ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
According to the Danish Fashion Institute (2013), fashion is the world's 2nd most polluting industry, second to oil. 25% of chemicals produced worldwide are used for textiles and the industry is often noted as number two polluter of clean water - after agriculture.
The WWF stated that "it can take 2,700 liters of water to produce the cotton needed to make a single t-shirt". This is a big strain on the nature in countries and areas with water shortage.
Cotton also accounts for 11% of all pesticides used every year, even though the area of production only covers 2,4% of the world's arable land.
The most dominant life cysle stage is fabric production (comprising weaving/ knitting etc. and treatment of fabric), representing 33% of total life cycle greenhouse gas emissions.
Unfortunately: every Swede buys every year 15 kilograms of clothes, of which 8 kilograms are thrown away. 95% of those can be recycled.
So, why wasting finite ressources or expensively produced raw materials such as cotton? This is not necessary, as high-quality baby clothes can be re-used several times.