As Plastic Free July begins, the issue of plastic textiles in fashion is being brought to the forefront by RMIT expert.

Dr. Tamzin Rollason, a specialist in sustainable consumption of fashion, emphasizes the significant role plastics, such as polyester, play in the textile industry and the urgent need for change

The expert highlights the alarming statistic that 62% of textiles sold in Australia are made from synthetics. She points out that the microplastics shed from these textiles contribute significantly to environmental pollution.

In an interview with The Wire, Dr. Tamzin Rollason shed light on the widespread presence of plastic textiles in both ultra-fast fashion and high-end designer clothing. 

She warns that the widespread use of plastic textiles poses significant environmental and health risks.

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Vanessa Gatica: As plastic free July begins, the issue of plastic textiles in fashion is being brought to the forefront by RMIT expert Dr. Tamzin Rollason. A specialist in sustainable consumption of fashion emphasizes the significant role plastics such as polyester play in the textile industry and the urgent need for change. The expert highlights the alarming statistic that 62% of textiles sold in Australia are made from synthetics. She points out that the microplastics shed from these textiles contribute significantly to environmental pollution. In an interview with The Wire, Dr Rollason sheds light on the widespread presence of plastic textiles in both ultra fast fashion and high end designer clothing. She warns that the widespread use of plastic textiles poses significant environmental and health risks. 

Can you explain why plastic? Textiles have become so prevalent in the fashion industry?

Dr. Tamzin Rollason: Yeah, sure. Look, I think first of all, it’s important to point out that plastic textiles are synthetics, like polyester and rayon, and they appear in lots of clothing as the main textile, but also as blends such as poly cottons and mixed with wools, which makes them cheaper to produce and also easier to work with. Um, there’s an enormous amount of plastic in our clothes for some really important reasons. 

First of all, as I said before, they’re cheap and easy to use, and they’re incredibly available. They’re basically almost ubiquitous in fashion production. Um, this use of fossil fuels, which um, which are used to make plastic textiles, there’s been a massive accelerant for the fashion industry. And in fact, plastic textiles such as polyester have pretty much made the fashion industry possible. Yeah. So in the past, there were limits to how much clothing we could make because we only had so much land and water and people and animals to produce materials like cotton and wool. But now there’s barely any limit at all to making textiles like polyester from fossil fuels.

Vanessa Gatica: What are the most significant environmental and health risks associated with plastic textiles?

Dr. Tamzin Rollason So plastic textiles contribute significantly to microplastics or microfibers, which, um, have become present in almost every place on planet Earth and every ecosystem, um, not least of all in our own bodies. In fact, it’s suggested that we consume as as humans, we may be consuming as much as a credit card sized amount of microplastics week in our in our food. Um, so that’s really concerning On top of that, some of these plastics are responsible for what we call PFAS or forever chemicals, which have got really significant health issues for, um, humans and other animals. And they are called forever forever chemicals because they persist in the environment for, um, we actually don’t know how long at this point, but for possibly decades, if not hundreds of years.

Vanessa Gatica: How do microplastics from synthetic textiles contribute to environmental pollution?

Dr. Tamzin Rollason Well, I think it’s a really interesting point. And I think there’s there’s two ways to look at this. There’s the overproduction and there is the overconsumption of fashion. And there’s been a big focus on overconsumption. But overproduction is the real problem. Around 60% of clothing never actually gets sold. It ends up as what we call deadstock, which then goes to landfill and even gets burnt in some circumstances. So when you think about that use of plastics, which are a incredibly valuable finite resource, perhaps we shouldn’t be making so much fashion out of textiles that derive from these fossil fuels just so they can end up in landfill. Right now, clothes are being designed so that valuable and finite fossil fuels end up in landfill after a few short wears. Um, so that industry side is really important, because if we place all the responsibility with the consumer, but allow the industry to keep on doing what it wants, how does this actually work? How can the consumer be made responsible if the fashion industry continues with its onslaught of beguiling, clever production and marketing of fashion? But looking at the consumer side of things, research also shows us around 40% of the clothes in our wardrobes have not been used for a year or more. Um, we could probably be very content with shopping from our own wardrobes and the wardrobes of our friends and families for years to come. But having said that, there’s this idea in sustainable fashion consumption about dressing for your wellbeing. So this is about thinking about your everyday dressing habits, not about fashion. So just think about that difference between the way you dress and the way you think about fashion. And that’s really about what makes you feel good. What do you have in your wardrobe that you love? What do you use the most? What makes your life better? And this is what I think of as being well dressed.

Vanessa Gatica: What are some practical steps that consumers can take to reduce their reliance on plastic based clothing?

Dr. Tamzin Rollason: But there’s quite a lot of research and, um, innovation that’s going into into sustainable textiles. A lot of them at the moment are in very, um, in a very nascent stage. So they’re really in a development stage. And part of the problem is that they are they’re not economically viable, or there’s difficulty with scaling them up to the kind of level that’s needed for the type of production that they’d be a part of. There also needs to be a much better connection between the type of innovation that’s going into sustainable textiles and the use of those textiles by the industry. And so that sort of development really needs support from government. For example, there’s a new federal government initiative where producers have to bear some responsibility for their products. It’s called an extended producer responsibility scheme. The federal government, one that’s applicable to fashion and textiles, is called seamless. And through the seamless program. But fashion enterprises, Australian based fashion enterprises that are signed up to it contribute a four cent per garment levy, which goes towards setting up an effective recycling or circularity system for fashion and textiles in Australia.

Vanessa Gatica: Hi, I’m Vanessa Gatica for The Wire, speaking with Tamzin Rollason, a specialist in sustainable consumption of fashion.