Fast Fashion & Sustainable Shopping: Part 1
Forever 21, H&M, SHEIN, Romwe – these clothing giants have become universal sources for super cheap, affordable clothing that keeps up with the trends of the minute. TikTok is filled with hauls from SHEIN, with teens spending only about $5 per item of clothing bought directly from the manufacturer in China.
It's easy to look at these sites and think, “wow, what a deal, it only benefits me to buy cheap clothes so I can get more pieces!”
Think again.
This is what we call “fast fashion,” inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends. It's easily accessible for young consumers who don't have a full-time income, and it allows people to buy many pieces of clothing to match whatever styles are “in” that week.
But what most people don't realize are the detrimental & insidious effects of this rapid production of clothing, just for the sake of being “on trend.”
The fast fashion industry is responsible for producing 20% of global wastewater. In 2015, the fast fashion industry created 92 million tons of wastewater. This results in the contamination of rivers, oceans, freshwater sources, and soil.
The fashion industry has become so industrialized and inundated with endless new styles and trends each day, that even the rampant consumerism cannot keep up with the sheer volume of clothes being produced. Millions of tons of clothing end up in landfills each year. MILLIONS OF TONS; 1 ton is 2,000 pounds. Think of how many pieces of clothing is in just one of those tons. All going to waste.
With current technologies, it would take 12 years to recycle what the fast fashion industry creates in 48 hours.
We buy 2X more clothes than we did just 15 years ago (2015 data).
Many people admit to having unused clothes in their closet. Often, we end up with many more clothes than we actually need. Since the 1980s, the statistics are even more shocking. We buy 400% more on average than we did at that time. (source)
Not only is fast fashion creating astronomical amounts of waste, it also directly encourages unethical and oppressive work environments, exploiting overseas factory workers. The average clothing manufacturing worker in Bangladesh earns 33 US cents per hour. 40 million people work in the garment industry today, and 85% of those workers are women or children, who are often mistreated and are subject to physical and sexual abuse.
So, now that you have the facts, why should you care?
Fast fashion contributes to the modern idea that what we have will never be enough. It encourages us to buy whatever we can get our hands on just to “keep up with the Joneses,” even if that comes at the expense of others receiving fair wages and good working conditions. Getting whatever we want, whenever we want it when it comes to fashion is just not ethical.
Even if we do really enjoy the pieces we're buying, the companies that produce this on-trend clothing are taking part in planned obsolescence - they make clothes to fall apart. The clothes are cheap because they are made cheaply, and they don't last through washing, drying, or even wearing too much. So, when that cute $7 t-shirt from Forever 21 inevitably shrinks in the dryer, you write it off as a loss and buy a few more t-shirts next time you're in Forever 21 to make up for it.
This contributes to the mindset of everything being disposable - as soon as something isn't good enough for my standards that day, I'll just toss it out and get something that gives me a little more dopamine when I buy it. That's not a healthy attitude for anyone to be operating under, and certainly not something that I want to live by.
We are taught to buy as much as we can, and not to question why it's so cheap. I”ve fallen for it plenty of times, and I'm sure all of you have as well. But learning about what's behind clothing production has been eye-opening to me, and I don't share this information to be critical or to induce guilt.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog, where I'll share the much more positive side of this issue, and show you how to shop more ethically and sustainably! Coil subscribers only!
Thanks for reading!
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