What’s the fuss with fast fashion?
‘Fast fashion’ is a phrase that I see constantly, whether it be people boycotting the industry on Instagram or companies saying to choose them instead of others. Adopting the ‘quantity over quality’ ideology, fast fashion is the method of mass-producing cheap, poor quality and disposable clothing.
But what does this mean for our environment, and why should we be concerned about it? As we explore this, I think these three main facts should be kept in mind.
- The fashion industry contributes significantly to emissions
8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) come from the fashion industry. This might not sound like a lot, but to put it into some perspective that is more than the air travel AND boating (transporting goods and people) industries combined.
It might seem odd to think that fashion produces more emissions than aeroplanes and boats combined but in fact, clothing production relies on petrochemical products and is a resource intensive process. The bulk of the fashion industry’s GHG emissions are released in the manufacturing stage of the life cycle, which includes producing raw materials. It also accounts for 60 million tons of plastic annually through manufacturing polyester. This ubiquitous form of plastic that’s procured from oil has overtaken cotton as the backbone of textile production. As we’ve seen in the last few years, plastic causes very harmful microplastic pollution which is harmful especially to marine life but also to us.
2. The impact of high volume production and consumption
The fashion industry produces between 80 billion to 150 billion clothes a year globally. Replicating trends and high-fashion looks, and then rapidly turning them into inexpensive styles that are easily accessible in high volumes by the general public, the industry has shifted towards high consumption levels. Coupled with lower prices, this creates an impression that clothes can be considered almost disposable, especially as production often creates clothes that are not designed to last.
3. The high volume of production also extends to high volumes of waste
The US alone throws away up to 11.3 million tons of clothes annually, which is 2,150 pieces of clothes every second. If you’re a speedy reader, it might have taken you around a minute to reach this sentence, which means that since you read the title, over 129,000 pieces of clothing have been dumped.
Almost three-fifths of all clothing produced ends up in landfills or incinerators by the end of its first year of life. All this suggests that we are overproducing and over-consuming clothes.
Where do we go from here?
We have seen fashion brands making efforts to be sustainable over the last few years, whether this is promoting human equality, using recycled materials in their clothes, or having a trade-in area in store to exchange your old clothes for a portion of the new.
High street brands are also getting involved. For example, Zara has pledged to become more sustainable over the entire chain, including design, materials selection, production, and warehouse storage. They aim to achieve climate neutrality by 2040.
Whilst this is a huge goal that all fashion brands should strive for, we as consumers should be mindful of potential greenwashing and look sceptically at brands that say “buy this, it’s carbon neutral”. With heightened attention on the human and environmental impact of the fashion industry, it’s important to ensure that the solutions being proposed to us are authentic. Already high volumes of production and waste in the fashion industry mean we cannot continue to consume our way out of the issues caused by the industry. If a proposed solution is not causing us to consume less, then is it truly the answer we’re looking for? If we can wear our clothes that we already own, then surely that would be better than continuing to contribute to the problem, or a small solution to the problem.
For those of us who like to keep up with the trends or continue to change their style, it is stressful to think that we could be contributing to such an ecologically disastrous industry. Could the solution be finding alternatives like rental platforms? Whilst these platforms can be expensive, and perhaps inaccessible to some, it could solve these issues. By receiving new clothes we can still get our clothing fix without having to own and dump these items further down the line.
We’ve also seen a rise in up-cycling marketplaces, like Depop, Vintage and charity shops. Similarly to rental platforms, this means we’re not buying brand new clothes but still can experiment and experience new additions to our wardrobes.
However, the pros and cons of the fashion industry in its current format are complex, particularly when looking at the human impact. Individuals rely on fashion producing jobs, whether it be the designers, producers or transporters, who all require a continuing industry. Simply reducing mass consumption impacts their lives, and therefore requires us to look at this as a wider issue — offering liveable wages, flexibility and improved workers rights would help in improving conditions.
Like many other issues we find ourselves facing in the fight against the climate emergency, it is important for us to look at the wider economic, social and human impacts of the shifts that we make. The drive towards reaching Net Zero requires us all to work together as a global community so that our efforts improve lives as well as the planet we inhabit.
