Are crisp packets the new plastic bags? It’s crunch time for our favourite salty snack

It’s hard to imagine a world without textiles. From the clothes we wear to the bedsheets we wake up in – we come into contact with textile fabrics nearly all the time. The textile sector, which includes the fashion industry, is marked by low rates of utilisation and low levels of recycling, leading to substantial and ever-expanding pressure on resources.
On average, European citizens discard 11kg of textiles per year, with garments typically having been worn only 7 or 8 times. At the same time, the European market has seen a sharp rise in apparel sales over the last two decades, with a 40% jump in pieces of clothing bought per person.
Both developments are mainly due to the ‘fast fashion’ phenomenon, with quicker turnaround of new styles, increased number of collections and often, lower prices.