Fast Fashion: Cheap Clothing with Expensive Consequences
Fast fashion is the second biggest polluter in the world. The clothing is cheap and trendy but it comes at a hefty price. Not only does it generate large amounts of waste, but it is also responsible for 10% of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions. Fast fashion is wrecking our planet, one crop top at a time.
A Waste of Water:
The fashion industry is responsible for about 20% of global wastewater. The majority of this wastewater ends up back in the environment without being treated. This contributes to people using a source for drinking water tainted with harmful chemicals. Some of these chemicals include arsenic, lead, and mercury, which are used in the dyeing, printing, and finishing of textiles. Besides polluting drinking water, these fast fashion brands use more than 5,000 gallons of water to manufacture one low-quality t-shirt and a pair of jeans. To realize how much water is being used you also need to take into account that the fast fashion industry produces 1 billion garments a year. That’s math my smartphone calculator can’t even do.
Textiles to the Trash:
Water isn’t the only thing going to waste because of the fast fashion industry. According to the NPR ,15.1 million tons of textile waste was generated in 2013, and of that already gargantuan number, 12.8 million tons were discarded. A significant amount of this waste was made out of petrochemical-based materials, which are not biodegradable. They will sit in the landfill, slowly breaking down into tiny pieces called microfibers. These microfibers are actually minuscule bits of plastic. According to a report from the UK’s Environmental Audit Committee, at least 9.4 trillion of these microfibers could be released per week in the UK. They then end up in our oceans, where they are consumed by fish and other marine life. The scary thing is that the full effects of micro-plastics on our health and the environment are, for the most part, unknown.
Recycling is a Start:
Remember that 12.8 million tons of textile that ended up in the landfill? Well, according to SMART, up to 95% of that waste could have been recycled. Recycling the textiles helps eliminate some of the waste, but also saves water. 20,000 liters of water per kilogram of cotton could be saved by using recycled cotton. Though recycling is a step in the right direction, it is not the end-all, be-all solution to fast fashion. In fact, it would take us twelve years to recycle the amount of clothing that the fast fashion industry produces in a 48 hour period.
What We Can Do:
The fast fashion industry has many more problems than the ones I have highlighted. Never mind their giant-sized carbon footprint, they also participate in and enforce unethical practices. The only people who have the power to stop these fast fashion companies, is us, the consumers. Let’s face it, these companies are making 3 trillion dollars a year in profit. Unless they are suddenly feeling a guilty conscience, they are going to keep at it. That’s why as the consumer, it is our job to boycott these brands. It is up to us to demand fair wages, ethical practices, transparency, and sustainability. Otherwise, the fast fashion industry is going to destroy our planet.
This post was created by an amazing GREEN ZINE volunteer contributor, and opinions expressed may not represent the views of Greenpeace. If you are interested in volunteering as a GREEN ZINE contributor, visit this link.
