Strategies to reduce environmental impacts from textiles: Extending clothing wear life compared to fibre displacement assessed using consequential LCA

Abstract

This study compared two strategies for reducing the environmental consequences of garments: changing fibre types or increasing the number of wears per garment to avoid manufacturing new garments. Scenarios were quantified using multi-indicator consequential life cycle assessment, and sensitivity was determined to test the robustness of the results. Increasing the number of wears per garment resulted in lower impacts across all indicators and fibre types. Conversely, changing fibre types resulted in changes to co-product systems and in trade-offs between environmental impacts, limiting the effectiveness of this strategy to reduce garment environmental impacts. Consistent environmental improvements were achieved by maximising the actual wear life of garments and minimising unnecessary garment purchases, not by changing fibre types. Strategies focused on reducing impacts from textiles and garments should focus on maximising consumer garment use as the highest priority to reduce environmental impact using fibre types and garment designs most suited to long life.