Fashion is said to be a reflection of culture. What does it say about our culture when it endangers the environment and all living things?  

The fast fashion industry operates on a “race to the bottom” model to produce the greatest number of garments at the lowest price. With cheap production, lowered costs and societal pressure to constantly consume clothing, fashion’s numbers are staggering: 100 billion garments made annually, 87%  ending in landfills or incinerators and only 1% recycled. Toxic textile processing pollutes freshwater systems harming connected ecosystems, and each year 200 million trees are razed for cellulosic fibers imperiling biodiversity. 69% of clothes are made from crude oil and washing them accounts for 35% of the ocean's microplastics. Microfibers are in the food chain, our air, our soil and appear deep in our organs and our bloodstreams threatening our existence. 

This $2.5 trillion industry is shockingly unregulated. Citizens alone cannot change the industry.  Government legislation must be implemented now. 

We’re calling on the US Administration to instruct the following agencies to create regulations to protect the environment and the health of living things. 

The Environmental Protection Agency must:  

• Hold the fashion industry responsible for cutting carbon emissions to achieve alignment with the 1.5 degree pathway set out by the 2015 Paris Agreement  
• Enact an Extended Producer Responsibility requirement for fashion brands to sustainably dispose of their waste   
• Impose a carbon tax on all clothing made from virgin synthetic materials  
• Mandate every new clothes washing machine have a filter installed to capture plastic microfibers 
• Restrict the manufacture, import and export of clothing containing harmful chemicals/substances  
• Support an infrastructure and standard systems for consistent, convenient and widespread collection and sorting of used clothing to prevent the waste of 17 millions of tons of textiles in the United States each year 

The Federal Trade Commission must: 

• Require labeling of garments for transparency and traceability, the percentage of recycled content, and the amount of microfiber shedding during washing
• Force brands to abide by the Fair Trade Commission's Green Guidelines for accuracy in claims related to sustainability 

U.S. Department of Labor must: 

• Strictly enforce a ban on the importation of clothing made with forced labor, indentured servitude or child labor  
• Eliminate unfair practices for apparel workers working below minimum wage or under a piece-rate system, and create multilateral accountability that holds not only factories but brands liable for unsafe conditions and unpaid wages