water pollution worldwide.
What are microfibres, and how much do we throw away?
Synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon shed tiny plastic fibres in the wash, which reach rivers and oceans. And the volume of clothing keeps rising: global clothing production roughly doubled in the first 15 years of this century while each garment was worn fewer times. Most unwanted clothes are landfilled, burned or exported, and very few are recycled into new clothes.
Is fashion the second most polluting industry?
That claim is repeated everywhere, but researchers have never found a reliable source for it. Fashion’s impact is serious enough without exaggeration. When you see a dramatic statistic, check who measured it, when and how; many widely shared numbers are years old or estimates.
Read on Ayerhs: Is Fast Fashion Really That Bad? · Overconsumption Is Uncool · Sustainable Fashion 101