Synthetic Fur is a Setback to Sustainable Fashion

Purushu Arie

9 years ago

giorgio armani fur — Image: Business of Fashion

Synthetic alternatives like faux fur is made from non-renewable petroleum-based products, such as nylon, acrylic and polyester, then treated with heat and chemicals to improve its look and feel.

These industrial processes use three times as much non-renewable energy as real fur.

The petroleum industry accounts for the direct deaths of millions upon millions of living beings each year, from birds and sea mammals to the tiny microscopic beings that make up the backbone of ocean ecosystems.

Faux fur end up in landfill and, just like petroleum-based plastic bags, can take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Larger wildlife can get entangled in plastic waste which can drown or starve them; they also eat it, which can cause painful deaths through intestinal blockage or rupture, or even longer, horrible deaths through starvation since they can no longer fit real food into their stomachs. And the same thing happens to tiny plankton, which are absolutely crucial to the health of the entire ocean. Even if your coat ends up in a landfill, the plastics can be washed into the water system as they break down, creating the same marine problems.

Washing fake fur may harm the environment, too. With every machine wash, says a 2011 paper for the Environmental Science & Technology journal, each garment releases an average of 1,900 tiny particles of plastic, which are then swilled into rivers, lakes and, eventually, the sea. These particles kill marine life and disrupt food chains.

Disposable fashion often relies on Third World sweatshop labour, paltry wages and toxic working conditions. The manufacture of fake fur doubles the risk of ill-health in workers due to the emissions of carcinogenic substances during production.

Faux fur and fast fashion is promoting dependence on foreign oil and exacerbating child-labour issues in the Third World.