The Dark Side of Fashion: The Impact Of Overconsumption
We Are Covering The Earth In Our Waste.
Can you imagine standing in the landfill pictured above, spanning thousands of kilometres wide, millions maybe even billions of rubbish/ clothes/ electricals disposed of, their purpose used up. The memories they made with their owners now forgotten as they lay in an ocean of waste.
There are so many items here, you can’t even pick out a singular one.
But this landfill isn’t special, there are estimated to be tens of thousands of landfills just like this one, globally.
There is so much rubbish, you can’t even tell where this is, is it on grass? sand? water? Where have the animals that once lived in this area gone?
This is a wake-up call to everyone. Can you see where overconsumption has brought us?
The Prime Factor
Clothes, did you know there are currently enough clothes on earth to fully clothe 240,00,000,000 people? that's 3x the number of people alive right now.
How did we get here?
Fast fashion, my friend.
Fast fashion is one of the most significant problems we have in the world right now, as you read this, thousands of garments and textiles are being made, the majority of which are being made by humans who aren’t getting paid enough, who are treated as though they are machines.
Fast fashion takes advantage of trends in pop culture, Brands make thousands of garments, in low-quality materials, in a low-quality work environment, just so you can purchase clothes on websites like:
- Zara
- H&M (Hennes & Mauritz)
- Forever 21
- Primark
- Fashion Nova
- ASOS
- Boohoo
- Topshop
- Mango
- Missguided
- Shein
- PrettyLittleThing
see any of your favourites here? These are just a handful of brands that are creating clothes under the ‘fast fashion’ umbrella.
Targeting Young People
as social media culture has taken over young people’s lives, fast fashion has too. Places like Youtube, Instagram and TikTok are some of the most popular among the younger generation. With the popularisation of short-form media, trends are now being made and left behind quicker than ever, and fast fashion is profiting off this.
As a young person myself, I am no stranger to seeing videos titled “€500 shein haul!” These videos are made to entice people into clicking on them, through sheer outrage or interest because come on, who has €500 to spend on clothes alone?
The Takeover Of Fast Fashion
If poor work environments and low wages don't shock you enough, the garments made in these companies are also made in primarily polyester or some other sort of plastic material, meaning they won’t last long as you wear them, and they don’t degrade at all.
“thrifting” or going to charity shops to buy your clothes has also become somewhat of a trend too, among young people. However, the infiltration of fast fashion in these places has gotten out of hand. Clothes should be made to wear long-term, and if you don’t wear them, the idea is to donate them so someone else can. Fast fashion makes this impossible, every time I go into a charity shop, I am overwhelmed by the vast amount of low-quality garments. This is not a long-term solution, as you can tell from the landfill pictured above, clothes that are made of low-quality materials, don’t last long, people may wear them 10–15 times before they break or rip. Where do they end up then?
Quick Maths Time:
let’s say for hypothetical reasons, you bought a t-shirt for €10 from a fast fashion brand, and you wear it 5 times before it stains, rips or you buy a new one. The cost per wear is €2 ( €10 / 5 ) Sounds cheap right?
On the other hand, let's pretend you bought a similar t-shirt, from a reputable brand for €15, this t-shirt may last you for years to come, but for this experiment, we will say 1 year.
€15 / 365 is €0.041. Meaning the cost per wear is less than €1, AND you get to wear it for a whole year. Which seems more sustainable to you?
So in the long term, abstaining from fast fashion will be easier on your wallet, and better for our Earth.
You Have The Power To Mitigate This Problem
If you’ve read some of my other articles, you may be tired of reading this, but we as consumers, can actually do something, and it’s simple,
Buy From Reputable Brands
It sounds so easy, but with the popularisation of fast fashion and trends, it can be hard to keep up, with who is creating quality clothes.
I’m currently researching and working on an article that will help you with just that, so keep an eye out for it.
If you’ve come this far, I’d like to thank you for reading.
If you enjoyed this post I would love it if you checked out some of my others. The Mindful Consumer Journey is about sparking change within society, so if you enjoy these kinds of articles I would love for you to follow so we together can make a change.
