No one knows exactly how many coats, jeans, T-shirts and trainers are produced every year, which means no one knows how many garments remain unsold in warehouses, destined for landfill or destruction. Without this information, trying to reduce the fashion industry’s carbon footprint is a bit like trying to solve a puzzle in the dark.

The available statistics suggest that between 80bn and 150bn garments are made every year and that between 10% and 40% of these are not sold. So it could be 8bn or 60bn excess garments a year – an alarming disparity.

[...]

...transparency about production volumes is central to assessing and tackling the scope of fashion’s environmental problems....

So far, 32 small- and medium-sized businesses have participated....

“The reason they don’t really like to talk about how much product they have is because it’s the dirty secret of the industry,” says Francois Souchet, a circular economy and sustainability strategist. “There’s likely to be a huge public backlash when people understand how much product is not sold.”

At Kantamanto market in Accra, Ghana... approximately 40% of every bale of textiles ends up as waste....

[...]

The exorbitant waste in the industry is a result of how disposable clothes are considered in wealthy countries. It is symbolic, too, of how well supply chains are hidden from and misunderstood by consumers.

“There’s a lot of human toil that goes into our clothes, from the cotton picking, spinning and weaving to the garment workers and how often they don’t see their children because of the hours they work,” says Christina Dean, the founder of the anti-waste charity Redress. “To have those pieces trashed in such an uncaring way signifies how misaligned we are to our fellow people in this world.”

[...]

But excess stock is not the only problem, says [Liz] Ricketts, [the co-founder and executive director of the Or Foundation, an environmental justice charity based in Ghana]: “...Brands are manufacturing demand in the same way they manufacture too many clothes.” This demand is created through relentless marketing across social media, targeted digital adverts, email campaigns and a seemingly never-ending cycle of discounts and promotions.

[...]

This is the hard truth almost always avoided at industry summits and in corporate targets...

On its current trajectory, the industry’s emissions will double in the next 10 years. To curb rates of production and consumption, it’s clear that pending European legislation on extended producer responsibility schemes cannot come soon enough.

[...]

...it is critical that EPR legislation ensures the funds raised reach communities like those in Ghana that are shouldering the burden of textile waste.

...“Policies have to take production volumes into account. No matter how much innovation or money brands pump into solutions [such as textile recycling], we won’t be successful if we don’t slow down.”