The Sustainable Fashion Myth

Julio F. Campos

The latest trend in the fashion industry,  sustainability is on the hype and widely celebrated by fashion corporations, concerned consumers, designers and whoever wants to save the planet.

However, if the electronics industry is the father of planned obsolescence, fashion is doubtless the mother, releasing season after season new collections to allow the engaged audience to keep up with the last tendencies. 

Who wants to be kept out of the latest tendencies after all?

Like all the other movements towards sustainability, those engaged with the fashion also follows the same set of beliefs used by the rest of business.

1. Optimize the production process to reduce its impact, and;
2. Recycle.

So the actions are focused on the start and the end of the process.

But is that all?

That's the most relevant question and to answer that it is necessary to bring to the reader the statement that explains why those actions are not enough and usually are not as good as they seem.

Process efficiency

That statement answers by the name on Jevons' Paradox. First presented in late XIX century and broadly verified until today, it states that the more efficient a given product production process is in using its needed resources, the more resources it will consume.

It's counterintuitive that with efficiency in resource use increase more resources will be used and many trouble to realize how it occurs.

Why does it happen?

The paradox is related to the reduction in production/product costs. The less the amount of resources needed to manufacture one product unity two things will result. The first is that producing more with fewer means that the process will have an idle production capacity (the process will use less machinery to maintain the same output volume as before). The second is that the reduction of production costs will lead to cheaper products and as a consequence, more people will be able to buy it.

Now, if one has an idle production capacity and an increase in market demand, the result will fulfill that demand using that capacity at the most.

So, now we are using fewer resources per product unit but producing way lot more volume of products. As a result, the overall resources consumption increases, hence, the paradox.

How can that be resumed in a simple definition that is known by almost anyone? We'll come back to that latter.

As seen, Jevons' Paradox demonstrates that increase in process efficiency is not the answer by itself and therefore only that is not enough for a sustainable result.

Recycling

Recycling has held a top position in sustainability solution by the industry and the population in general.

There are some significant caveats in recycling.

It's not all that can be recycled, either because of technical problems, costs problems, quality problems or lack of a market to buy it. The recent ban from China for low-quality recyclables is an example of the complexity of recycling process.

From that which is recyclable, many materials can not return to their original product lines due to many factors and become an input for another product.

However, the demand for the recyclable must meet the offer, or we'll have a build up of recyclables and no use for them. Again, there are numerous cases due to China ban.

Even in the case when a material is recycled into the same product from which it came from, the demand/offer relation must be satisfied.

In other words, if we can recycle something, this doesn't mean that there will be a use for it if we produce more than the industry can absorb.

So what's missing here in that magical equation?

How can that be resumed in a simple definition that is known by almost anyone?

One single widely known word:

CONSUMERISM

Increase in production efficiency = cheaper products

Cheaper products + increase in market penetration = consumerism.

Consumerism = waste production

Increase in recyclables production+ lesser demand for recyclables = waste adding up.

Is that simple? Basically.

How fashion industry fits in all of this?

To be in the same pace with the fashion trends, one needs to buy new clothes over and over.

If a given cloth is made using a sustainable process, it's expensive and not socially inclusive leaving the majority of the population out of the process and with no other choice than fast fashion (low time span, low-quality fashion).

Can you keep a secret that the fashion industry doesn't want you to know? Sustainable fashion is not expensive because of any obscure productive process, but because people are willing to pay more if they believe that it will benefit the environment or any social cause, like poverty.

Recently I asked one of the sustainability persons in charge from one of Brazilian largest producers/retailers, which released a sustainable t-shirt, about how they are dealing with the consumerism problem of their products. The answer was that they don't keep track of that (they don't know how much they sell?? weird) but that they do have some locals to receive used clothes to recycle. They don't care about the consumerism problem!!!

No other brand or sustainable fashion professionals, when questioned about this issue, gave, until now, any answer, choosing to dodge the question. Fashion professionals indeed. Sustainability professionals? Not quite.

On the other side, there is an increasing movement of concerned consumers with the problem. But most are still aiming at the wrong problems.

While going for the sustainable products or getting away from fast fashion (falling into the excuse that they should pay more for something that lasts more, what could be true if the price couldn't be lower than it is), they still fail to focus on the real problem: Buy only what you really need.

The demand for sustainability by the consumers is admirable.

Unfortunately, the fashion industry focus is on selling their products.

The fashion consumerism is building up a pile of waste beyond any recycling capability? That's a consumer problem, not ours, the industry says.

But what about industry actions on conscious consumption?

Well, it can be resumed in one phrase:

Buy our sustainable products, not our competitor's

Don't you need all those clothes?

You bought it, your problem. We're saving water in our production process.

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