Most of fashion’s toxic pollution and environmental destruction occurs in communities from the Global Majority*, while white Western people profit. This is not a coincidence, but by design.
"Global majority" is a collective term for people who are Indigenous, African, Asian, Latin American and from mixed-heritage backgrounds. These people make up 85% of the global population.
Environmental racism behind our clothes
Photo: A leather tannery worker in Kanpur, India whose skin has been exposed to toxic chemicals (SLAY Film)
Environmental racism:
Coined by civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr, this term describes the injustice caused when industries and policies result in Indigenous and racialised communities being disproportionately exposed to and suffering as a result of pollution and environmental destruction.
Under systemic racism, it is wrongfully considered ‘worse’ for a white community to be exposed to pollution, as Black and brown people are devalued in this system.
In the fashion industry, this helps to explain why leather tannery pollution is in India, fashion waste is dumped across African nations, and Indigenous people are displaced by deforestation for fashion materials.
Image: A Ghanian man works at Kantamanto Market, collecting and upcycling some of the millions of fashion items dumped by the West each week (Muntaka Chasant/Rex)
Examples of environmental racism in fashion:
Leather industry pollution
The majority of leather tanneries operate in China, India and other Asian countries. Previously, more tanneries operated across wealthy nations like the United States, but these were moved when environmental oversight policies made their pollution illegal. The problem was not fixed, but moved, and now poor Asian communities bear the brunt of the problem. Studies show that those who work in tanneries — who are therefore exposed to a range of toxic chemicals — are more likely to experience cancer and a range of other health issues.
Communities surrounding these tanneries also suffer illness and birth defects, to the point that one Chinese government document referred to the industrial areas where tanneries operate as ‘cancer villages’.
Learn more and find all references in our report: Leather’s impact on people
Waste colonialism
It’s estimated that a garbage truck full of textiles is sent to landfill every second. The vast majority of this clothing waste comes from fashion producers and consumers in wealthy markets like the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Europe. Most of this waste is sent to poorer countries with Black and Brown populations, who are made to deal with the consequences of overconsumption they have not contributed to.
Kantamanto Market in Ghana, Africa, receives some 15 million discarded garments each week. Locals skilfully repair and upcycle what they can, but 40% leaves as waste to be burned or landfilled, due to poor quality or condition. Organisations like the OR Foundation and The Revival (image above) are working to fix this injustice.
Learn more on our page about mass consumption and waste in fashion
Indigenous land destruction
Land that belongs to and is protected by Indigenous communities across the globe is continually stolen by the fashion industry through deforestation and land grabbing, particularly in the supply chains behind leather, wool, and materials made from wood (like viscose). Mining tied to synthetic materials like polyester is also an affront to Indigenous land justice.
Indigenous people are often attacked and even killed in their efforts to protect biodiverse land from being destroyed for fashion.
At the same time, it is Indigenous communities that are providing solutions, like the creation of shiringa bio-leather in the Amazon Rainforest, made with regeneratively collected sap from trees defended against deforestation for animal-based leather.
Learn more and see references in our resource on Indigenous land and fashion
Research shows that Black, brown and Indigenous people face harsher climate crisis impacts than other people.
Fashion contributes up to 10% of global emissions, worsening this problem for us all.
Health problems that occur as a result of the climate crisis are often more likely to be experienced by Global Majority communities (who are not white) risking the exacerbation of racial inequity.
Those forced to flee their homes because of rising oceans, increasing temperatures and environmental disasters like floods and fires are also more likely to be people of colour from the Global Majority.
Despite the impact the fashion industry has on Black, Brown and Indigenous people of the Global Majority, their voices are often excluded from conversations about fashion, ethics and sustainability.
It is these communities that are also providing solutions to the fashion industry’s problems, and they must be heard.
The Western fashion industry has a responsibility to engage with communities, workers, non-government organisations and political leaders from countries facing environmental racism outcomes perpetuated by unsustainable clothing production and waste.
We should all be asking brands: how do you engage with the people where your raw materials are produced, or where your clothing ends up after it has been used by the original purchaser? What changes have been made based on their lived experience expertise?
We work for a total ethics fashion future that is equitable, protecting all people, our fellow animals and the planet we share.
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