A recent Sourcing Journal fireside chat on the topic of over-production caught my eye. We’ve been talking to experts and writing about this topic for some time. As the summary of the chat notes, “Overproduction has long been the industry’s playbook: Manufacture large volumes at a low piece rate, made possible by chasing the cheapest needle. But the results of this strategy are becoming harder to ignore. … In some parts of the globe, mountains of textile waste can now be seen from space.” Greenpeace analysis indicates a pile of textiles the size of Mount Everest goes to the landfill every 7 minutes. Yikes!

Continuing with the current model will only exacerbate the problem, and it’s also unsustainable over time. Some 30% to 40% of apparel production basically goes from the manufacturing floor to the landfill. Is there any other industry where this even begins to make sense? Not that it makes sense in apparel … but it has been the mental model for a long, long time.

We talk about Fast Fashion (Shein, Temu, Zara, etc.) as a key cause of this issue, but as pointed out in the chat, the mindset is not limited to these companies. Moderator Jasmin Malik Chua, Climate & Labor Editor at the Sourcing Journal, stated, “Most brands are following speedy trend cycles and collectively pumping out substantial volumes of products that exceed what is needed to clothe the planet's population.” Thus, the growing mountains of textile waste. In fact, according to the World Economic Forum, we produce between 80 and 150 billion pieces of fashion each year. That’s billion with a B. And with a world population as of 2026 estimated at 8.3 billion, that’s like close to 10 to 20 pieces of apparel per person on the planet every year.