Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Around the world, an estimated 92 million tonnes of everyday clothing is thrown away each year. In the US alone, about 85% of all discarded textiles – roughly 13 million tonnes in 2017 – are either dumped into landfill or burned. By 2030, it is expected that we would discard more than 134 million tonnes of textiles annually.
There are many good reasons to seek out alternatives to chucking clothes in the trash bin – the global fashion industry is responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions, with textile production alone is estimated to release 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year. Vast amounts of water are also needed to produce the clothes we wear too and the fashion industry is responsible for 20% of global waste water. At the same time, we are buying more clothes than ever before. Globally, around 56 million tonnes of clothing are bought each year, and this can rise to 93 million tonnes by 2030. So, would recycling our clothes help to reduce the toll our fashion addiction is having on the environment?
Much of the problem comes down to what our clothes are made from. The fabrics we drape over our bodies are usually made from problematic blends of natural yarns, man-made filaments, plastics and metals, which makes it to separate and effectively recycle them. Sorting textiles into different fibres and material types by hand is labour intensive, slow and requires a skilled workforce. The growing use of modern fabric blends in clothing also makes it hard to do this mechanically too. Moreover, clothes sent for recycling are usually of such poor quality that they are simply torn up. Consequently, very few of these clothes are actually turned into new clothing in the end.
Many major brands across the fashion industry are starting to pay attention to the demand for more sustainable practices. Adidas recently announced a range of trainers made from ocean plastic. Zara, one of the world's biggest fashion retailers, also announced in 2019 that it would be using only sustainable materials by 2025. However, some are sceptical about how committed to sustainability they actually are, with some accusing them of "greenwashing" – the act of making people believe that a company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is through misleading behaviour or activities.
Consumers themselves also need to change their behaviour if we hope to lessen the impact that the fashion industry is having on our planet. "We need to slow down, take a little time to reconnect with our clothes and appreciate them again," says Clare Press, Australian Vogue's sustainability editor and author of the book Wardrobe Crisis. "Remember that whatever you are wearing, it took both physical and creative resources to make it."
(Adapted from bbc.com)