Skip to main content
BoF Logo

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

The BoF Podcast: Fashion’s Role in Solving Plastic Pollution

By 2030, 70 percent of all fabric fibres will come from plastics. Action needs to happen now to safeguard the future of our planet, says Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff.
Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff | Source: Getty Images for The Business of Fashion
The author has shared a Podcast.You will need to accept and consent to the use of cookies and similar technologies by our third-party partners (including: YouTube, Instagram or Twitter), in order to view embedded content in this article and others you may visit in future.

To subscribe to the BoF Podcast, please follow this link.

OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom — The global plastic waste problem has made headlines in the last year, implicating industries from beauty to beverages. But fashion's immense contribution to plastic pollution is often overlooked.

The average American spends $60 a month on clothes and sends 6 pounds of textile waste to landfill. Multiply that by 160 million American women and that’s nearly $10 billion and one billion pounds of landfill waste just from buying and discarding clothes.

These were the facts that Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, founder and chief executive of Lincoln Sarnoff Consulting and former executive director of the 5 Gyres Institute, a conservation non-profit that fights ocean plastic pollution, laid bare on stage at VOICES, BoF's annual gathering for big thinkers.

ADVERTISEMENT

Eliminating single-use plastic is one way to help tackle the issue at large. Designers can replace synthetic fabrics with natural ones, such as organic cotton. Consumers can wash clothes less often or wash them by hand to minimise micro-plastic pollution. But the biggest impact will stem from legislative action, said Lincoln Sarnoff.

“We can all support common-sense legislation to better manage plastic pollution, from washing machine filtration to minimum recycling content laws to outright bans,” she said. “We have to. Because there is only one ocean and our future depends on its health.”

To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions or speaker ideas please e-mail podcast@businessoffashion.com.

Subscribe to BoF Professional for unlimited access to BoF articles, plus exclusive benefits for members. For a limited time, enjoy 25 percent discount on the first year of an annual membership, exclusively for podcast listeners. Simply, click here, select the Annual Package and use code PODCAST2019 at the checkout.

© 2024 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from News & Analysis
Fashion News, Analysis and Business Intelligence from the leading digital authority on the global fashion industry.
view more

Subscribe to the BoF Daily Digest

The essential daily round-up of fashion news, analysis, and breaking news alerts.

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON
BoF Professional - How to Turn Data Into Meaningful Customer Connections
© 2024 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Accessibility Statement.
BoF Professional - How to Turn Data Into Meaningful Customer Connections