It is no secret that the fashion industry has huge environmental impacts, some even dedicated entire websites to it (hello). Although, what is new is the increasing number of people and organisations discussing and trying to unravel the depth of fashion’s unsustainability, particularly fast fashion. And if you’ve heard anything about sustainable fashion, it probably is that we don’t really like synthetic fibres. But why exactly?

Synthetic fibres reprensent 62.5% of total fibre production and is set to represent 70/75% in 2030. When shopping mainstream fashion, it is virtually impossible to avoid these fibres. They dominate the market and the composition of our clothes with at least a few % of polyester, nylon, acrylic or elastanein most pieces.

As you’ll learn through this article, these fibres have multiple issues. Not only are they made from fossil fuel but because their systematic and excessive use is resulting in cheaply made clothes that have extremely short life spans and are nearly impossible to recycle. The microplastics they shed during the use phase and at the end of life stage are a growing issue and health concern for us all.  

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Understand this material.

All synthetic fibres are composed of long chain molecules known as polymer which are formed by chemical processing, meaning they are obtained industrially from artificial substances and chemical compounds of various kinds. These polymers, the most popular being our dear polyester, are obtained almost exclusively from petroleum derivatives.

Amazing... While most industries are trying to reduce their emissions and phase out of fossil fuels, the fashion industry is intensifying its reliance on them. In short, synthetic fibres are oil-derived products akin to plastic. This domination of the market is however a recent phenomenon, with a production that doubled in the last 20 years.

This vertiginous growth in synthetic fibres is by no means good news. While it does have recognisable advantages:  

• Possible to mass produce from low-cost raw materials in almost infinite variations.
• Resistance to atmospheric and biological agents
• Resistance to breakage and abrasion
• Excellent elastic recovery
• Dyeability with no limits on shades and nuances
• Easily blended with other fibers

Note: when talking about durability here, it is more about the resistance of the fibre (including in the environment) rather than the durability of the clothes they constitute, which are on the contrary more likely to lose their structure and retain odours and stains.

Synthetic fibres also have pretty big counter arguments to its use:

• Petroleum as raw material
• Highly inflammable.
• Polluting and chemically intensive transformation process.
• They are not biodegradable.
• They can cause allergic reactions.
• Disperse in the environment in the form of plastic microparticles.

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Synthetic fibres are favored for their versatility and resistance but first and foremost for their low cost (about half the price of organic cotton or other natural fibres) and therefore ability to be mass produced at a whole new level.

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A lifecycle of impacts

Let's look into more details the impacts caused by the 3 most common synthetic fibres: polyester, nylon and acrylic.

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Creating these fibres

As we’ve seen, polyester is the top choice for most brands, representing 52% of all fibre production globally. Derived from petroleum, it will definitely require less water and fertilizer in production than natural fibres such as cotton (which we’ve seen has its own demons). Yet, it contributes just as much if not more to environmental issues through the release of greenhouse gas emissions, due to highly energy-intensive processes (polymerization).

Nylon, usually used in activewear, swimwear... is just as energy-intensive but on top of it also releases nitrous oxides during the manufacturing process, which is even more harmful than carbon dioxide and depletes ozone layers!

As for Acrylic, it generates about 5.5 kg of CO2 per kilogram produced, .013 kg of sulphur dioxide (SO2), which can lead to acid rain, as well as using a happy cocktail of chemicals which results in hazardous waste ending up in water and land throuhought its lifecycle.

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Use phase and end of life:

Synthetic fibres present ongoing challenges compared to their natural counterparts. During use, these garments continuously shed microplastics through wear, wash and dry, contributing significantly to ocean plastic pollution (30% being textile-derived). Finally, at the end of their life, synthetic fibre textiles prove difficult to recycle, exacerbating plastic pollution by taking centuries to degrade and releasing even more harmful microfibers into water sources.

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Here are the hard truth of of a fossil fuel based fashion. synthetic materials and their excessive use are far from environmentally friendly. The difficulty being that we are surrounded by these materials. Check any of your current clothes, we would bet that most are synthetic based. If you're wondering what to do after reading this article, check out our ultimate fibre guide or guide to shopping.

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