From the high street to haute couture,
fashion is a 1.3 trillion dollar industry,
but it comes with a hefty environmental price tag.
Cotton production is being blamed
for depleting water sources and contaminating
the environment with pesticides.
Chemical waste from clothes manufacturing
has devastated rivers in Asia,
and some estimates suggest the fashion industry
is on course to create 1/4 of projected
global carbon emissions by 2050.
If you take design, a lot of it is
take, make, dispose.
There's another looming threat
for the fashion industry,
and it's going to put clothing materials
under the microscope like never before.
This man is known as the godfather of microplastic research.
In fact, Professor Richard Thompson invented the term.
Microplastics are basically just small fragments
of plastic that are accumulating in the environment.
His latest research has uncovered something
that has sent shock waves around the fashion industry.
The data we've collected show
significant increase in the quantities of microplastic
in the environment,
and a lot of what we found in that study was plastic fibers.
Synthetic materials like polyester,
nylon, and acrylic are made of plastic fibers.
These degrade and break up in a washing machine cycle.
If we take a domestic washing load,
that could release up to 700,000 fibers in a single wash.
Now that's gonna go to waste water treatment.
Some of those fibers will be intercepted
in waste water treatment,
but a good number will potentially
escape to the environment.
The data suggests that they are accumulating year on year.
Between 2000 and 2016,
the use of polyester by the global garment industry
increased from 8.3 to 21.3 million tons annually.
1/3 of the fish that I collect from a sample
in the English Channel near to here,
have got synthetic pieces in their guts.
10, 20, 30 years time, the quantities in those organisms
is only going be greater.
The long term effects of these plastics
in the food chain, and even in humans, are still unknown.
But Professor Thompson's discovery is ringing alarm bells.
When I talk to designers, they tell me that
shedding of fibers, and indeed, end of life recyclability
was never part of the design brief.
Environmental considerations like these
are making some fashion brands go back to the drawing board.
Tom Kay has spent his life around the ocean.
In 2003, he launched a brand that creates
functional and sustainable products
for those that share a love of the sea.
His company is experimenting with different design processes
in order to lessen it's environmental impact.
If you take design, a lot of it at the minute,
is take, make, dispose.
That is totally unsustainable.
We really have to address the root of the problem,
and that's redesigning out harmful fibers, harmful fabrics,
harmful processes.
The company uses only organic cotton.
It's developed a recycled polyester insulation for jackets,
and has created its very own wetsuit recycling program.
Polymer, polyester, you can take it back
and recycle it time, time and time again.
Finisterre's design team has also returned
to one of the oldest materials known to man.
This is really nice.
[Deep Female Voice] I actually really love it in the navy.
We've been big fans of wool since we started.
It's a great fiber.
It's a natural fiber.
It's biodegradable and it's fully traceable.
Finisterre is one of 2,700
B Corp approved Companies.
Members, spanning many industries,
are assessed on their environmental performance
and have a legally binding commitment
to put sustainability before profit.
It isn't a done deal,
we want fifty years to deliver this.
It's the thing we work at every day
to kinda improve on and get better at.
One designer is turning fashions
plastic problem on it's head.
Javier Goyeneche runs ECOALF.
He's taking plastics out of the ocean
and turning them into shoes.
The sneakers is the result
of more than two years of R&D.
They're active, urban, comfortable.
All the upper is made from 100% plastic bottles
from the bottom of the ocean.
The outsole is made from algae.
And his shoes rarely
go through a washing cycle.
He's limiting the plastic microfibers
that end up in the ocean.
ECOALF is creating high end fashion
from household and industrial waste
sourced from fisherman in the Mediterranean and Thailand.
We started working with three fishermen
off the east coast of Spain and now we have nearly
3,000 fishermen taking waste out of the ocean every day.
We've taken already 250 tons, which we then convert into
polymer yarn, fabric, and products.
But Javier's also pioneering
a new synthetic material made from recycled plastic
that doesn't shed fibers in the same way
as current materials.
We started a project one year ago,
which is with the yarn we're getting from the ocean,
we want to start investing in,
how can we create a yarn that doesn't throw
microfilament to the system again?
Javier is one of a growing number
of boutique brands using recycled plastics.
The way we do things are much more complicated,
not only much more expensive,
and at the end of the day,
it's much easier to go a fabric show, buy a fabric,
produce a garment, and sell it.
The sooner bigger fashion labels
and brands follow suit,
the cheaper this environmentally friendly
clothing will become.
There are few laws regulating the use of synthetic materials
in the fashion industry.
Of course I'm concerned about the natural environment.
I'm a marine biologist that works in marine habitats.
Microplastics are consistent and we know
that they're accumulating
and we know that we're finding marine life
encountering them on a regular basis.
More research is needed into the potential harm
caused by microplastics.
But their very presence in the natural environment
poses serious concerns and challenges
for the fashion industry.
Can businesses accused of putting style over substance
get to grip with the materials their using
and impact they may be having on the planet.