'Fast fashion' has huge impact

Concerns that the fashion industry in the United Kingdom is becoming increasingly dominated by throwaway "fast fashion" have again been highlighted by an investigation that shows that Britons now buy five times as much clothing per year as they did in 1980s.

As clothes are so much cheaper, consumers have fewer qualms about throwing away good items with little concern for the environmental impact.

A BBC radio investigation noted that the fashion industry is said to be worth 28 billion pounds ($34 billion) to the UK economy, but it is estimated to produce as many greenhouse gases as all the aircraft around the world.

According to consulting firm McKinsey, global clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014. The average consumer bought 60 percent more clothing in 2014 than in 2000, but kept each garment half as long. Apparel consumption is projected to rise by 63 percent in the next 10 years, and less than 1 percent of all clothing produced globally is recycled.

Falling prices, social media marketing and the convenience of online shopping are behind the trend, according to Nottingham Trent University's clothing sustainability research group.

Research shows the UK now throws away 1 million metric tons of clothes a year, 20 percent of which end up being dumped. Discarded clothes are piling up in landfill sites and repeated washing means synthetic fiber fragments are flowing into the sea, where they are ingested by fish.

In June, members of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee put forward 18 recommendations aimed at forcing the fashion industry to reform environmental and labor practices in its supply chain.

The proposals include compelling clothing makers to pay 1 pence per item to fund recycling programs; tax incentives to reward re-use, repair and recycling; a ban on incinerating or landfilling unsold stock that can be reused or recycled; and mandatory environmental targets for fashion retailers with a turnover above 36 million pounds.

At present, the government favors a voluntary approach, encouraging retailers to sign up to the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan.

But as pressure from consumers grows, retailers are taking things into their own hands. Zara recently pledged to switch to 100 percent sustainable fabrics by 2025 and other retailers are looking to improve how they source materials and their processes.

Fashion designer Katharine Hamnett described proposals by MPs to impose a 1 pence-per-garment fashion tax on the industry as "stupid".

Hamnett said she feared the garment industry would just end up paying workers less to absorb the tax.

Instead, she is in favor of European Union legislation making it mandatory for goods from outside Europe to meet the same standards required by the region.