We Need to Let Go of Fast Fashion
We are Paying too Big a Price for Cheap Fashion
What if I tell you I am going to produce something of very low quality and you are not only going to buy it once, but many times in a year? I will keep you hooked to it, and you won’t be able to help it.
You would think I had gone crazy. What if I tell you, it is already happening to you. Fast Fashion is doing exactly the same to you.
If I have to define fast fashion in a blunt way-
It is the cheap quality clothes made up of synthetic textiles such a polyester, neither good for you, nor for the environment. We buy these clothes because they are cheap.
With fashion, you think you are buying to keep yourself up with the trends. Some people feel weirdly proud of it. Trust me, it is as bad as keeping up with the Kardashians. What you are actually doing is buying cheap quality synthetic fabrics like polyester that harms your skin, and later ends up in a landfill and harm the environment. The trends are only to fool you into buying something you otherwise won’t. Who would anyway like to let their skin even touch the cheap and disposable polyester, had the fashion industry not invented fashion trends.
Fast Fashion Is Fueling Your Addiction
Shopping has been called a therapy. By whom? The fashion industry! Has any doctor ever recommended it? Has any monk ever told you that you need to shop to be peaceful or happy? But what do these people know about mental wellness. It is the fashion industry that has all the right credentials to give you mental health advice!
It is no different than a drug dealer telling you that the key to your happiness is the very drug he is selling. He can prove it with the high it provides instantly. So can the fashion industry! The high is there. Nobody talks about the damage these kind of addictions do to us in the longer term. The worst part is- in order to deal with the long term side effects of the addiction, we go back to the drug to make ourselves high again, till it completely ruins us.
Fast Fashion Trends Are Stupid
Fashion changes fast and you need to keep up with it to stay relevant
It is the hottest trend this summer
Turn up the heat with this stylist crop top
Bell bottoms are now the things of the past. The new trend is …..
Bell bottoms are now back in the trend with a twist …..
Kylie Jenner swears by this new trend …..
Who invented fashion and later on fashion trends in the name of clothes? It is the fashion industry. They can’t sell you crappy clothes without such brilliantly evil marketing tactics.
The fashion people can go on and on about why you need to hop on to their current trends. Have you ever thought about who gets to decide what the new trend is or when it is going to change? It is not you, it is not me, it is the fashion police- the ones who get to fill their fat pockets with our money. Clearly, they have all the incentive to get us to buy more by changing trends frequently. Without trends and fads, fashion industry would be much smaller in size than it is now.
Fast Fashion Is One Of The Worst Offenders When It Comes To Pollution
Ever thought about how mainstream media tells you to reduce your carbon footprint yet never talks about how fast fashion harms the environment? They want to put the blame of pollution on you instead of companies and mega corporations. They don’t actually want you to find a way to decrease your carbon footprint. That is why they tell you that you are the culprit, while serving you ads to buy more fashion.
Carbon Emissions
It’s hardly a secret anymore that fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world. According to the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, fashion was responsible for 8–10% of global carbon emissions in 2019 — more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. Additionally, the textile industry is responsible for 24% of insecticide use and 11% of pesticide use.
You would be even more shocked to know that the apparel industry’s climate impact is expected to increase 49% by 2030. What does it mean? It means that the fashion alone will emit 4.9 metric gigatons of CO2 by 2030. To put it into perspective, it is nearly equal to today’s total annual US greenhouse gas emissions. The fashion industry already emits more carbon dioxide than international flights and shipping combined, as per Ellen MacArthur Foundation report back in 2017.
Textile Waste Goes To Landfills
Again, according to UN, over 21 billion tons of textiles are sent to landfills each year- and Americans are responsible for more than their fair share. They throw away 70 lbs of clothing per person per year.
Fast Fashion and Luxury Brands Destroy Their Unsold Goods
Fast fashion and luxury brands burn their unsold inventory. As a matter of fact, it is a common industry practice. They do so in order to protect their brand image. Back in 2018, Burberry burnt $37 million worth of goods to stop them from being stolen and sold cheaply. Brands do not want their goods to be sent to recycling as it invites the possibility of being stolen and sold in black market as per a Forbes article. The brand destroyed products worth more than £90 million between 2013 and 2018. Over the years, H&M, Nike, and Urban Outfitters, Louis Vuitton, JCPenney, Michael Kors, Eddie Bauer, Louis Vuitton, & Victoria’s Secret and a lot of other brands have been accused of destroying their unsold products.
Recycling Narrative is Nothing More than A Greenwashing Marketing Scheme
If I talk about recycling, it is only 13% of clothing and footwear that ever got recycled as per EPA and American Textile Recycling Service. In fact, the fast fashion brands are trying to mislead people into consuming more with the help of their greenwashing marketing schemes.
Fast Fashion Industry Doesn’t Pay Its Workers Even A Living Wage
Now you must be thinking that it is a billion dollar industry and it gives livelihood to millions of people if not more. Well, it is the worst industry to be in. It doesn’t even pay living wage to workers in third world nations. Living wages are defined as earnings sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for workers and their families. It is recognized by the UN as a fundamental human right. 93% of the brands surveyed by Fashion Checker aren’t paying their garment workers a living wage.
Over A Third of All Microplastics in the Ocean Come from Synthetic Textiles (Fast Fashion)
Synthetic fabrics like polyester, nylon, rayon, acrylic, spandex, or faux fur naturally shed tiny plastic particles when you wear and wash them. Suffice it to say, even before these particles end up in the ocean, and eventually the stomach of the fish you eat, they harm you when you inhale these tiny, non visible particles while wearing, washing, folding these clothes. How else do you think we are inhaling almost 72000 particles of microplastic every year? A single polyester garment sheds millions of micoplastics. Even your tapwater is contaminated with microplastics these days.
You Are Not Sacrificing Anything By Giving Up Fast Fashion
Even if I take the “environmental concern” out of the picture (which I shouldn’t), fast fashion is not adding any value to your life.
Sustainable fashion is timeless. It is good for you and the environment but it is bad for the fashion industry and the billionaires who are churning billions off the fast fashion industry. Fast fashion targets common people with a dispensable income that should be put to better use than buying crappy fashion.
Your clothes accentuate your personality. What do you think cheap, disposable polyester clothes with a trend that doesn’t even last a month, say about your personality? I don’t think any of us think of ourselves as disposable and cheap. Our clothes shouldn’t be either.
I have clothes from previous decades that I still wear. I have outfits from my wedding that I am going to pass on to my future generations. I have good stuff that I can proudly pass on to my future daughter or grand daughter. I used to buy unnecessary clothes when I was a teenager but not anymore. Believe me, it would be so much better for your mental health too.
Parting Note
Start conversations about things that harm us, our health and the environment. I believe every person can influence 10 others to make a difference. If you are able to convince yourself and even 9 others to give up fast fashion, you would be saving 7000 lbs of crap from going to our landfills every decade. That is a big impact!
I would like to thank Jessica Wildfire for inspiring me to write this article. Her thought provoking article on fast fashion (given below) finally gave me the nudge I needed to write about the impact of fast fashion on us and our environment-
If you want to switch to sustainable clothing brands, you can read about how to find out whether a brand is really sustainable, without getting green-washed-
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