“climate labelling” will be required for clothing

Textile production currently produces about 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year,That’s more than international flights and shipping combined.

 More than 60% of these textiles are used in the garment industry, and most of the garment manufacturing takes place in China and India. As the world’s largest producer and exporter of textile and apparel products, China accounts for a third of the world’s ultra-high production capacity and a quarter of global exports. Garment production once became the label of China on the world industrial stage.However, the overall carbon footprint of the clothing industry is not so good. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the fashion industry is responsible for about 2% to 8% of the world’s total carbon emissions, and also poses a significant pollution problem. The transition to sustainable fashion has become an inevitable trend under the climate crisis.

And waste water from washing clothes releases half a million tons of microfibers into the ocean every year — the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles. Many of these fibers are polyester, which is found in about 60 % of clothing, and these plastic particles are not broken down by nature.It has a negative impact on the ecosystem in the water, causes a slow death to Marine organisms, and even becomes a delicious food on people’s table with seafood, which virtually endangers human health.

Moreover, the indiscriminate disposal of old clothes, which are now made of cotton, polyester and chemical fibres, can also cause a host of environmental problems, such as soil pollution.Research shows that in addition to cotton and hemp can be degraded and absorbed in natural environment, chemical fiber, polyester and other components are not easy to degrade in natural state, and polyester fiber raw materials also need up to 200 years to decompose naturally after being buried.

 80% of a garment’s carbon emissions are released during the cleaning and drying process. Especially now that many households are using dryers, the carbon emissions from the process of drying clothes are starting to rise.Use room temperature water instead of hot water for laundry. After washing clothes, hang them on the clothesline to dry naturally, not in the dryer. This can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80%. 

In some environmentally friendly countries such as the United States, “carbon labels” have appeared on clothing, and even an “ID card” is provided for each piece of clothing, which can track the whole life cycle of clothing and help reduce waste.France plans to implement “climate labelling” next year, which will require every piece of clothing sold to have a “label detailing its impact on the climate”. The rest of the EU is expected to follow suit by 2026.