Slowing down fashion: Why India must rethink fast fashion

When India debates air pollution, the highlight often falls on coal crops, vehicles, or energy technology. Not often do we glance inside our wardrobes. Regardless of its polished and glamorous exterior, the style business is, in actuality, one of many dirtiest sectors in follow. On a world scale, the business utilises roughly 79 billion cubic meters of water, contributes 8-10 % of greenhouse fuel emissions, and generates 92 million tonnes of waste yearly. India stands because the world’s third-largest textile exporter and a quickly rising client market, positioning itself as each a contributor to the difficulty and a key participant in any potential decision.

A portion of the washing ghat on the Cauvery abutting Arulmigu Magudeeswarar Temple is clogged with garments and different articles discarded by devotees, in Erode.
PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN
| Picture Credit score:
GOVARTHAN M

Mountains of waste and rivers that turned poisonous

Clothes continues to contribute to air pollution even after it has been bought. Washing artificial materials corresponding to polyester or nylon releases microscopic fibres that may evade wastewater therapy amenities. These fibres discover their method into our rivers, in the end contaminating seafood sourced from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Latest research reveal the presence of micro plastics in salt, ingesting water, and even inside human blood and lungs. Specialists warning concerning the potential for hormonal disruption, elevated cardiovascular dangers, and associations with most cancers. Textile air pollution poses a twin risk, impacting not solely the atmosphere but additionally infiltrating our our bodies.

India produces ~ 7,800 kilo tonnes of textile waste yearly. In distinction to plastic or digital waste, there at the moment exists no Prolonged Producer Accountability (EPR) laws compelling manufacturers to gather or recycle their merchandise. As soon as discarded, clothes accumulate in landfills like Bhalswa in Delhi and Deonar in Mumbai, the place they smoulder and launch dangerous toxins into the atmosphere. Artificial materials, which have grow to be commonplace, require centuries to decompose. Each polyester T-shirt discarded in the present day might probably endure longer than the person who as soon as wore it.

Textile chemical effluents flowing in odai at Ammapalayam merge with River Noyyal in Erode.
Picture: M. Govarthan
| Picture Credit score:
GOVARTHAN M

Textile clusters throughout the nation are displaying seen impacts. Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, beforehand recognised because the knitwear capital, discharged a big quantity of untreated dye into the Noyyal River, prompting the Madras Excessive Courtroom to order the closure of a whole lot of models. Ludhiana’s dyeing mills, Surat’s polyester factories, and Kanpur’s tanneries persist in discharging chemical substances into rivers and groundwater. The Central Air pollution Management Board has recognized textiles as one of many prime ten industrial polluters.

Employees stitching clothes at a knitwear export unit in Tirupur.
Picture:S. Siva Saravanan/ The Hindu
| Picture Credit score:
SIVA SARAVANAN S

Why can India not afford a delay?

The stakes have by no means been larger. India is dwelling to twenty of the 30 most polluted cities globally, with almost 40% of its rivers deemed too contaminated for bathing. India has been positioned at a hundred and fifth amongst 125 nations within the World Starvation Index, highlighting important challenges associated to meals and water safety. The buildup of textile waste exacerbates these crises. A round trend economic system has the potential to remodel the panorama by lowering fibre imports, producing employment alternatives in restore and recycling, and establishing Indian manufacturers as frontrunners in sustainability efforts. Exporters are acutely conscious that adherence to European Union laws regarding chemical substances and waste will quickly dictate their entry to the market.

If alternate options exist, why haven’t they scaled?

Analysis on Indian trend corporations exhibits the limitations clearly. Sustainable materials and waterless dyeing value extra, and small and medium producers can not take up the expense. Air pollution legal guidelines exist, however are poorly enforced. Recycling is technologically outdated: blended materials like poly-cotton are nearly unattainable to separate. Shoppers, in the meantime, are hooked on low cost developments, fuelled by Instagram influencers, superstar wardrobes, and the lure of fixed novelty. The way in which ahead wants three shifts.

1. Policymakers should body a nationwide round textiles technique with EPR mandates, stricter guidelines on water and chemical use, and incentives for clear expertise.

2. Trade should transfer past token CSR, investing in clear provide chains, credible reporting, and reverse logistics.

3. And shoppers should rethink habits: shopping for fewer however higher clothes, repairing garments, embracing thrift and leases, and resisting the lure of infinite refresh.

Trend has at all times mirrored social change. In colonial India, khadi was a political image; in the present day, gradual and round trend should grow to be an ecological one. The query is now not whether or not to decelerate trend, however whether or not we are able to act quick sufficient earlier than the injury turns into irreversible.

(The writer is a doctoral researcher at Symbiosis Worldwide College, Pune, who can also be working as a sustainability supervisor with a serious trend retailer in India.)

Revealed – October 11, 2025 02:40 pm IST