Polyester clothes seem to be the only type of clothing available anymore. Sure, they’re cheap and relatively easy to maintain (they don’t wrinkle as easily as other fabrics). In fact, 70% of all the clothes produced today are made out of synthetic materials, like polyester. In fact that’s a 10% rise in just 5 years from 60% in 2020.
What does ‘synthetic’ mean then? It refers to materials that are created using chemical processes, and that imitate natural materials. In other words, synthetic materials are an unecological alternative for natural materials, like linen or cotton.
As the climate crisis becomes more and more apparent in all of our lives, many of us try to find ways to live more sustainably. And one of those ways is to reduce the amount of plastic in our lives. Easier said than done!
Plastic is everywhere! It’s in the food packaging, in our toothbrushes, in our furniture, in our wallets. There are so many different kinds of plastics as well. I’m not sure it’s even possible to live completely plastic-free. But that’s not the point! The point is that we recognize how much plastic there is in our everyday lives, and attempt to reduce that amount one way or the other.
Why You Need To Stop Buying Synthetic Polyester Clothes TODAY!
This is such an enormous and overwhelming issue that I suggest that we all pick one area in our life and focus on reducing plastic there first. For example, food is a good place to start. So much of our food products are packed in plastic, some of them for no particular reason. Try and find alternatives to at least some of the plastic-packed goods.
I chose to keep to what I know best: clothes. Because polyester clothes are the biggest portion of clothes manufactured, and polyester is in fact plastic.
- Synthetic polyester consists of coal and petroleum, which is rather disgusting considering that we basically wear gasoline.
- Producing this fabric takes twice as much energy as producing cotton does.
- Synthetic polyester is used extensively in clothing.
- Fast fashion brands love it because it’s a versatile material that’s relatively durable and cheap to produce. But as so very often, the easy way is not the right way.
Here are a couple good reasons to stop buying polyester clothes TODAY!
Read also: 40 Simple Everyday Tips to Fight Capitalism – Rebel’s Guide 2026
1. Greenwashing makes a fool out of you
If you’re not familiar with the term ‘greenwashing’, read my blog post What Is Greenwashing And How To Avoid It?
Fast fashion companies like to disguise their so-called “sustainable” collections by mixing polyester with natural fibers. While the natural fibers in a garment are biodegradable, there is no way to separate the polyester fibers from the natural fibers. This makes the whole garment non-recyclable.
It also means that when you take your unwanted clothes to fast fashion stores for recycling, they actually go straight to landfill. Only 1% of those clothes can be recycled. So, when they tell you it’s “sustainable”, they are just lying to you.
The most polyester-intensive brands are (no surprise!) the biggest high street fast fashion brands:
Brand |
% of polyester used |
Boohoo |
64% |
Lululemon |
62% |
NewLook |
60% |
Adidas |
56% |
Primark |
43% |
And don’t be fooled here! Using environmentally friendly fabrics, like recycled polyester, is not yet enough to grant a brand the sustainability stamp. Sustainability includes human rights, workers’ rights, and environmentally friendly production methods but the fast fashion business model ignores all of these. So, as long as a brand is a fast fashion brand, it isn’t sustainable in any way.
More on the topic: Shitification of the Fashion Industry – Things to Consider in 2026
2. Polyester clothes are non-recyclable
As mentioned already, even if a garment is 50% cotton and 50% polyester, the polyester in it makes the entire garment non-recyclable. Technologies are being developed as we speak, to separate natural fibers from synthetic fibers, but we’re not quite there yet.
And while we try to get there, the plastic problem keeps growing day by day. Polyester is oil, which makes it a non-renewable and carbon-intensive resource. Producing polyester clothes uses harmful chemicals that cause great damage to soil, air and water.
In just one year polyester production releases 944 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in one year, and the number is growing. It’s no wonder the fashion industry is the second biggest polluter in the world right after the oil industry. The fashion industry is very much an oil industry of its own.
We think this pollution doesn’t affect us, but it does. Even if it’s not our soil being destroyed, it is our seas and air being destroyed. Our food production is affected, our climate is affected. We are affected by this!
3. Polyester has created an unprecedented microplastics problem
It has been estimated that we each eat/drink approximately 5 grams’ worth of plastic each week in the shape of microplastics. Microplastics are basically the leftovers from degraded plastic products in our seas and soil. For example, a degraded plastic bottle in an ocean doesn’t disappear, it just changes its shape. That’s why plastic is so dangerous.
- Polyester fibers are a huge culprit in this predicament.
- Polyester clothes release copious amounts of microplastics when washed (496 030 fibers per 6kg of clothes washed).
- These microplastics are washed down into our water systems. Some of them end up in our drinking water, the rest in our seas and oceans to be consumed by the sea creatures that we then eat.
And here’s the kicker: Even if we pledged to stop buying polyester clothes today, our closets are already filled with them. So, we need to make sure to maintain those clothes and wear them for as long as we can!
You can elongate your polyester garments’ life, and reduce the amount of microplastics released, when washing the clothes, though. Wash your clothes in cold water (30°C) and use detergents designed to reduce releasing microplastic fibers, like an EcoEgg.
4. Polyester clothes keep polluting the planet for hundreds of years
The amount of clothes on the planet at this very moment is enough to dress 6 generations of people. That means there are clothes for over 16 billion people right now, most of which will never be worn by anyone. What the fuck is the point, I ask?
Now, add to this equation the fact that 70% of these clothes will never disappear from the planet. And fast fashion factories are churning out more and more needless, useless pollution (aka clothes) every single day. Nobody’s ever gonna wear most of those clothes!
Polyester takes up to 200 years to decompose, which means that it keeps creating pollution for that whole 200 years…
Final Thoughts on Polyester in our Clothes
The numbers are shocking, but they tell you the truth: we are running out of time. The planet is running out of time because it’s literally drowning in plastic. WE are drowning in plastic!
We are also partly to blame for this situation, because we have been persuaded to buy, buy and buy. Even though the truth is, none of us need most of the clothes we buy. We’ve been taught to buy for the sake of buying.
But because it is a learned behaviour, it means that we can also unlearn it. To begin this unlearning I recommend reading the following articles:
- Paying Thousands For A Luxury Brand Bag Is STUPID!
- Sustainable Fashion Is Reasonably Priced – Here’s Why
- How Capitalism Destroyed the Fashion Industry – 11 Examples
- Returning a Broken Luxury Bag – Here’s How It Went
I learned the hard way so you don’t have to ;) So, let’s make a pledge to buy less, and buy better!
Who’s making this pledge with me? Who will at least promise to try? We often think that our contributions count for nought but that’s not true! Every single purchase decision made from a more sustainable point of view counts more than you know ♥
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