From Trendy to Tragic: The Environmental Price of Fast Fashion

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

The global fashion industry is currently valued at $2.5 trillion, and it’s worth noting that the second richest man owns a fashion brand. If we examine the growth of the fashion industry on a graph, a clear trend emerges. From 1900 to 1950, the fashion industry experienced steady growth, but in the last 25 years, it has grown by 230%. Let’s talk about what is the environmental price of fast fashion.

What is Fast Fashion?

The fast type of fashion is low-cost apparel that is mass-produced by machines and sold rapidly to keep up with the latest styles. These pieces are made quickly to ensure they can be sold before fashion trends change and a new collection is launched. While this mass-produced clothing is affordable, it is often of poor quality. This accessibility comes at a high cost, which is borne by our bodies and ecosystems rather than just our wallets.

Fashion seasons are a Western concept. Back then, fashion was divided into four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. In Western countries, fashion trends were influenced by the weather. The idea was pretty straightforward: you wouldn’t wear a heavy coat in the summer or walk around in shorts in the winter.

Fashion used to be utilitarian, but by the 1990s, this trend changed. The traditional approach of changing fashion every 3 months seemed too slow for companies to keep up with consumer demand. Recognizing the need for a more adaptable strategy, the notion of fast fashion was established to satisfy constantly changing consumer preferences and purchasing behaviours.

Watson and Wolf state that in Europe, two fashion collections were introduced around the year 2000, and by 2011, the number had increased to five. Currently, brands such as H&M release 12 to 16 collections each year, and brands like Zara launch 24 collections annually, indicating that fashion changes every 15 days. Two key factors for the success of this plan were the need for manufacturers to produce clothes as quickly as possible and for customers to discard their clothes as soon as possible.

What is the environmental price of Fast Fashion?

The fast-paced business strategy necessitates top-notch production, but it also results in heightened environmental harm. This industry uses over 93 billion cubic meters of water annually, which is enough to meet the needs of 5 million people, or roughly the entire population of New Zealand. Approximately 20% of the world’s wastewater is generated by fabric dyeing in treatment facilities. Many companies use cheap, toxic dyes to save costs. When these dyes are released into water bodies, they can harm and kill the ecosystem, as well as damage the soil.

The toxic chemicals present in textiles can enter our bodies through the skin, leading to health issues such as cancer, miscarriage, and other disorders in workers. Annually, more than 92 million tons of textile waste are generated, which is equivalent to the combined total solid waste of Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Despite the recyclability of clothing, the sheer volume of garbage makes it nearly impossible to recycle even half of it.

The fast fashion industry is undeniably one of the largest contributors to textile waste, water pollution, and carbon emissions worldwide. The incessant demand for new clothing leads to overproduction, rapid style turnover, and the creation of low-quality garments that are worn briefly and then discarded, adding to the environmental burden. The disposal of these clothes often ends up in landfills, where they release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Nevertheless, it’s never too late to make a positive impact. We all have the power to drive change by consciously choosing to invest in sustainable and ethically made clothing.

What Impact Does Fast Fashion Have On People?

• According to a study, recruiters in developing nations such as India, Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam have been persuading parents in rural areas to send their children, particularly their daughters, to Spinning Mills. They promise a decent wage and three meals a day, but in reality, these children hardly receive either. Some of them are even forced into bonded labour and have to endure unimaginable working conditions.
• Labourers are required to work 14 to 16 hours daily without breaks. Women are compelled to take pills to halt their periods, which harms their health, all to ensure that work is not disrupted by period cramps or pain. Additionally, they are denied maternity leave.
• Numerous female workers fall victim to human trafficking and are subjected to sexual exploitation within factories, where some earn as little as Rs 3000 per month while working tirelessly every day of the year.
• The Rana Plaza building accommodated five garment factories that supplied clothes to various international clothing brands in Europe and North America. Subsequent investigations revealed that, in addition to poor construction, the building was structurally inadequate to support its excessive number of floors and heavy equipment. The collapse of the building resulted in the tragic loss of over 1100 lives, with 2500 others sustaining injuries.
  
  It’s heartbreaking to think about the workers enduring such poor conditions. Despite the factory owner’s pleas for better working conditions, no changes were made. Despite the factory owner’s appeals for better working conditions, no improvements were forthcoming. This incident serves as a stark representation of the detrimental influence of the fashion industry and its pressing need for comprehensive reform. Regrettably, despite the passage of many years, the situation has not seen any positive change.

It’s important to raise awareness as the first step in putting an end to these incredibly inhumane practices.

What is the solution to the environmental price of fast fashion?

Our small steps can reduce our environmental impact. And this will help us in reducing the environmental price of fast fashion as well.

1. Like using our clothes for longer. If we use our clothes for 6 to 9 months more, then we reduce the environmental damage caused by those clothes by 30%, i.e., one-third.
2. We should aim to increase the number of times we use a piece of cloth from 10 to 14 or 15 times. Normalizing the repeating clothes is often considered a crime in the fashion industry, but repeating clothes is the right thing to do.
3. We can also donate our clothes. Goonj is an NGO that makes sanitary napkins from old bed sheets, which are distributed in rural areas. At the same time, they run a clothes-for-work program in rural areas, where they give clothes in exchange for labour. 
4. If you have old shoes or especially sports shoes, then you can donate them to Green Sole. Green Sole makes slippers from old shoes and donates them to children in the village.
5. At the same time, embrace repairs. In every area, there is a person who can repair clothes, whether it’s small tears or fixing elastic.

The production of clothing often requires significant amounts of our precious water, fields, and resources. It is essential that we acknowledge and properly value the resources utilized in this process. Each of us can contribute to the solution. Small actions can make a big impact. With just 1% effort, we can help make the world a better place.