Plastic Chic: Can High-End Fashion Be Sustainable While Using Polyester?
Eco-conscious consumers are becoming increasingly aware of what their clothes are made of and what those materials are doing to the planet. Polyester has emerged as one of the biggest materials of concern, largely because of one simple, damning fact: it doesn't decompose. And yet, it remains the most widely used fabric in fashion, from fast fashion giants to high street staples to luxury labels, prized for how cheap it is to produce and how well it holds its shape.
Here's where it gets complicated. A growing number of brands are marketing themselves as sustainable while quietly continuing to use polyester in their collections. So can that dichotomy actually hold up? Can you claim to be eco-conscious while relying on an objectively harmful fabric? Let's get into it.
So, What Even Is Polyester?
Polyester is a synthetic fibre derived from petroleum. Yes, the same fossil fuel that goes into your car. The production process starts with polymerisation, where chemical compounds under high heat, react to form long polymer chains, creating the base material known as PET (polyethylene terephthalate). From there, the molten PET is pushed through tiny holes called spinnerets to form continuous filaments through a process called melt spinning. Those filaments are then stretched to increase strength and durability, softened through twisting or crimping, and finally wound onto spools ready to be woven into fabric.
The result is the strong, lightweight, and incredibly versatile material we see in our clothes everyday. It's easy to see why the industry prefers it. But the same properties that make polyester so useful in production are exactly what make it so problematic for the planet.
The Environmental Cost
Polyester's issues don't start and end with decomposition or lack thereof, even though that alone is significant. A polyester garment can take anywhere from 20 to 200 years to break down in landfill. The damage starts long before it gets to end-of-life.
Manufacturing polyester is energy-intensive and heavily reliant on fossil fuels. It generates significantly more CO₂ than natural fibres like cotton or linen, contributing to the fashion industry's already massive carbon footprint.
Every time a polyester garment is washed, it sheds thousands of tiny plastic fibres called microplastics, that pass straight through most water filtration systems and into our oceans and waterways. It's estimated that a single wash cycle can release up to 700,000 microplastic fibres. These particles have been found everywhere from the ocean floor to human blood to even the rain that pours down from the sky. Unlike natural fibres, polyester cannot be composted. Most polyester garments end up in landfill or incineration, and even recycled polyester while a step in the right direction still sheds microplastics and relies on an initial plastic production cycle to function at scale.
Can Sustainable and Polyester Coexist?
This is the real question. And the answer is: it's complicated.
Some brands argue that recycled polyester, made from plastic bottles or post-consumer waste, is a viable sustainable alternative. And there's something to that. Recycled polyester diverts plastic waste from landfills and requires less energy to produce than virgin polyester. Brands like Patagonia and Stella McCartney have made it a core part of their sustainability strategies.But it is not a clean solution. It still sheds microplastics. It's still not biodegradable. And using it as a sustainability talking point without addressing the broader system: overproduction, disposability, end-of-life etc starts to look a lot like greenwashing.
The harder truth is that no fabric choice exists in isolation. A brand that uses recycled polyester but produces 12 collections a year, sells at throwaway prices, and has no garment take-back programme is not a sustainable brand. Meanwhile, a brand that uses a small percentage of virgin polyester in a well-constructed, long-lasting piece designed for longevity might actually be doing less damage overall.
What Should Brands Actually Do?
There's no overnight fix, but there are meaningful steps fashion brands can take right now:
Audit your materials. Know exactly how much polyester is in your supply chain, where it comes from, and what the alternatives are.
Prioritise longevity over trend. A polyester piece designed to last 10 years is categorically less harmful than a linen one designed to last one season.
Explore alternatives. Innovations in bio-based and biodegradable synthetic fibres. They're not yet at scale, but early adoption matters.
Be honest with your customers. If your product contains polyester, say so. Explain why and what you're doing about it. Transparency builds trust in a way that vague sustainability claims never will.
Polyester use isn't going away overnight. The economics of the fashion industry make that an uncomfortable reality. But what brands can control is how they use it, how honest they are about it, and how seriously they're investing in moving away from it.
At Aya Sustainability, we help fashion brands take a clear-eyed look at their material choices and build strategies that are as transparent as they are effective.
