Jenifer Baxter, Head of Engineering at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, responds to the Environmental Audit Committee’s plans to tackle fast fashion:

“We welcome this new report from the Environmental Audit Committee that draws attention to the responsibility of garment manufacturers in reducing waste and emissions from their industry.

“The reason microfibers are so detrimental is that they have the most direct route to our oceans. As our report Engineering Out Fashion Waste shows, even a garment’s aftercare affects an item’s carbon footprint. To reduce this impact, individuals can wash their clothes at a lower temperature, use mesh laundry bags to catch threads, rely on tumble dryers less often or install filters on washing machine waste pipes.

“One important aspect not discussed in detail is in the reduction of waste produced, this would mean manufacturing and selling fewer goods, a challenge to any industry in today’s economy.

“If industry paid a penny on every garment sold, this could be invested in initiatives which provide incentives for the development of more environmentally fibres which reduce shedding and fibre recycling technologies, particularly those which are able to separate blended fibres.”