Broken Threads & Twisted Yarns: Legislating the Reform of Fashion Principal Editors: Shelley Rogers Fashion for the Earth EARTHDAY.ORG Thomas Cosgrove Chief Creative and Content Officer EARTHDAY.ORG

Broken Threads & Twisted Yarns: Legislating the Reform of Fashion (An Excerpt) Editors: Shelley Rogers Fashion for the Earth EARTHDAY.ORG Thomas Cosgrove Chief Creative and Content Officer EARTHDAY.ORG

 The fashion industry, particularly the fast fashion sector, has operated with minimal oversight for decades, resulting in a host of environmental damages—ranging from water and air pollution to deforestation, oceanic microplastic contamination, and biodiversity loss.

 Human rights abuses are rampant across the industry’s supply chains, with labor exploitation, unsafe working conditions, and wage theft being all too common. The consequences of these practices extend beyond local communities, with profound implications for climate change and global sustainability.

 In response to these concerns, legislators worldwide are moving toward regulatory frameworks that hold fashion brands accountable for their environmental footprints and labor practices. This report not only highlights the critical issues the industry contributes to, but also provides a summary of recently passed and pending legislation in the European Union, the United States, and other countries. This includes the E.U.’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, the U.S. Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, and Canada’s proposed national strategy on textile waste reduction. Each of these initiatives seeks to push the fashion industry toward a more sustainable and equitable future, outlining stringent requirements for transparency, supply chain responsibility, and environmental impact reduction.

Today, the fashion industry conservatively produces 100 billion garments, 87% of which end in landfills or incinerators and less than 1% recycled. The industry generates 92 million tons of waste. While brands continue to participate in “sustainable” practices and institute “circular” business models, brands are not focused on real change. They are focused on growth and maintaining the business- as-usual, “take-make-waste” highly polluting linear model that has resulted in its colossal overproduction.

The fashion industry, in a word, is “rapacious.” Production has more than doubled over the past 15 years while the amount of time clothing is worn has dropped 40%. According to Textile Exchange’s 2024 Materials Market Report fiber production increased from 58 million tons in 2000 to 116 million tons in 2022 to a record 124 million tons in 2023 and will grow to 160 million tons by 2030 if business continues as usual. The industry is relying ever more on virgin fossil- based synthetic materials which, at 84 million tonnes, made up 67% of global fiber production in 2023. Meanwhile, less than 1% of the global fiber market came from pre- and post-consumer recycled textiles.

 

FULL REPORT CAN BE FOUND HERE:

https://www.earthday.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Fashion-Legislation-Report_FINAL.pdf