资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Raimund Koch/Getty

By Sandrine Ceurstemont

IT WAS a rookie error. Two decades ago, Gary Cass had just finished a degree in viticulture and was working at a friend’s winery in Western Australia when he forgot to add carbon dioxide to a vat of wine. Oxygen seeped in, feeding bacteria that caused a thick skin of sludge to form on its surface. Grateful not to be sacked, Cass threw it away in disgust. He couldn’t have guessed that, 20 years on, he would be using that same sludge to make more environmentally sound clothes.

Dressing ourselves is a necessity that has spawned one of the most polluting economic activities on the planet. The clothing industry creates carbon emissions of 1.2 billion tonnes a year – more than aviation – and making and maintaining our clothes consumes shedloads of water, energy and non-renewable resources, too. Concern about clothing sustainability is suddenly in vogue. In November 2017, designer Stella McCartney spoke out against her industry following a report on clothing’s environmental impact by the sustainable economy think tank the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Cass is just one of many trying to respond to such concerns, finding ways to make clothes greener at all stages of their lives, from production and processing to washing and disposal. And although there is no single easy solution, it turns out there is quite a lot we can all do to help.

Across the planet, more people are wearing more clothes for shorter times. Those garments tend to start their lives in factories in South and East Asia, often far from …

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