Sustainability challenges in the clothing and textile industry

ChallengesSustainabilityin the clothing and textile industry

In recent decades, awareness has grown increasingly about the issue of sustainability and environmental preservation, which necessarily led to the emergence of a number of brands that adopt sustainability as a competitive advantage over other companies. However, the path towards sustainability is not, of course, easy, especially in industrial sectors, and among these sectors is the textile industry. We will discuss in the following lines the challenges facing the latter in more detail.

In the past few decades, some clothing and textile production companies have increasingly integrated sustainable practices into their operations and supply chains, by increasing the efficiency of production processes and designing sustainable products and clothing with a low environmental footprint.

Despite this, it is not easy to completely transform the clothing and textile industry into sustainability, as the matter comes with a set of challenges and obstacles, the most important of which we review below.

Lack of definition andFast fashion

The first challenge facing sustainable practices is the lack of a common and specific definition of the word “sustainability” itself, to be a single standard agreed upon by this entire industry, as some companies may promote their activities as sustainable according to their narrow view.

As a result of the above, many brand products now have general words that refer to sustainable practices, such as: sustainable product, green product, environmentally friendly product, and other words for which there is no clear definition. Without a clear definition, it becomes difficult for this industry to define its goals, or measure progress in achieving them.

The second challenge is fast fashion, which changes from one season to another. Perhaps this is one of the difficult obstacles on the path of the clothing industry’s transformation to sustainability. Fast fashion has made clothing one of the most change-intensive categories of consumer products.

In the world of fashion, we find that many brands have made efforts to reduce production costs by using low-cost labor, and have relied on unsustainable materials. In order to increase its profits in this highly competitive market, these are practices that directly conflict with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Infrastructure and raw materials

The lack of adequate infrastructure represents a major problem in developing countries, where most small and medium-sized companies do not have access to advanced technology that helps in sustainable production, and the most prominent examples of this are the infrastructure for renewable energy resources, or waste treatment and recycling ports.

The above means the accumulation of large quantities of unused clothing waste, in addition to the dependence of industry in developing countries on fossil fuels as a major source of energy in all production processes.

The third challenge is the cost of raw materials needed for the textile industry, especially in countries that have to import raw materials, which means the high cost of operating clothing factories, along with the inflation problems that developing economies suffer from. The inevitable result of this is the inability of many factories to bear the costs of sustainable practices, and resort to traditional options in the types of raw materials and fuel used.

Shortage of skilled workers

The lack of skilled labor needed to adopt new technologies makes many textile manufacturers unable to adopt sustainable practices; So what is the benefit of purchasing advanced equipment and advanced operating systems when there is no skilled workforce that can operate them in the optimal manner that guarantees obtaining the desired results?!

This shortage of skilled workers created a gap that widened over time in the clothing and textile industry market in developing countries. Therefore, it would not be surprising to find a wide spread of poor-quality products, which are imported at low prices from abroad from countries such as China.

The problem with the above is that it has a double effect. On the one hand, growth in the local clothing and textile industry slows down, and on the other hand, reliance on imported products that are purchased with foreign currency increases, and it also entrenches in the consumer’s mind that the local product is not an appropriate option for spending his money.

Limitations of natural dyes

The bright colors of clothing that we see in various stores and showrooms are not often produced from the use of natural dyes in manufacturing processes, but rather from industrial dyes that consist of complex chemical compounds, as natural colors – even when mixed between them – cannot give the shades of color that artificial colors provide.

The problem with relying on industrial dyes is that they are not a sustainable option, as they contain many pollutants and hazardous materials, in addition to the auxiliary chemicals that are used during the dyeing processes, not to mention the large amounts of water and liquid waste left behind by the dyeing process.

This liquid waste of dyes can accumulate in the water to the point that light cannot penetrate it, which weakens the ability of plants to photosynthesize, and this reduces the percentage of oxygen in the water. Which leads to a threat to aquatic and plant life.

Waste and Recycling Management

To meet consumer requirements, many brands prefer to produce inexpensive and non-durable clothing, which means generating huge amounts of waste that ends up in landfills, which may take years and decades to decompose.

The last challenge is that many companies do not take recycling into consideration when designing their clothes, in addition to the consumer behavior of many in getting rid of unused clothes, instead of creating a new life cycle for them by – for example – donating them.

In this presentation, we have tried to shed light on the most prominent challenges facing the clothing and textile industry, and perhaps in the upcoming issues we will discuss the most prominent solutions to these challenges.