Community Radio Environment Network

Sounding Nature’s Voice

Resources for an informed eco-broadcaster

FAST FASHION

The world uses an estimated 80 billion pieces of clothing every year, a 400 percent increase from two decades ago. — The True Cost

  • Textile production contributes more to climate change than international aviation and shipping combined. — House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, 2019
  • By 2030, global apparel consumption is projected to rise by 63%, from 62 million tons today to 102 million tons—equivalent to more than 500 billion additional T-shirts. — House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, 2019
  • 75% of consumers believe that sustainability is important and one-third are willing to choose brands that help environmental and social improvement. — Ellen MacArthur Foundation
  • The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions. — Morgan McFall-Johnsen (2020)
  • Half a million tons of plastic microfibers are dumped into the ocean every year, the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles. — World Economic Forum
  • Around 300,000 tonnes of textile waste ends up in household black bins every year, sent to landfill or incinerators. Less than 1% of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing at the end of its life. — House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, 2019
  • Clothing companies create more than 1 million garments every day. — Greenpeace
  • Extending the life of clothes by just 9 months of active use would reduce carbon, water and waste footprints by 20-30% each. — WRAP
  • It’s estimated that more than two tonnes of clothing are bought each minute in the UK, more than any other country in Europe. That amount produces nearly 50 tonnes of carbon emissions, the same as driving 162,000 miles in a car.

FOOD

Producing, moving, storing and cooking food uses energy, fuel and water. Each of which let off greenhouse gases contributing to climate change.

Think of a pack of cheese – all the resources that go into raising the cows, producing and transporting the cheese, even the fuel we use to drive to the shop to buy it. That’s a lot of wasted effort if it’s just chucked away at the end of the week. In the UK we throw away the equivalent of more than 3 million slices of cheese a day!

Food requires a lot of water to grow and produce it. By wasting food we are wasting precious water supplies. It takes:

  • 100 buckets of water to produce just one loaf of bread;
  • 54 buckets of water to rear one chicken breast;
  • 6 buckets of water to grow one potato;
  • 1 bucket of water to grow one tomato.

It’s also worth considering the amount of land required to produce food and drink. The estimated area of land required to produce food thrown away by UK households is 19,000 square kilometres, that’s an area 7 times the size of Derbyshire!

A proportion of waste food will end up in a landfill site, where it rots and releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. If we stopped throwing this good food away it would save the equivalent of at least 36 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

SPORT [source: Sport and Sustainability International]

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The global sport sector is estimated to be responsible for about 50-60 billion tonnes of CO2e per year. For context, your average car emits about 4.6 tonnes of CO2e per year. So, we’re talking about 11-13 billion cars worth of emissions. Majority of these emissions come from 4 distinct sources:

  • Energy consumption;
  • Travel (athletes and spectators);
  • Construction and maintenance of venues;
  • Sport equipment manufacturing.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar has released data saying the event created 3.6 million tonnes of CO2e emissions, although some experts are skeptical of that number. The Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016 claimed 4.5 million tonnes of CO2e emissions.

Waste Management

Along with emissions, the sport sector also creates a substantial amount of waste. Cardboard, plastics, glass bottles, food surplus, uniforms, paint, batteries, and construction materials all fall into the category of waste caused by sport. 

A typical NFL game can produce 30 to 40 tons of solid waste — a staggering figure for a single event.  

The 2012 London Olympics created 61,000 tons of waste. Remarkably, 99% of that waste was either recycled or reused and was a testament to organizers’ efforts in reducing waste in sport. 

Air, Land, and Water Pollution

While we love to watch, cheer, and boo at our favourite sporting events, the gathering of thousands of people in one place can have an unfortunate effect on pollution.

A study conducted at NC State University in the U.S. found that three hours prior to American football games, when fans started arriving at the stadium, spikes in air pollution levels were recorded, caused largely by charcoal grills, old power generators, and idling vehicles. The recorded levels were more than 20 times higher than recognized moderate air quality levels and lasted for about 12 hours after the game had ended. 

Aside from air pollution, mismanaged solid and liquid waste can end up contaminating natural waterways and surrounding land environments. Initiatives like the Air Quality & Sport Challenge, introduced by ThinkSport together with Sustainable Sports Lab and Sustainable Mountain Alliance, are examples of ways that organizations can band together to combat pollution in sport.

The least eco-friendly sports

The least eco-friendly sports have one of two things — a high-maintenance playing surface or lots of equipment that usually damages the surrounding ecosystem. These five sports have a significant impact on the environment.

1. PROFESSIONAL SOCCER: Unlike amateur soccer, professional soccer is a huge spectacle. The massive fields require constant maintenance, which is a drain on local resources. Global events like the FIFA World Cup also create millions of tons of emissions from transportation and stadium operations. Artificial astroturf used for professional soccer fields isn’t ideal because it can’t sustain natural plant life and leads to common sports injuries such as sprained knees and ankles. (The same holds true for American football.)

2. GOLF: Golf courses might look pretty, but they are known for being bad for the environment. Courses in the state of Utah alone use 38 million gallons of water every day and go through lots of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemical products. The sport’s impact will only increase as it grows in popularity, unless changes are made.

3. MOTORSPORTS : Auto racing sports produce significant amounts of air and noise pollution, but only a fraction of emissions come directly from racing events. Transportation and manufacturing facilities are also big contributors. However, these sports are trending in the right direction, as new electric racing vehicles could allow them to phase out high-emissions race cars.

4. SKIING/SNOWBOARDING: Skiing and snowboarding resorts have the same problem as golf courses — they require lots of resources to maintain, including an endless fuel supply and electricity to continue making snow. Keeping an environment in a perpetual state of winter can also negatively impact the local wildlife.

5. SKYDIVING Skydiving is terrible for the environment for one simple reason — the planes. Planes in competitive skydiving have to take off and land multiple times daily, requiring constant refueling. This sport emits 24–60 pounds of CO2 per jump.

TRAVEL

Tourism is also one of the greatest environmental threats, above all due to the impact of air travel. Aviation accounts for up to 75% of the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions, while coach and rail travel amount to 13% and accommodation approximately 20%. In 2017 there were 1.3 billion international tourist arrivals globally, of which the majority (57%) travelled by air, the most polluting form of transport per passenger-kilometre.

The continued growth in popularity for air travel has made aviation one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions with the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) reporting a 32% increase in CO2 emissions since 2013. If current trends continue, aviation could be responsible for consuming a quarter of the 1.5°C carbon budget by 2050.

Increasingly, tourists are taking longer flights than most business travellers. What’s more, these emissions are released directly into the upper atmosphere where they cause far more damage, and more rapidly, than if released at ground level. Thus, taking the train to Paris instead of flying effectively cuts CO2 emissions by 90%. 

MUSIC

In December 2021, musicians all around the world signed the Music Climate Pact. It is a promise to do their part for our planet by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Every year, the music industry releases a big amount of greenhouse gases – 540 million kilograms in the UK alone! 

Music Streaming

Every stage of music streaming requires energy, even the storage of music. Music streaming platforms store music as data in hard drives in server farms all over the world. These server farms are made up of thousands of computers, and they constantly need a huge amount of energy to power and to keep cool. Energy is also needed to send the data to your local network. Finally, when the song reaches your computer or phone, it uses energy from your device to play.

An hour of music streaming releases about 55 grams of carbon dioxide. That doesn’t sound so bad, but some hit songs are played more than a billion times all over the world. This ends up releasing at least 2,000,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

Live Music

Live music is a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the music industry. Scientists guess that live music in the UK releases 405 million kilograms of carbon dioxide every year.  A big part of that comes from transport. When musicians have concerts, they travel around the world on planes and buses. Fans also travel to watch them perform. Every concert also uses a lot of energy for light and sound. 

Waste is also a big problem in concerts. Big music festivals can create up to 100,000 kilograms of solid waste in a day! That’s enough to fill up 8 rubbish trucks. A lot of it is plastic waste, such as single-use water bottles and packaging for merchandise.

What Can We Do?

Music streaming platforms can do their part for the environment by using renewable energy to operate. Music artists can do their best to tour on trains and buses instead of flights. Concert organisers can ban single-use plastic in concerts. As listeners, we can play our part too. Don’t leave music playing when you’re not in the same room and try to stream music on a smaller device, because it uses less energy than a bigger device.