• Fashion production makes up 10 percent of humanity’s carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams due to 85 percent of textiles dumped each year, according to research by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) 2018.
• The environmental damage created by textile manufacturing industries is increasing as the industry expands.
Image: HANDOUT
The fashion industry has a disastrous impact on the environment through increased emissions and energy use with damaging repercussions for climate change.
The environmental damage created by textile manufacturing industries is increasing as the industry expands environmentalists warn.
Anuja Prashar, author of the Global Production Networks of the Second-hand clothing industry said the textile industry is the second –largest polluter of the environment after the oil industry due to 10 per cent of humanity’s carbon emissions experts say.
“When people throw away clothes, they are adding to that waste, only 15 percent of clothing is recycled or donated while the rest goes directly to the landfill and takes up to 200 years to decompose,” she said.
She spoke in Nairobi during the launch of the Mitumba sector report.
Fashion production makes up 10 per cent of humanity’s carbon emissions, dries up water sources and pollutes rivers and streams due to 85 per cent of textiles dumped each year, according to research by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) 2018.
“By the simple act of reusing clothing that has already been produced, the second-hand sector has the potential to make a significant contribution to climate change risk mitigation while reducing environmental harm,” she said.
According to the report, to reduce environmental pollution, sorting facilities should be established for free to help realize Kenya’s goal of becoming among the leading high-value, high-wage, and high-skill economies in Africa.
“Currently only a quarter of all clothing products are actually the potential to grow the sector is considerable. Policies that encourage the growth of businesses for the full processing of clothing and discarded textile materials would help increase the rate of recycling," she said.
This is after Kenyan fashion designers decided to turn mitumba leftovers into fashion.
The Completely out of Fashion, run by Reuse NGO and CXP Africa, has been mentoring 12 young female designers from marginalized areas.
The designers have a particular love for fashion- one that is conscious about its impact on the environment
During the graduation, the 12 showcased their upcycled collections made entirely from post-consumer textile waste.
The workshop involved technical training and environmental knowledge to raise and create awareness about the negative impacts of poor textile waste management.
The designers make clothes and bags, which they sell through their online platforms. Each goes for Sh3,500 and above.
The project's main goal was to take the designers through a series of lessons on upcycled design, as a method and tool for reducing textile waste.
Customer Xperience Africa CEO Robin Mugani says they believe in sustainable solutions for Africa.
“We are at a time that we need to be on the frontline on environmental issues and things affecting us,” he said.
Mugani said young people easily learn new ways of doing things.
He added that they have utilized about Sh5.6 million in the last six months of the program.
The young designers are offering a solution even as the world races against time to find one for pollution.