Your doorbell rings, and a package from your favorite store is sitting at your doorstep. You’ve hauled a huge bundle of clothing, all for a surprisingly low cost, which you may think is great, but in reality it is not! Those clothes are likely going to be thrown out after wearing it only once or twice. In 2019, New York Times suggested that most of the people targeted in fast fashion admit they do participate in throwing clothes away often. This unfortunately leads to a huge amount of waste. It seems that things have not really changed, due to constant increase of this waste in recent years. Not only that, but water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and other issues are a part of fast fashion.
What exactly is fast fashion?
Fast fashion is a business strategy designed to accommodate ongoing fashion trends with mass produced low-priced clothing. These are meant to look appealing and trendy, but due to how fast the clothes are produced, they would not be of the best quality. Cheap materials will often cause clothes to rip, so fast fashion creates this issue on a large scale. While it is efficient and speedy with creating new clothes on a daily basis, fast fashion leads to a “throw-away mentality”, as Investopedia puts it. This means that people typically only wear their clothes once or twice, and then don’t use them anymore. Despite its inherently devastating effects, but it leads to deforestation, water pollution and textile wastage due to the absolute scale that fast fashion operates on.
What are the issues with fast fashion?
Environmentally, fast fashion produces a huge amount of problems. According to the European Parliament, fast fashion’s mass production system directly causes many problems like water pollution. Water pollution is a huge issue as it is estimated to account for “20% of global clean water pollution from dyeing and finishing products” (European Parliament). This presents a huge concern as the world is already in crisis with its sea pollution from other industries. “Waste occurs at every stage of the garment manufacturing process”, as the Center for Biological Diversity says, and there are a LOT of steps in making clothes. ChemSec states that there is fiber production, yarn production, fabric production and more – though direct waste may not occur in all of these, chemicals definitely are involved. This further destroys the bodies of water in our world by adding more and more chemicals to the water, hurting many animals, and even people! This toxicity in the water is widely present in local areas, making people sick with various diseases. One example of this is in Bangladesh, where textile manufacturing is very prevalent. In an 2023 interview, a man living in Dhaka told Reuters that “‘those who bathe in this river [describing Buriganga river] often suffer from scabies on their skin’”(Reuters). This is only one of the illnesses these types of chemicals can bring to people, meaning that the elimination of these in water would be incredibly beneficial for all. Regarding greenhouse emissions, fast fashion is estimated to have contributed to “3 to 8 percent of total greenhouse emissions” and this can easily rise by “about 30 percent by 2030”(McKinsey) if nothing else is done about it, according to a McKinsey article. Considering how many people buy from these stores, the number is only going to rise more and more. The earth’s climate is already getting warmer, and the greenhouse gas emissions’ persistent increase does not help matters. Looking at the deforestation caused by fast fashion, it tends to occur when land needs to be cleared for plantations and cattle grazing for cotton and leather, according to GoodonYou. Along with tree deforestation, they are also being impacted by the rise of carbon dioxide emissions, so both of these deeply hurt them and therefore our already fragile ecosystem! Another example of mass material manufacturing that hurts the environment is wool. Wool, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, is commonly mixed with fibers that are made from fossil fuels, further hurting the environment. With so many of these practices (especially tree cutting), habitats get destroyed as well, hurting various animal species too. Though we may not always appreciate the animals in our world (diseases, allergies, bites, galore!), they are just as important as us, contributing to the biodiversity of our planet. To cut down on mass production, or at least making it more cleanly would be extremely beneficial to all organisms on Earth.
Current Events
In the world, different places are starting to practice sustainability with their fashion – one being, not surprisingly, the country known for its beautiful styles and designs, France! France began “subsidizing repairs of clothes and shoes”(The Progress Playbook), meaning that people can get money for repairs from a fund. In March, France’s National Assembly approved a new legislation that would give brands that mass-produce clothing penalties, making this practice less easy to resort to due to the fees that come with it to the companies.
Lots of brands in France also implement sustainability in their clothing – for example Veja, a brand that designs footwear primarily, uses “low-impact materials, like GOTS certified cotton and vegetable-tanned leather”(GoodOnYou). GOTS refers to the fact that it adheres to globally organic textile standards, and vegetable-tanned leathers means that it is dyed with more natural ingredients. Another example is 1083, a brand that uses more eco-friendly materials such as organic cotton, according to GoodOnYou. Using these types of material helps a lot with making the environment more clean.
What can we do to help?
So, although that top may look good, or those jeans are pretty cheap, think carefully before you buy. It's not necessary to have a huge walk-in closet's worth of clothes – try to buy less, especially from fast fashion companies. It's understandable if the prices from these companies are more affordable, however, the more someone buys, the more clothing falls apart, resulting in the loss of more and more money. One thing to do is purchase more from sustainable, well-reputed brands. Though their clothes might cost more than fast fashion companies, at the end of the day those clothes will last far longer. If you'd like to see how ethical a certain clothing company is with their production, look it up! There are many websites that go into detail regarding waste, labor ethics, and overall different things that can affect your purchase. Additionally, when you begin to not fit in, don’t like, or don’t use good-quality clothes, try to sell them or donate them, like GreenFeels says! If you choose to donate, ensure you’re giving them to an organization that you can trust. People are in need of clothes everywhere and not everyone can afford them, so it helps the community if you don’t necessarily want a piece of clothing or don’t fit into it anymore. Less is more! You can also upcycle clothing. You can do this by yourself, repurposing some old clothes into new, or even purchasing ones that have been repurposed. If your clothes are in seriously bad condition, to the point where you can’t wear them, repurpose them for something you can use as a tool! GreenFeels gives a few examples – you can use your “old T-shirts to make stylish tote bags” or easily use any piece of clothing as a “duster or mop”(GreenFeels)! Beyond that, you can also go to textile recycling companies. These companies will recycle the textiles into reusable clothing, fibers, or wiping cloths, even, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. There are many things you can do to combat fast fashion and the negative environmental impact it brings.
To conclude...
Overall, fast fashion is pretty hard to avoid and it's quite tempting to buy from stores that practice it. The clothes are cheap, but they come at a cost of being low quality. Of course, purchasing low priced clothes sometimes is necessary, but trying to lessen that and getting good clothes that will last longer is important too! Fast fashion is an extremely prevalent and difficult issue, but with even small steps, its damaging impact on our planet can be healed.