MPs launch inquiry into fashion industry's environmental impact

Chinese workers labor over sewing machines at a textile factory
Globally, the world consumes about 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year, a 400pc increase from 20 years ago Credit: AP

Disposable "fast fashion" and its effect on the environment will be examined in a new inquiry launched by the environmental audit committee, as part of efforts to make the industry more sustainable.

MPs will look at the carbon, resource use and water footprint of clothing throughout its life cycle and how clothes can be recycled and waste and pollution reduced. 

The committee's chairwoman Mary Creagh said the way we design, make and discard clothes has "a huge environmental impact", adding: "Producing clothes requires toxic chemicals and produces climate-changing emissions. Every time we put on a wash, thousands of plastic fibres wash down the drain and into the oceans. We don't know where or...

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