Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is a term used to describe an exploitive business model that designs, manufactures, and markets clothing based off of high-fashion designs. The clothing is mass produced and sold for a very low cost; compared to the original seller. The most popular fast fashion websites are Zara, Shein, Fashion Nova, H&M, and Forever 21. While these companies may be tempting, and at times addicting with their cheap prices, they do more harm than good. This applies specifically to its effects on the environment and their constant exploitation of natural resources.

Fast fashion has been rapidly growing over the past couple decades. As a result, it has had a large impact on climate change with it being fifth in contributions from household consumption as well as earning the rank as the fourth largest cause of environmental damage and pressure.

Currently with climate change, these companies are responsible for about 8 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and emit 1.2 billions tons of carbon each year. But the UN estimates that by 2050, this number will have increased exponentially and have them be liable for about a quarter of them.

Though it’s not just about the tons of greenhouse gas emissions fast fashion makes, it’s also about its impact on other factors of climate change such as pollution or the poor condition of natural water sources. The materials used to create them, while look acceptable online, contribute to the loss of freshwater and the condition of ecosystems. This industry is the second largest user of water in the world due to the amount of water it takes to simply produce their clothing. For example: to make just one t-shirt, these companies need seven hundred gallons of water. And it takes about two thousand to create a pair of jeans.

The production of fibre, finishing and dyeing, and yarn preparation take lots of energy to complete that’s rooted in fossil fuel consumption as well. And dyeing these textiles has the consequence of being the second largest water polluter. Overall, fast fashion is responsible for about twenty percent of the industrial production of pollution around the world.

Fast fashion also produces an obscene amount of waste. Statistics show that while there was a sixty percent increase in the purchase of clothing in 2014 compared to 2000, the people who bought the clothes only kept them for half as long. Plus, the additional materials used, like synthetic textiles, take hundreds of years of biodegrade. This creates lots of waste, and where does it all end up? The landfills, which are dumping and burning garbage trucks full of clothing every second. In total, about eight-five percent of the textiles end up in landfills every year.

Instead of shopping at these websites, try thrifting or supporting small businesses. It comes down to ethical consumption of clothing which only originates in how the clothing is marketed and manufactured. It’s more virtuous to purchase outside of direct chains instead of running the risk of purchasing your new clothing at the corrupt consequence of contributing to a rapidly dying environment.