By: Tiffany Griffith
Fast fashion is the fun, trendy, and remarkably cheap clothing brands that make keeping up with trends and social media influencers seem accessible to nearly everyone. It is the byproduct of the new consumer culture, in which people regularly buy more clothes than they want (or need) and dispose of them more quickly. Lines like H&M and Forever 21 release new collections 12-16 times per year. Clothing production has doubled since 2000, resulting in massively overproduced textiles with nowhere to go but the landfill. A staggering 85% of clothing textiles go unused and are usually incinerated, releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Fast fashion brands are notorious for outsourcing labor to unregulated and impoverished countries, or using undocumented workers who are unlikely to challenge their bosses for low pay and inhumane working conditions. Trendy, cheap clothes really does come with a hefty environmental and ethical price tag; creating a perfect storm of consumerism, waste, and a carbon footprint that will not be sustainable for much longer.
Where Does Fast Fashion Come From?
Fast fashion requires incredibly low manufacturing costs, so the majority of production is outsourced to Asia and India, whose lax labor laws are exploited to overwork and underpay garment workers. The majority of these workers are women and girls who, due to the patriarchal and impoverished countries they come from, have fewer rights than men, and very little recourse for change. They are regularly forced to work overtime, are often not compensated for it, and subjected to many forms of abuse and unfit working conditions. The brand Fashion NOVA came under fire when it was revealed they were under investigation for using undocumented workers at dozens of factories producing clothing for the brand in Los Angeles; paying some as little as $2.77 per hour. An investigation from 2016 showed the factories in question owing 3.8 million in back wages to its employees. Fashion NOVA has a net worth over $450 million, owing much of that success to minority populations — yet in a twisted ethical paradox, the very factories that manufacture their product exploit marginalized communities, especially young, undocumented, immigrant women. Retailers have a responsibility to educate the customer about fast fashion’s cruel practices to change the trajectory of the fashion industry into a more humane standard.
Fast Fashion and the Environment
Churning out new collections as often as every few weeks results in an overabundance of clothing textiles, most of which cannot be sold or donated, so it is incinerated. Burning cheap synthetic fabrics produces large quantities of carbon dioxide and pollutes the atmosphere. “The fashion industry emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined,” according to an article from The Business Insider last year. Clothing made from cheap materials, namely polyester, produces two to three times more carbon emissions than cotton. Polyester also contains microfibers that shed tiny particles of plastic when washed. These microplastics pollute the water supply and never biodegrade. It is estimated that 31% of all plastic pollution in the Earth’s oceans is a direct result of laundering synthetic materials like polyester.
Cotton, while being a natural material for clothing, requires massive amounts of water to grow. It takes 700 gallons of water to produce a single cotton t-shirt. Think about how many cheap cotton t-shirts the average American owns. The fashion industry is the second largest consumer of water on Earth. In many parts of the world, cotton farming has deserted lakes, rivers, and other water sources that are essential for life in their respective communities.
Textile manufacturing also requires regular use of toxic dyes. In impoverished areas like Bangladesh, it is not uncommon to see children swimming in polluted lakes and rivers that have been dyed various colors as a result of dumping. Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of water in the world. These dyes not only contaminate water, but can have harmful effects on factory workers that submerge their hands in dyes and breathe chemical fumes everyday in these factories.
Waste Culture
We live in a consumer culture. We’ve been conditioned that if something breaks, don’t fix it, replace it. Fast fashion glamorizes the ideology of never wearing the same outfit twice; it is designed to be worn and discarded. Clothing production has doubled since the year 2000, and 85% of all textiles produced for fashion brands goes unused. “The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second,” states an article from The Business Insider. The statistics are astounding and embarrassing. The fashion industry mass produces a product that exploits women and children, is rapidly depleting and polluting its water supplies, only to then dump or burn almost all of it, which pollutes the air with carbon dioxide. One thing is for certain, fast fashion is expending resources and polluting the planet at a rate that cannot be sustained for very long.
Where does the blame lie for the injustices fast fashion bestows on it’s laborers and the environment? I believe that a large part of the responsibility is on the retailers, to educate themselves and give a voice to this epidemic. Retailers must put pressure on the brands and their manufacturers, and only sell their clothing if it is made sustainably and ethically. Working with environmentally and socially conscious brands, retailers can create a marketing plan designed to educate the consumer on the dark practices of fast fashion. An educated audience is the only way to change a wasteful consumer culture. We need to change the fashion ideal from “I never wear the same outfit twice,” to “I know my outfit was made by someone who didn’t have to shorten their lifespan to make it.” If the fashion industry sells a lifestyle, then that style should encompass basic human rights for all, and living in a way that is sustainable for the planet.
