Our Youth 4 The Climate
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27th October 2025
The hidden cost of campus culture: How UK universities are complicit in fast fashion
Thousands of students are flooding into universities this September to start another year of academic rigour. There will be chaotic move-ins, tearful goodbyes, and of course, new memberships into an unreasonable number of student societies.
These can range from amateur comedy to bubble tea meet-ups, but sports societies significantly dominate these extracurricular activities. At Durham University alone, there’s more than 550 college teams to choose from, so no wonder over 75% of the student population participate in intramural sports.
Whether students are seasoned athletes or a beginner trying their luck at pickleball, sports teams all have one thing in common. A uniform. These uniforms are not only important for mobility and sweat regulation, but they unite teams under a common identity. However, these uniforms have been increasingly uniting students as an insidious symbol of environmental harm.
Sports uniforms are often made from polyester, elastane, and nylon, with few cotton based products within their ingredient lists. Polyester is not only made from fossil fuels which are non-biodegradable, but the material also sheds microparticles that damage the environment throughout their use. Companies typically use polyester material in their sportswear since it is highly compatible with dye sublimation techniques used to print their logos. This is a process which involves the application of possibly toxic chemicals during manufacturing, which make logos look sharp, but can pollute nearby water sources.
Oxygen levels in these bodies of water plummet as a result; species diversity is at risk and the breakdown of entire ecosystems is a threat. Though non-toxic exists to alleviate this issue, the dye-sublimination process has other detrimental environmental consequences. There is also a large amount of heat and energy needed to print high quality colours. For dyes to successfully integrate into the fabric, temperatures of up to 230 °C are required, which uses up a lot of energy.
But the picture isn’t entirely bleak. In 2019, PlayerLayer rolled out an eco-line, with notable examples including EcoLayer leggings which are made from recycled polyester and water bottles, as well as the PlayerLayer Rovers range using coffee grounds. Meanwhile, Boldwill has pushed its sustainability even further and removed plastics entirely in exchange for organic cotton and hemp, offering sportswear that’s effective and biodegradable. However, these eco ranges remain the exception in a marke...
