In today’s rapidly-evolving consumer demand environment, it is becoming increasingly common for people to desire and afford new clothing after only wearing them a few times. This trend is commonly referred to as fast fashion.
Fashion that promotes poor working conditions and low wages often ends up polluting the environment during production. Furthermore, this type of production often produces hazardous chemicals and other waste which leaches into the environment during production.
1. Environmental Impact
Fast fashion is a business model that involves the rapid production and distribution of clothing at low costs. These brands create trends, drive demand for new styles, then mass produce them in factories to keep costs low.
Fast fashion factories often relocate to developing countries for cheap labor costs and the lack of environmental regulations. Unfortunately, this can result in deforestation and polluted waterways.
Furthermore, the production of synthetic fabrics necessitates large amounts of petroleum and emits emissions such as volatile particulate matter, acids like hydrogen chloride, and ozone depleting compounds. Cotton, which is commonly used in fast fashion garments, requires pesticides to grow effectively.
Textile dyeing consumes one tenth of all industrial water usage, and requires toxic chemicals that end up in our oceans. Furthermore, when textiles are discarded, they take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills, releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that contributes to global warming.
2. Social Impact
The fashion industry is a major contributor to environmental and social damage. It uses extensive amounts of energy and water in garment production, emits high levels of pollution and waste, and exploits cheap labor.
Fast fashion is often presented as a positive thing, offering people inexpensive, trendy garments. Unfortunately, its effects on communities and the environment extend far beyond its production cycle; from clothing disposal to the impacts it has on those living in developing countries who produce it.
These effects are magnified for low income countries (LMICs), who lack the resources and political will to promote occupational safety, environmental health, and social justice through trade policy and regulations.
Fast fashion’s environmental and social costs must be addressed urgently if we are to meet our sustainable development targets. To transform the textile industry from a take-make-waste economy into one based on circular economic principles, we need to shift away from take-make-waste practices.
3. Economic Impact
Fast fashion is a business model that allows major brands to produce large volumes of trendy clothing quickly and affordably in order to attract consumers. Since its inception in the early 2000s, this growth has had an adverse effect on the environment, society, and human health.
Poor labor conditions, low wages and unsafe working environments are commonplace in many countries that produce fast fashion products. Furthermore, workers employed in fast fashion factories often face long hours without assurance of safety or wages.
Furthermore, the textile industry contributes to global carbon emissions and releases vast quantities of water into the environment. Furthermore, its toxic chemicals used in production harm animals and people living nearby where clothing is produced. Furthermore, fast fashion pollutes waterways and oceans with dyes and microfibers that end up there due to dye ingestion by marine life ingesting dyes from fast fashion producers’ releases into the environment.
4. Health Impact
Fast fashion production often has detrimental effects on human health. It often relies on cheap labor, often in countries with lax regulations or laws, leading to unhealthy working conditions.
Fast fashion also has an environmental cost. Synthetic fibers like polyester, which are widely used, deplete non-renewable resources and contribute to global warming. Furthermore, fast fashion often sheds microfibres into our oceans that contribute to an increasing level of plastic pollution.
Furthermore, the dyeing process of cotton and other fabrics contributes to water pollution. Manufacturers dump textile dyes into rivers and oceans, polluting our water supplies while endangering aquatic life as well as human health.
We can reduce the negative impacts of fast fashion by raising awareness, buying secondhand clothing, donating garments and shopping from ethical companies. Furthermore, we should promote alternative production methods like renting through sites such as Rent the Runway in America, Gwynnie Bee in the UK, Girl Meets Dress in the Netherlands or Mud Jeans which lease organic jeans.
