Like most Brits my life used to be filled with plastic.
I now carry my own shopping bags, refill a water bottle, say “no” to plastic stirrers and straws and have switched to a bamboo toothbrush and face cloth.
I diligently recycle, cut down on meat and use my local refill store when possible with old glass jars.
But despite my best efforts to be greener, ashamedly over the years I’ve unwittingly been contributing to an environmental disaster that has a bigger carbon footprint than aviation and shipping combined – fast fashion.
Like most women, and many men, my wardrobe is bursting full of clothes, shoes and handbags.
A few items still have the price tag on. Others probably won’t ever see the light of day again.
In the UK, we buy more clothes per person than any other country in Europe. Italians, famed for being the world’s best dressed, buy half of what we do.
Half of all Brits will have hay fever by 2030 due to surge in pollen count
Of the 100 billion items made last year, one in three ended up in landfill or were incinerated. No wonder with T-shirts on sale for £2 or dresses for a fiver.
But our demand for cheap fashion comes with a catastrophic environmental price tag. It produces an annual carbon footprint of over a billion tonnes of CO2, the same as Russia, while cotton production consumes lake-sized areas of water often containing pesticides.
And every time we put on a wash, thousands of plastic fibres from polyester and acrylic jumpers go down the drain and into the oceans.
Experts want retailers to pay a penny tax for each garment produced – in turn raising £35million a year to be spent on recycling.
Producers must take responsibility for the waste they create and help pay for clearing
it up.
But we all have a responsibility to buy less, reuse, repair and recycle more.
As a result I am setting myself a challenge – a 12-month ban on buying any new clothes.
Apart from underwear, everything else will be secondhand, including the tricky task of sourcing my own wedding dress.
It won’t be easy but fixing fast fashion must be a priority.
Our clothes shouldn’t cost the earth.
- Will you join the Mirror’s War on Waste? Email me your tips and annoyances.
