Fashion’s addiction to polyester helps Big Oil, hurts the rest of us: New report

Synthetic fabrics have come a long way, from 1970s leisure suits to this season’s sweatsuits and yoga pants. Yet the popularity of polyester and other petroleum-based fibers takes a toll few brands are taking seriously enough, according to the Changing Markets Foundation. 

Fashion brands are pumping out more synthetics than ever, even despite targets to the contrary, the London nonprofit found. They are cribbing from Big Oil’s playbook as they ratchet up high-emissions materials that create enormous amounts of plastic pollution, according to its Sept. 17 report “Fashion’s Plastic Paralysis: How Brands Resist Change and Fuel Microplastic Pollution.”

Zara owner Inditex and Calvin Klein parent PVH are the top producers of synthetics by volume — although Shein may even top them, the report found. Only Reformation and Hugo Boss rose above a pack of the 50 brands studied, because they strive to adopt more natural fibers. Some of those efforts, however, appeared contradictory.

“It is important to track the way brands are using synthetics because a net zero aligned industry urgently needs to address its addiction to fossil fuel-based fiber,” said Richard Wielechowski, senior analyst at Planet Tracker, when asked about the trends highlighted by the Changing Markets report.

The apparel industry is the third biggest buyer of plastic behind packaging and construction, providing a “lifeline for the plastics and fossil fashion industry,” the report said.

• Synthetic fabrics required 342 million barrels of oil in 2017, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 
• After garments reach their end of life, the microfiber waste flows into waterways, air and soil. Microplastics, tiny bits less than 5 millimeters wide, eventually land in people’s lungs, bloodstreams and brains. 
• The apparel industry was responsible for 8.3 million tonnes of plastic pollution in 2019, according to a June report in the journal Nature Communications. That’s 14 percent of the overall sum from all industries.

The biggest producers of synthetic styles

Fast fashion names aren’t the only companies to blame, the report found. Athletic brands including Adidas, outdoor names such as Patagonia, and mega retailer Walmart are taking inadequate action to reduce synthetics. Yet their use of synthetics was far less than that of other brands, including:

• Inditex, which runs Zara, produced the most synthetic clothing by volume — 212,89 tonnes each year.
• Judging by Shein’s stratospheric growth, however, it may actually produce just as much, the authors wrote. The company declined to disclose.
• In terms of annual synthetics production by weight were different. Trailing Inditex were PVH at 36,28 tonnes, followed by Mango, at 22,58 tons.
• Shein did share that it used 82 percent synthetics in its overall mix of fibers, more than any other brand.
• Boohoo came in second in terms of synthetics in its mix of fibers, at 69 percent.
• Athleisure giant Lululemon uses 67 percent synthetics. 

However, only 23 of 50 brands fully replied to the foundation’s survey — “a disturbing lack of transparency,” it noted. To understand the actions of the other brands, authors relied on publicly available data.

Missing their targets

Denial and doublespeak pervade the industry’s reliance on fossil-based fibers, charged the report, a partnership with the Clean Clothes Campaign and Plastic Soup Foundation of Amsterdam, Fashion Revolution of London, and No Plastic in My Sea of Paris (French).

Aware of the problems synthetic fabrics bring, some companies have set goals to use more natural ones, including cotton and viscose. Yet even they fail to demonstrate consistent action to reduce their use of synthetics. The report found, for example:

• Only Reformation and Hugo Boss are “leading the shift” to phase out synthetics meaningfully.
• Reformation plans to end the use of synthetics by 2030, whittling down the level of both virgin and recycled ones down to 1 percent by 2025. The company used the lowest volume of synthetics among all 50 brands, and they comprised 2.5 percent of all of its fibers in 2023. Since 2022, its share of synthetics among all fibers fell by 13.8 percent, according to Reformation. This contradicts the Changing Markets Foundation’s charge that the company grew its share of synthetics by 61 percent — a discrepancy that comes from the company improving its reporting processes, Reformation’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kathleen Talbot told Trellis.
• Hugo Boss said it would stop using polyester and polyamide by 2030, but its use of synthetics grew by 143 percent between 2022 and 2023.
• Since 2022, C&A, Esprit and Inditex also failed to make good on their promises to decrease the use of synthetics.

Why synthetics?

Polyester overtook cotton as the most popular textile fiber in 2000, and its production doubled by 2021. More than two-thirds of new textile fibers are synthetics. Among them, polyester is the cheapest and most predominant, according to research by Tecnon Orbichem. Water-resistant and wrinkle-proof, petroleum-based textiles offer designers unique creative possibilities. 

“Synthetics dominate fashion because they are readily available, inexpensive and deliver key performance attributes,” said Ken Pucker, an instructor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. “In addition, the costs of using fossil fuel based inputs are socialized while the profits are privatized … brands reap the benefits of synthetics and citizens bear the costs.”

A blended picture

However, there’s no consensus around the need to eliminate synthetics entirely. Cotton has a larger carbon emissions footprint than polyester, according to Marcian Le, an analyst at Lux Research. “Furthermore, what are we doing with all the new volumes of cotton waste?” he said. “It’s still likely to go to landfill and cotton recycling hasn’t had as much momentum as polyester textiles recycling.”

Non‑synthetic material is often overlooked and undocumented, according to Kelly Sheridan, CEO of The Microfibre Consortium. The nonprofit engages more than 100 apparel industry signatories against microfiber pollution. “Not only has this resulted in a general underestimation of microfibre concentrations, but it also gives the wrong impression that all microfibres are microplastic.”

“It is vital that the textile industry, alongside other key stakeholders – science, government, policy makers and citizens — takes collaborative action now and adopt a no‑regrets approach to find solutions to mitigate microfibre pollution,” she added.

What sustainability professionals should do

Fashion brands are copying the manipulation tactics of Big Tobacco and Big Oil to mislead the public, the Changing Markets Foundation wrote. The two biggest tactics, it noted, are delaying with inaction and distracting with “false solutions and greenwashing.”

Brands that strive to reduce the impacts of synthetic fibers must achieve buy-in across the entire company, according to Wielechowski of Planet Tracker. “To reduce synthetic use will need designers to be happy to switch to other fabrics, buyers to factor in the change in the terms they demand and management to be onboard with overseeing the change and ensuring incentives across the business are aligned with the goal,” he said.

The report detailed these seven recommendations for business: 

1. Create time-bound goals, such as “a 20 percent reduction (against a 2021 baseline) in the use of fossil fuels in materials by 2025 and a 50 percent reduction by 2030.”
2. Tackle microfiber shedding: First, prioritize clothes for children and new mothers. Then, set a ceiling for how many microfibers can be released over the life of a garment.
3. Set climate targets and stick to them: Make absolute emissions reductions that include the supply chain and 2050 deadlines.
4. Devote resources to “true circularity”: This begins with durable garments, plus easy-to-access consumer reuse and repair options. Invest in fiber-to-fiber recycling. Eliminate toxic chemicals from design.
5. Don’t make misleading green claims: Don’t call something recyclable if you can’t back it up. Ditch synthetics for good instead of touting that you recycle them.
6. Share it all about suppliers: Beyond the major “tier 1” or “tier 2” suppliers, reach into the outer limits of the supply chain. Be transparent about their actions.
7. Support legislation to move industry transparency and circularity forward: “Leave any industry initiatives that oppose, delay or undermine progressive legislation, including its implementation, and do not rely on membership of multi-stakeholder initiatives as the only means to drive progress on addressing microfibre release and pollution,” the report noted.