What we buy matters. What we wear matters.
By Robin de Valk-Zaiss
We’ve all heard the murmurs about the textile industry and the perpetual, harmful fast-fashion cycle we find ourselves caught in. Everything seems to be speeding up. Time, trends, and the degradation of the environment. Consumption in every form and variation has become society’s drug. We are addicted to a boost of dopamine that doesn’t last. Dependent on plastic materials that inhibit us from living in a happier, healthier world. And all roads (and pollutants) lead back to the ocean. Clothes and the constant buying, turning over, and throwing away of them, have become a leading pollutant to our oceans in numerous devastating ways.
The production and consumption of textiles have sprawling effects that often go unseen. It's the gift of the modern textile industry. Pollution that just keeps… polluting. Before a single pair of jeans is folded neatly in the store you love, it has already produced pollution at every phase of its journey. Fibres are spun, dyed, washed, and finished with chemicals designed to make clothes wrinkle-free, waterproof, or bright in colour (Textile Industry, 2025). And as with most chemicals, these poisonous compounds run into rivers and streams, and eventually, the ocean. Not only does the textile industry significantly impact our natural environments, but a lot of the places where these clothes are made are hubs of hazardous work environments and human rights issues (Helm, 2025). If something is substantially cheap, the cost is usually unfairly borne by workers, surrounding communities, and the environment at large.
The issues don’t end when we take a new pair of jeans home.
More than two-thirds of our clothing is made from synthetic fibres (National Oceanography Centre, 2024). Polyester, acrylic, nylon. We are wearing plastic and the chemicals these synthetic fibres contain. And what we wear, what we wash, wears down. And unfortunately, our synthetic clothes wear down into tiny particles called microfibres, a form of microplastic. A single item of clothing releases hundreds of thousands of plastic microfibres after just one wash. Microplastics are so small that most wastewater treatments are not advanced enough to catch them. And so where do they end up? Everywhere. From the deepest ocean trenches, to the stomachs of whales, within plankton, buried in polar ice, to inside our very bones (Lu, Shuai, et al, 2024). Microplastics leave an invisible trail of destruction. First, they contaminate ecosystems, they can harm marine and wildlife, and end up in the food we eat. The National Oceanography Centre claims that “70% of ocean microplastics are the type found in clothes, textiles & fishing gear”. 70 percent?! That is a lot. What began as a cheap T-shirt becomes a toxic cycle that loops back into our own bodies. The scary thing is that the harms of microplastics are still substantially understudied, and the full impacts have yet to show themselves. But it doesn’t take a team of scientists to understand that no one wants tiny particles of plastic clogging up their body like the beaches we walk and clean.
The ocean is our planet's life-support system. It produces over half of our oxygen, provides food for billions of people, and regulates our climate. We are a part of a system. A cycle. When the pulse of our system is eroded, the effects can be catastrophic for everything and everyone involved.
Blame is easy, too easy. Everyone has a role in this. And change always starts with a thought, an idea, a question. It seems the easiest, and most influential thing we can do, is simply buy less. Or simply to become more intentional with how, where and what we buy. Instead of buying a fifth pair of jeans, spend that on a microfibre filter for your washing machine, which can catch up to 80% of the microplastic runoff (UNEP, 2018)! We can let our elected representatives know that we want the Canadian National Strategy on Zero Plastic Waste to address textile pollution throughout the entire life cycle. We can donate the clothes we don’t wear anymore and repair the ripped ones instead of throwing them away. We can participate in clothing and gear swaps, including the clothing swap we’re hosting this month on December 13 in Tofino! We can buy fewer but better-quality clothes made from natural fibres. We can demand that all textile brands and businesses be forced to document and release the entire life cycles of their products, and ditch fast fashion like Shein (see the Fossil Fuel Fashion Scorecard from Stand.Earth, which is an amazing resource!)
It’s impossible to be perfect. And it can feel frustrating to be told that buying a cheap T-shirt or throwing away a ripped pair of pants is unethical, especially when far bigger players carry far more responsibility. You might think, as I often have, “Why is this on me?”
But the point isn’t to blame ourselves either. We live in an economic system hell-bent on constant consumption, and it’s easy to get swept up in the noise of what we should or shouldn’t do. But the truth is, I believe, that many of us have the power to step out of that cycle, even briefly. We also have the power to put pressure on our government for stronger regulations of the textile industry, which we must continue to exert.
And when we step out and take a breath, maybe look up at the clouds or go for a swim in the sea, it becomes clear what matters. And shocker! But that will rarely have anything to do with buying more than you need. If you’re reading this, you already care. And caring is exhausting and maddening, but it’s also everything. So, let's continue to question, to pause, to choose, to act, to care and advocate for the end of textile pollution throughout the entire life cycle.
Works Cited
Fashion Revolution. “What’s in Our Clothes and How Does It Affect the Oceans?” Fashion Revolution, 9 Mar. 2020, www.fashionrevolution.org/whats-in-our-clothes-and-how-does-it-affect-the-oceans/.
“Microplastics from Textiles: Towards a Circular Economy for Textiles in Europe.” Europa.eu, 9 Feb. 2022,www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/publications/microplastics-from-textiles-towards-a-circular-economy-for-textiles-in-europe.
National Oceanography Centre. “70% of Ocean Microplastics Are the Type Found in Clothes, Textiles & Fishing Gear – and Europe Is a Hotspot | National Oceanography Centre.” Noc.ac.uk, National Oceanography Centre, 2024, noc.ac.uk/news/70-ocean-microplastics-are-type-found-clothes-textiles-fishing-gear-europe-hotspot.
Just One Ocean. “The Fashion Industry’s Impact on the Ocean – Just One Ocean.” JustOneOcean, 2024, justoneocean.org/portfolio/the-fashion-industrys-impact-on-the-ocean.
“Dirty Laundry: Are Your Clothes Polluting the Ocean?” BBC News, 5 July 2017, www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40498292.
Lu, Shuai, et al. “New Insights: Discovery of Microplastics in Human Bone and Skeletal Muscle.” The Innovation Medicine, 2024, p. 100100, https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-med.2024.100100.
Cox, David. “How Do the Microplastics in Our Bodies Affect Our Health?” Bbc.co.uk, BBC, 25 July 2025, www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20250723-how-do-the-microplastics-in-our-bodies-affect-our-health.
Helm, Mykhail. “Beneath the Seams: The Human Toll of Fast Fashion.” Earth Day, 9 Sept. 2024, www.earthday.org/beneath-the-seams-the-human-toll-of-fast-fashion/.
“Textile Industry - PCC Group Product Portal.” PCC Group Product Portal, 26 Feb. 2025, www.products.pcc.eu/en/products/markets-and-applications/textiles-and-leathers/textile-industry/?utm_source=chatgpt.com. Accessed 25 Nov. 2025.
