During the washing process of synthetic textiles such as nylon or polyester, friction between fabric's fibres releases plastic microfibres, stipulated to be around 0,5 million tonnes per year. But the pollution from the fibres of so-called natural textiles is also quite worrying.

According to a study by Aalto University, the fashion industry contributes to 10% of global pollution and it is the second largest industrial polluter after aviation. The industry produces more than 92 million tonnes of waste per year while consuming a staggering amount of 79 billion litres of water each year.

Fast fashion causes clothes production in unacceptable quantities to have a shorter and shorter life cycle. Then, textiles often end up in landfill sites.

We currently have several ways to soften the impact, such as producing less, reusing more, and transforming the part of the waste that cannot be recycled by treating it separately or as part of municipal solid waste. 

Landfill mining, on the other hand, allows us to open up closed or abandoned landfills to extract and exploit buried waste. Doing so allows us to reduce pollution, recover land and rehabilitate soils. 

Berg, A., Granskog, A., Lee, L., and Magnus, K.-H. (2021). Fashion on climate - how the fashion industry can urgently act to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. McKinsey and Company and Global Fashion Agenda.

Chen, X., Memon, H. A., Wang, Y., Marriam, I., and Tebyetekerwa, M. (2021). Circular Economy and sustainability of the clothing and textile Industry. Mat. Circ. Econ. 3 (1), 12–19. doi:10.1007/s42824-021-00026-2

Bukhari, M. A., Carrasco-Gallego, R., and Ponce-Cueto, E. (2018). Developing a national programme for textiles and clothing recovery. Waste Manag. Res. 36 (4), 321–331. doi:10.1177/0734242x18759190