Unethical Fast Fashion
The popularity of e-commerce and fast fashion exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to stay-home-orders along with the risk of catching the deadly virus, many people turned to shopping online rather than in person. Online fast fashion brands like Shein have cheap and trendy clothes and in 2020, the brand made $10 billion in revenue. While brands like Shein may seem very appealing to people, they are highly unethical and negatively impact our environment.
The thousands of clothing items listed on Shein are primarily made from synthetic fibers like rayon and polyester, which are not sustainable. These products also do not hold a long shelf-life as they are cheaply made. When these clothes are thrown away, toxins get released.
Fast fashion is a large contributor to the amount of textile microplastic fibers that find their way into our oceans. The textile industry is huge, and 23% of all chemicals that are produced worldwide are used for textiles specifically. The environment and wildlife are suffering at the hands of cheap and easy-accessible clothing.
Shein ships directly from China, and many of their customers are from the United States. The website’s analytics show that 40% of their online traffic is from the United States. The mass amount of shipping that the brand must handle in order to deliver orders emits greenhouse gases, negatively impacting the environment.
Due to the affordable nature of the site, people are more inclined to make larger orders with a lot of items. Shein also offers more discounts, like free shipping, on your order with the more you purchase. The more someone purchases, the more the environment will be impacted.
The chemicals that are utilized to produce these products go directly back into the environment. The damage that these chemicals cause to the environment are irreversible. The environmental repercussions that brands like Shein cause are not widely known, so many of their customers may not even be aware of the harm that they are contributing to.
There are ways that people can shop for products in a sustainable way, but unfortunately, these are not always the most cost efficient from people. Pinning blame on people for shopping through fast fashion brands is not a productive way to help prevent environmental damage.
People who want to be sustainable are kind of met at a crossroads in situations like this. Being eco-friendly can become extremely expensive and time consuming. Shopping for clothes from second-hand stores is a step in the right direction and inexpensive, but it isn’t very practical. However, there is always something that each individual can do to help protect our planet.
Fast fashion and other unsustainable brands are not going to cease to exist any time soon, especially due to the strength of the e-commerce business. Taking steps, however, to limit our indulgences in actions that may negatively impact our climate and environment is extremely important.
