The Ugly Truth of Fast Fashion
Fast Fashion is when the trends come and go faster than usual.
In 2020 an average American bought 68 items of clothing. We have lost the meaning of keeping clothes for a long period of time, and as a result, the fast fashion industry is rapidly growing. As new trends come and go, we throw or donate out the clothes which are not in trend anymore. This has increased our textile waste by 811% since the 1960s.
Fast fashion is taking a toll on our environment and climate from multiple perspectives. Not only is it adding to our landfills, but it is also polluting our waterways. Twenty percent of the average amount of global industrial water pollution can be tied to garment manufacturing. Eight thousand different dyes are used to color garments, and these dyes pollute the water. “In China, the world’s largest clothes exporter, the State’s Environmental Protection Administration declared that nearly one-third of the countries’ rivers are classified as ‘too polluted for any direct human contact’”. Clothing companies have tried to help the situation by using more sustainable materials, or so they say. Buried deep in the formal documents is text stating that their sustainable materials don’t cover the whole product.
Furthermore, this problem also reaches the second-hand clothing industry. Thrifting does save the clothes from the landfill, but some thrift stores throw away the clothes that don’t sell. This continuous cycle can only be slowed if we learn to keep our clothes for longer. If we keep our clothes for longer it keeps them out of the landfill for longer as well. This problem isn’t just for us to fix, the clothing companies need to start using more sustainable materials when making their clothes. By using sustainable material, the clothes will biodegrade when they do end up being thrown away. Another way to repurpose the clothes is to use the cloth for something else, for example, blankets, handkerchiefs, etc. We need to start putting our solutions into action because we are d is losing time.
Our world is begging to be fixed, and we need to start listening.
