How Tik Tok is Destroying our Planet
Every night, as I mindlessly scroll through TikTok, there is always a new viral video that makes me want to purchase the latest trending item. Although I try my best to live relatively sustainably, there are still too many times I give in and end up buying the newest item TikTok tells me I need. Thrifting, buying unpackaged foods, and using expensive sustainable materials feel beyond reach, compared to cheaper, easier methods. Apparently I need the short Uggs, instead of the long ones that are so 2010s, the new Stanley tumblers, instead of the now “cheugy” hydroflasks, and flare plants that are always too long for me, instead of leggings I already spent hundreds of dollars on. The word “cheugy” became a popular word to describe outdated fashion trends, but even now the word “cheugy” became cheugy. It has become much too difficult to keep up with all the trends that the media is feeding us everyday, and has led to massive overconsumption. Fast fashion describes the practice of creating and selling cheaply-made items at an incredibly fast pace to keep up with the latest trends and the high demands from consumers. It’s much too easy for everyone to purchase whatever they want and see online with fast fashion. This has further perpetuated an unethical, unsustainable industry with serious consequences. The overconsumption of fast fashion has indefinitely changed the fashion industry in unsustainably harmful ways that has made irreparable damages to the earth.
Historically, clothing was seen as a precious commodity that was to be worn and salvaged for a long period of time. When home economics classes were still prevalent in most schools, students were often taught how to make and mend clothes to extend the longevity of it (Tabishat 55). Clothes were passed down from generations, mended and repaired when broken, and salvaged as rags when no longer able to be worn. People also often made their own clothing which was usually higher quality, and made from sustainable materials. In the 1980s to the early 1990s, fast fashion brands would push trends through celebrities in the magazines and media, pushing fans to want to dress like their favorite celebrities. Now, with the emergence of micro celebrities and influencers, this phenomenon is exacerbated. This kick-started the vicious unsustainable cycle of the fast fashion industry. Now clothing does not hold the same value as it once did, because it is so cheaply made and thrown away after being worn just a couple of times. Instead of valuing the clothing they do own, people no longer want to be seen wearing the same outfits multiple times, causing the landfills to build up with clothing more than ever. If people were to put the same love and care into their clothing as they once did, the earth could have significantly less waste.
Many of these fast fashion companies, that perpetuate this problem of building up landfills, originate from Asian countries such as India, China, and Indonesia. The shipment of clothing between continents contributes to greenhouse gasses that are causing climate change and global warming. “Deliveries and transportation from globally dispersed offshore suppliers’ favorites to final markets generate additional negative environmental effects in terms of CO2 emissions”(Arrigo 3). The world is already at a huge crisis in terms of climate change where the earth is warming up at exponentially quicker rates than ever before, causing serious harm to the ocean, wildlife, and even communities along the shores. Especially since many of the fast fashion clothing factories are in Asian countries, while many of them are being sold in the West, there is a huge distance that all these millions of clothing items must go across to reach their final destination. This delivery either through air travel or sea travel, is not good for the environment and contributes to enormous amounts of CO2 emissions. Rather than mitigating these harmful pollutants, fast fashion is further propelling this toxic cycle and contributing to the serious issue of global warming.
The fast fashion industry can create harmful byproducts that can affect the surrounding environment including its people, animals, and nature. For example, “textile dyeing results in additional hazards as untreated wastewater from dyes are often discharged into local water systems, releasing heavy metals and other toxicants that can adversely impact the health of animals in addition to nearby residents”(Bick 2). Another example is in leather production, where the workers are constantly exposed to harmful chemicals and the waste also pollutes nearby water sources leading to diseases in the surrounding areas (Ozdamar-Ertekin 5). This goes to show how toxic the fast fashion industry can be to those unlucky enough to face serious consequences that can affect their health, life, and environment. People should not be risking their health for the sake of another person’s fashion.
These cheap clothing also tend to be made from plastics that are not biodegradable, that are incredibly bad for the environment compared to higher quality clothing such as 100% cotton clothing that may be more expensive, but is biodegradable. Again, if society as a whole could relearn to value the items they already own, this could significantly decrease the waste, rather than valuing fashion above the earth’s sustainability and health. This cycle is such a toxic continuous cycle for the environment that keeps building up the landfills with more clothing that is simply thrown in there because it is outdated by the new season. This trend has only continued to become worse after COVID-19.
Although the shock of COVID-19 caused temporary drops in retail sales, ultimately it has perpetuated the upward trend towards fast fashion. During the beginning of the pandemic, people were staying at home, going out less, and had little reason to buy clothes as they had no places to go to show off these clothes. This shows in statistics of the overall fashion retail sales in the United States dropping significantly from 470 billion dollars in 2019 to 370 billion in 2020 (Justas). Although this was the general trend, online retailers such as Shein, the most infamous fastest growing online fast fashion retailer, who jumped from 12 percent of US fast fashion sales in January 2020 to 50 percent of US fast fashion sales in November 2022, made significant profit during this time (Perri). People were no longer shopping in person due to contamination concerns between workers and other consumers, and they started to switch to online shopping. Also, while the fashion sales remained relatively low during all of 2020, during the height of the pandemic, there was a dramatic increase in clothing sales about a year later, as places started to open up. This could be due to several factors including the stimulus checks that many Americans received, larger savings since there was less money spent during the pandemic, and the overall hunger to buy more clothing as there was finally a need to do so. An example of this is shown in general Amazon sales plummeting around March 2020 when the pandemic hit, and having a huge increase around December 2021 to March 2022, one year exactly after the pandemic hit (Macrotrends).
While all retail stores were forced to shut down during the pandemic, charity and thrift stores were hit especially hard during this time. People who may have been regularly purchasing from thrift stores began having concerns about wearing secondhand clothing due to hygiene concerns wearing preowned clothing. While budget-friendly sustainable shopping could be achieved through charities and thrift stores, these were all closed during the pandemic. Instead fast fashion online retailers became the main source of people’s fashion options. Experts say “it seemed some long-lasting changes happened to the consumers’ habits” (Farahani 109). People became more accustomed to the cheap and easy shopping that online fast fashion businesses provided over the pandemic.
At a similar time as when the COVID-19 mayhem started, the social media app TikTok blew up. Tik Tok is unique in the way they are programmed because unlike other platforms, users see hundreds if not thousands of strangers who they would’ve never known if they didn’t see them scrolling through Tik Tok. This is especially beneficial to marketers, influencers, and product sellers who can reach millions of audiences by going viral. This has also perpetuated a trend where an item goes viral on TikTok and becomes sold out in all online and retail stores because every single person wants to purchase this new must-have item. Often there is a huge buzz around these items for a couple of weeks or months, and then are often forgotten about, unused and thrown away to build up in landfills.
Influencers are people whose job is to sell a certain lifestyle to their audience by creating a parasocial connection with them and gaining their trust. Influencers however, hold much power in persuasion, and are encouraging people to buy unnecessary products that they do not need that just end up in landfills. Brands pay influencers tens of thousands of dollars to promote products they themselves might not even use, but will be bought by thousands of their followers. A new up and coming influencer Alix Earle from TikTok is said to make between 40k to 70k per TikTok because of the wide influence she has and her power to sell out products in an instance (James). Alix Earle in her storefront linked on her social media accounts has affiliate marketing websites to buy clothing that she likes and wears. Most of these clothing items linked are fast fashion from cheap brands such as Amazon and revolve. Many influencers use similar tactics like this to earn extra income from influencing their audience to buy products that they receive commission from. People can be easily influenced to buy products that they probably will only end up using a couple of times, while the influencer has a financial gain from this situation. Companies have mastered their manipulative techniques to sell out all their new products one after another releasing new items weeks, months, days apart. People are no longer grateful for the items they already own, but keep searching for the newest latest trends, most often set by their favorite influencers, such as Alix Earle.
Although this is not a problem for just females, the influencer realm is a relatively female dominated industry. The vast majority of influencers are female and “because women in the West tend to buy much more clothing and discard it more often than men, the world supply of used women’s clothing is at least seven times that of men’s”(Claudio 453). Also comparatively speaking, in general, men influencers have the specific niche of games, working out, and athletic competitions, while women influencers tend to talk about clothing, travel, and makeup. Although the male dominated influencer industries still produce waste, such as gaming keyboards, sugary caffeinated drinks, and unnecessary workout clothes or work out gear, it is still significantly less than the amount of marketing that young females receive from their favorite female influencers who are constantly pushing out new products and brands.
This however does not mean that there should be heavy blame placed on women for making the environment worse, but rather discuss the green gender gap, which states that “men are less likely to pursue environmentally-friendly behaviors than their female counterparts”(Jaffer). This could be due to several factors such as a slightly misogynistic view on sustainability as “demasculane”. Women were much more likely to advocate for sustainability and make deliberate choices to lower their carbon footprint, which goes to show that there are significant differences in the green gender gap, but blame should not be placed on either side against each other. Rather, everyone should work together to make conscious choices to improve the health of the planet as a whole through education and deconstructing the green gender gap that may hold people back.
Many people make the understandable argument that fast fashion now allows consumers of all incomes to purchase as much clothing they need and want, especially those who previously could never afford to purchase the clothing they wanted. This is a viable argument, but often gets carried too far and is a commonly misconstrued phrase used by those who take advantage of it, rather than actually benefiting from it. Although fast fashion can be good for those who can’t afford normal sustainably sourced clothing that may be much too expensive for their budget, this does not seem to be the majority of those purchasing fast fashion clothing. Influencers, who have enough money to purchase luxury designer brand clothing and bags, are purchasing thousands of dollars worth of cheap clothing that can fit huge bins and garbage bags. It has been a trend for people to purchase a copious amount of clothing that will probably be worn once or twice, just because it is so cheap. They know people will want to click on videos with fifty pieces of clothing rather than one expensive clothing item.
Overall, the fast fashion industry has caused so much harm to this planet, including the nature, animals, and people on this planet all for the name of fashion. It is so important for individuals, societies, and governments to make changes to improve the planet as a whole through education, policies, and societal beliefs. The combination of the pandemic and the rise of Tik Tok especially has created this disaster for further propelling this harmful industry causing harmful pollutants in the air, and huge build up of landfills that cause everlasting damage to the environment.
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