What we wear: Saving the planet each time we dress

The average person in the UK buys 26.7kg of new clothing each year. Around the world, a truckload of clothes is burnt or sent to landfill every second.

In the era of Instagram hauls and £2 Primark T-shirts, almost 60% of clothes are now made from cheap synthetic materials like polyester and nylon.

On average, a single domestic clothes wash releases 700,000 plastic microfibres which end up in the ocean. Some even get into our bottled water.

Even natural fibres, like cotton, can have a devastating impact.

The Aral Sea in Uzbekistan once covered an area half the size of England. That was before cotton manufacturers began pumping out water to irrigate their plants. It takes three years’ worth of drinking water to produce just one cotton T-shirt.

Today, more than 90% of the Aral Sea is desert. Surrounding communities, which depended on fishing, have been left destitute and poisoned by carcinogenic dust.

In 2015, the fashion industry produced 1.2 billion tons of carbon emissions. This is around 10% of the world’s total emissions, or more than all international flights combined.

So, what should you wear to save the planet?

Natural materials, like linen and cashmere, don’t contain microfibres — but they can be very expensive. Luckily, the high street is catching on to sustainable fashion.

This year, H&M launched its Conscious collection. Marks and Spencer has pledged to use 100% sustainable cotton by 2020.

Or even better, buy fewer items. Livia Firth, the founder of Eco Age, has launched the #30wears campaign. Her motto is: “If you don’t think you’ll wear a garment at least 30 times, then don’t buy it.”

Another carbon-free option is buying clothes from vintage shops or second-hand sites like eBay.

Every day, start-ups and community projects are coming up with innovative solutions to add to the pile.

Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman wants her clothing rental company to put H&M and Zara out of business.

At repair cafés, you can learn to sew up holes and buttons for free to make clothes last longer. Extending the life of an item of clothing by just nine months reduces its environmental impact by 30%.

The true cost

Will fashion ever be eco-friendly? Today, just 1% of the world’s cotton is produced sustainably. Capitalism demands that businesses keep growing and that consumers buy more and more. Will the fashion industry truly commit entirely to sustainability if it hurts profits?

But more than anything else, fashion is about following trends and right now sustainability is dominating the agenda. If consumers like you make sustainable choices, the industry will be forced to follow.

Tomorrow: Joining in: saving the planet with activism