The Politics of Polyester

100% POLYESTER. Hidden away on the inside of a T-shirt on a tiny tag, written in even tinier text. Increasingly, polyester has found a place in our daily lives – becoming a part of our clothes, hats, bed linens, towels, curtains, furniture upholstery, and more. Results from Textile Exchange’s 2022 Preferred Fiber & Materials Market Report showed that polyester is the most widely used fibre worldwide, with a market share of around 54% of total global fiber production¹. Changing Markets Foundation’s 2021 investigation into more than 4,000 clothing items by global fashion brands revealed that 67% contained synthetic materials, particularly polyester².  

A Plastic We Wear 

First patented in 1941³, polyester is a synthetic fibre made from fossil-fuel based chemicals, the primary raw material of which is crude oil. Petroleum-derived chemicals are polymerised into polyethylene terephthalate (PET), spun into fibres, then woven or knitted into fabric⁴.  

Since its inception, polyester has seen waves of marketing pushes, emphasising affordability and durability, with synthetic fibres overtaking cotton volumes in the fibre market in the mid-1990s¹.  

Polyester reportedly costs half as much per kilogram as cotton². Fibre2Fashion’s investigation into the factors that affect the prices of cotton and polyester fabrics suggests multiple reasons⁵: 

• Cotton, being natural and plant-based, is heavily influenced by seasonal factors and agricultural conditions such as weather patterns, crop yields, and agricultural policies. Polyester on the other hand requires a chemical process that bypasses such conditions 

• Cotton can only grow in specific locations, whereas petroleum is available in many countries, reducing dependency on specific suppliers 

• Cotton, needing to be farmed and harvested, has a higher labour and time cost to produce than polyester  

For polyester’s durability, A PLATE research paper investigating the durability of physical garments⁶ assessed 47 T-shirts of varying fabric compositions. The results indicated that the more durable t-shirts had a percentage of synthetic fibres in the composition, including polyester. 64% of the garments which contained synthetic fibres ranked in the top 50% of the garments tested, while 60% of the top 10 garments contained synthetic fibres.  

So durable it is, but is this always a good thing?  

A Growing Industry With Growing Consequences 

The fashion industry has seen immense levels of growth. In the last 20 years, global fibre production has almost doubled from 58 million tonnes in 2000 to 113 million tonnes in 2021 and is expected to grow to 149 million tonnes in 2030 if business as usual continues¹. The COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on textiles consumption, with rates falling 330,000 tonnes between 2019 and 2020, but this downward trend was temporary, and WRAP’s Textiles Market Situation 2024 indicated that consumption figures were back to near pre-COVID levels, with the UK consuming 1.42 million tonnes of new textile products in 2022⁷.  

This growing industry, with polyester and other synthetic fibres fuelling a majority of it, continues to be intertwined with fossil fuels and plastics. In 2022, 70 million barrels of oil were required to produce polyester – which, being so durable, isn’t biodegradable. Not only that, synthetic fibres emit concerning levels of microplastics: tiny shards of plastic measuring up to 5mm in length³. These microplastics lead to potentially significant yet not fully understood health issues with investigations finding microplastics in various human tissues and fluids. This presence of microplastics has been linked to inflammation that has been known to contribute to cancer, heart disease, heightened risks of strokes, and more².  

The United Nations cites research indicating that synthetic textiles are responsible for 35% of the microplastics in our oceans today³. Every time clothing containing synthetic fibre is washed, it sheds microplastics that eventually make it into the oceans. A single load of polyester clothes can discharge as many as 700,000 microplastic fibres, with the majority released during the first few washes. It is here that fast fashion’s mass production, low prices, and high sales volumes promote multiple and repeat purchases and as a result more first washes.  

A Contemporary Chicken vs Egg Scenario 

Which came first: polyester – a material both cheaper and quicker to produce, or a culture of fast fashion that rushes to deliver products to consumers at a frenetic change of pace?  

The relationship between polyester and the fashion industry can be seen as a vicious cycle. With each passing season, consumers are pushed into buying the latest items to stay on trend⁸. Fast fashion, relying on mass production, sees producers skimp on labour and production costs to deliver goods in a short time at cheap prices, leading to consumers to see cheap clothing items increasingly as perishable goods that are ‘nearly disposable’, and that are thrown away after wearing them only seven or eight times⁹. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the average number of times a piece of clothing is worn decreased by 36% between 2000 and 2015. In the same period, clothing production doubled⁸.  

In fact, WRAP’s 2024 Textile Market Situation reports the average cost per item of clothing in the UK has decreased since 2015, though UK consumption of clothing was on an upward trend peaking in 2019, until the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer behaviours⁷. The European Parliament noted a fall in the price of garments in the last few decades – relative to the EU consumer consumption basket, the price of clothing fell by 36%⁹. The PLATE research study on clothing durability⁶ also revealed that a lower price did not indicate lower durability, with several of the cheaper T-shirts performing just as well or better than the expensive ones.  

Durable to a Fault 

Though the textile itself has proven to be more durable and the clothes cheaper, the speed that fast fashion demands and the exploitation of low-cost labour has created a flood of clothing of low-quality construction that we cannot get rid of. And that’s besides the numerous negative ecological impacts of polyester from production to consumption. 

“The quality of fashion is declining and the mass of textiles products put on the market is increasing.” 

–Alan Wheeler, CEO, Textiles Recycling Association¹⁰ 

 “Our reports show that fast fashion and low-quality clothing are flooding the market, strangling efforts to make our clothing more sustainable.” 

–Harriet Lamb, CEO, WRAP¹⁰ 

Charity shops all over the UK are closing – the British Heart Foundation planning to close around 150 charity shops by 2028, and Cancer Research UK planning to close up to 190 High Street shops by 2027¹¹.  

Between 2013 and 2023, the value of recovered textiles from textile banks and charities have fallen massively, with a 57.5% reduction in price per tonne for textile bank donations and a 41% reduction for charity shop donations, without accounting for inflation⁷. The 2023 figures stood at £172.50 per tonne for textile banks and £255 per tonne for charity shops. In 2013, the figures were more than double at £406 per tonne and £432 per tonne respectively. The infrastructure for textile collection and reuse is clearly under pressure, with the surge of low-quality textile products a significant factor amongst others.  

A Critical Juncture 

There are movements pushing for change.  

Textile Exchange hopes to lead the industry away from fossil-fuel based polyester, encouraging the fashion and textiles industry in using recycled or regenerative materials through textile-to-textile recycling. Their belief is that even with brands rethinking growth and slowing down production, there is no other fibre available on the market today that could absorb the demand for polyester, which will not disappear overnight.  

Thus, Textile Exchange are committed to pushing for synthetic fibres to be used as responsibly as possible. Their 2025 Recycled Polyester Challenge called on companies to commit to sourcing 45% to 100% of their polyester from recycled sources by 2025. With 116 signatories, including Adidas, H&M, and Inditex (Zara, Pull&Bear, Bershka etc.), 26% of those reached their target¹². 

The UK Textiles Pact (previously known as Textiles 2030) seeks a 50% reduction in the overall carbon footprint of new textile products placed on the UK market¹³ through circularity and accelerating the commercialisation of fibre-to-fibre recycling, reducing the amount of new virgin fossil-fuel based fibres entering the system. Between 2024-2025, 4 years in, they reported a fall in impacts per tonne of textiles in both carbon (6%) and water (9%) footprints. Unfortunately, retailers placed 17% more textiles on the market than in 2019, leading to a 10% rise in carbon footprint and 7% increase in water use. The results show that though product impacts were decreasing, they are being produced in such vast quantities that the overall footprint continues to grow¹³.  

However, the UK Textiles Pact is multi-faceted. At the heart of it, they seek to change consumer behaviour and encourage clothing circularity. They report circular business models continuing to gain traction, with business adoption rising year-on-year and the roadmap for the next five years pledging further growth¹³. 

“It’s a rallying point. It builds on progress to date, while recognising the scale of the challenge still ahead. We know what works. We know where to focus. And we know that collaboration delivers results. The next five years will define our success.” 

–Catherine David, CEO, WRAP¹³ 

Conclusion 

With so many systems under pressure: the climate, our health, and the charity shops that help clothe many who cannot afford to clothe themselves – it’s easy to imagine that you cannot make a difference. 

Luckily small changes are possible from an individual standpoint through changing how you consume clothing; choosing to preserve the clothing already owned will make a massive difference in the carbon footprint of a garment. For example, the number of times you wear an item of clothing can make a big difference in its overall carbon footprint. Continuing to actively wear a garment for just nine months longer could diminish its environmental impacts by 20-30%. Nearly half of the clothes in the average UK person’s wardrobe are never worn, and the shedding of microplastics can also be reduced through decreasing how often you wash your garments, when airing it out may sometimes suffice⁸.  

Through understanding polyester – what makes up so much of the clothes we buy and wear – and the long reaching impacts beyond, we can face what needs to change with better clarity. Both individually and collectively.  

References 

1. Textile Exchange (2022). Preferred Fiber & Materials Market Report 2022. 

2. Changing Markets Foundation (2024). Fashion’s Plastic Paralysis: How Brands Resist Change and Fuel Microplastic Pollution. 

3. United Nations (2024). From petroleum to pollution: the cost of polyester. 

4. Textile Exchange. Polyester. 

5. Fibre2Fashion (2019). Cotton vs. Polyester: Which Fabric Reigns Supreme? 

6. Morris, K. E., Joynes, A., Summer, M., Scott, E., & Taylor, M. (2025). Measuring Physical Garment Durability. PLATE. 

7. WRAP (2024). Textiles Market Situation 2024. 

8. BBC (2020). Can fashion ever be sustainable? 

9. European Parliament (2019). Environmental impact of the textile and clothing industry. 

10. WRAP (2024). The price of our addiction to cheap fast fashion as pressure builds on UK second hand clothing market. 

11. BBC (2026). British Heart Foundation plans to close 150 charity shops. 

12. Textile Exchange (2025). 2025 Recycled Polyester Challenge. 

13. WRAP (2026). UK Textiles Pact.