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Fast fashion is one of the fastest ways we can destroy our environment and maintain the American implementation that price is what ultimately matters. Consumers can become more aware of their carbon footprint and start to practice ways to minimize their consumption, such as knowing where they are buying from and how it impacts the planet. Sustainable brands such as Pact, Boden, and Tentree promote healthy styles of living fashionably conscious. But what does it mean to be fashion-conscious? Being aware of where the products you are buying from and resisting mass consumption are simple ways to practice sustainable fashion. There is no absolute way to be 100% sustainable when it comes to fashion, but by following simple guidelines, the consumer can reduce the amount of textiles being produced by lowering the demand. Fast Fashion negatively impacts the workers and environment the more we use it. If we can slow down the manufacturing rate of these clothes and raise awareness of the cruel treatment against the environment and sweatshop laborers, the carbon footprint of many people will be significantly smaller and the moral responsibility of social justice will be somewhat fought.
The fashion industry did not always mass produce to this extent, it started with the Industrial Revolution. The sudden boom in technology, such as sewing machines, presented new opportunities for women to provide for their families when their husbands went off to war or could not make enough to support the household. This caused clothes to be made easier, quicker, and faster since there were factories dedicated to making certain pieces of apparel. The 1960’s and 70’s became a decade for trendy clothing and younger generations began to express themselves through style. Iconic trends during this time were bell bottoms, funky designs, and patterned dresses. This caused a public demand for trends to be produced at a faster rate than ever before. Since the 1960’s, the United States made 90% of the clothing being sold. However, the United States is currently making 3% of the clothing bought in the states (The True Cost, 2015). In the 1990s and 2000 large clothing companies such as H&M, Forever 21, Zara, and Topshop became large staples when producing “on-trend” clothing because it was accessible to people of all types of demographics. Although clothing is so cheap, studies show that clothing prices have been relatively immune to inflation. At the start of the Great Depression, Hattie Carnegie, a fashion entrepreneur in the early 1920’s, introduced ready-to-wear dresses for an equivalent to $20 back then which is the same price as dresses being sold at H&M and Zara.
The sudden drop in clothing in the country is a form of fast fashion. Usually, the fashion industry has 2 to 4 seasons depending on the artist designing the clothes. Now, big companies are producing 52 seasons per year. Seasons are also known as new lines of clothing collections. Another large component of fast fashion is how cheap the clothing is made available. ”Companies such as Adidas, Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, H&M, Converse, Hollister, and more use child labor/sweatshops so they would make profit” (Green America). The decrease in the quality, craftsmanship, and price has led to the availability of these clothes to all social classes of people since it is sold so cheap. Since the clothing is so cheap, the ability to obtain the materials must be cheap too to cancel out the profits and what is being spent. “Zara estimates that its clothes are worn no more than seven times and to meet this demand it creates two lines every week” (Taplin 2014). This quality of material forces the consumer to continue buying the product once the original product is unable to be worn. Other fashion brands openly estimate that their clothing will not last more than 10 washes, meaning that after that time, the material will fall apart due to the poor materials used. Consumers seem to be content with this though. There has been a massive cultural shift where people are encouraged to spend their money on material things such as fashion. They are encouraged to frequent clothing stores every ten to fourteen days, which is how often most stores produce new products (Taplin, 2014). This situation is called limited stock. Limited stock is similar to the 52 seasons of fashion. New stocks in stores appear almost every day and push the buyer to constantly purchase new things even though they may not need them, in fear that they will miss their chance to have them. Since these pieces of clothing are so cheap and easily worn out, they are often thrown out within a year or two of purchasing them which results in an enormous increased amount of textiles in landfills.
The average American throws away 82 pounds of textiles per year and more than 11 million tons of textile waste in landfills is from the US alone. Most of these textiles are not biodegradable and will sit in landfills releasing harmful chemicals for hundreds of years (The True Cost, 2015). Many people look to donating to thrift stores or donation grounds to give away all of their old clothing. Although this may seem like a good idea, most thrift stores are overwhelmed with the amount of shipments they have coming in and decide to export those goods to countries like Haiti. Haiti’s economy was once held upon tailoring clothing for its local businesses and dressmakers. This idea of fast fashion has caused the Haitian economy to crash since they have run out of the need to tailor clothing since they are usually made in large industrial buildings and sweatshops. This is why people in struggling circumstances often turn to sweatshops for work.
The US Department of Labor defines a sweatshop as “a factory that violates two or more labor laws.” The two laws most commonly broken are child labor and working for below the minimum wage. A Vox worker reported that “if a piece of clothing costs $19.99, the person who made the piece was probably paid only nineteen cents” (Chula, 2019). Most people turn to sweatshops to support their families since there is little labor available to people who do not have a higher education. This results in low wages and mistreatment of workers. That mistreatment can be labeled as a sexual assault from higher-ups in the factories, physical turmoil due to the harsh chemicals being ingested from the dyes and textiles being produced, and the dangerous environments factories are often located in (Rauturier, 2018).
Sweatshops are places where their workers are targeted and stripped of their human rights. 85% of workers in sweatshops are young women from the ages of 15-25 and are paid less than three dollars per day. Many companies export the manufacturing of clothes to countries with poor labor laws to get cheap labor for their growing clothing lines. This cheap labor, known as offshore manufacturing, causes families to take home as little as $10 a month while working for a $3 trillion industry. Offshore manufacturing is when clothes are produced where labor is cheap and the material used to make the clothing is poorly taken care of. Some sweatshops force female workers to take birth control so the women do not take maternity leave while 22 million children die annually due to the poor conditions within sweatshops (Lauer, 2019). Bangladesh is one of the largest manufacturing countries for apparel and with such a large workforce put into factories, there have been many instances of worker neglect and abuse. In 2013, a clothing factory collapsed killing 1,127 workers who were mostly young women. There have been over 800 deaths in the past decade due to sweatshop factories in Bangladesh alone. Because the labor is so cheap, many industries treat their employees like they are cheap as well. Not only is this a social justice issue in Bangladesh, but it is a political issue as well. 10% of Parliament seats are taken by factory owners in Bangladesh. This political linkage helps the government turn a blind eye to the mistreatments happening within their country. The stereotype of sweatshops is usually that they take place in developing countries, but there are still 11,000 sweatshops in the United States that violate human rights such as minimum wage and overtime work laws as well as 16,000 broken health and safety laws (changeinsweatshops.com).
The environmental impact fast fashion has is just as concerning. Many companies cut environmental corners when producing mass apparel. The textiles used to make clothing are highly destructive to the environment and large companies seem to not care about their carbon footprint at all. Polyester, typically used to make activewear and performance wear (raincoats, winter coats, sports jerseys, etc.) is derived from fossil fuels that cause air pollution that is harmful to both the environment and public health. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) which is a direct result of burning coal, contributes to acid rain and the formation of harmful particulate matter. Polyester can also be made from recycled plastic. This is a safer alternative to emitting fossil fuels into the public’s environment, but it can also shed microfibers that add up to large amounts of plastic in oceans. Microfibers can easily be ingested by ocean life putting many animals in danger such as sea turtles and whales. This contributes to the pollution of our ocean and sea life. Toxic dyes made to color the textiles find their way to the waterways and pollute the water with harsh chemicals. Another large textile that is mass-produced is cotton. Large amounts of water and pesticides are used in developing countries to conform to the weather cotton grows best. This risks drought and a large amount of stress on biodiversity and soil quality of the environment. Pesticides can kill insects or weeds as well as being toxic to birds, fish, beneficial insects, and anything planted in the soil after the cotton is taken out. Pesticides are also linked to a range of illnesses and diseases from respiratory problems to cancer. With leather, 300 kilograms of chemicals are added for every 900 kilograms of animal hides. It is also seen as inhumane to kill an animal primarily for its skin and is a form of animal abuse, although many large companies produce it. Luckily over the years, many fashion activists have come to buy faux leather in protest of the mistreatment of animals for hide. This same method applies to animal furs, but some companies pass off real fur as faux fur, lying to the consumer and causing a demand for more animal harm. According to Good On You, a green fashion advocacy website, there is a massive amount of real fur being presented as faux fur and it has become cheaper to produce and buy real fur than faux fur. The speed these textiles are being produced causes about 235 million pieces of clothing to be sent to landfills every spring in the United Kingdom. All of these harmful materials end up in landfills where the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is being burned or dumped in a landfill every second (Mc-Fall-Johnsen, 2019). This is causing a visible decline in our environment such as climate change. 10% of the annual global carbon emissions are due to the fashion industry, which is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined (The World Bank, 2019). If the fashion industry continues to manufacture at this same rate, its share of the carbon budget could jump to 26% by 2050.
As fast fashion continues to rise, many people across the globe unknowingly invest in the inhumane industry of sweatshops and the cruel ways large industry owners take advantage of the environment. To combat the rise of fast fashion, some apparel companies are starting to change the way they manufacture their products. In March 2019, the UN launched the Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, which is an initiative to help fashion industries stay environmentally safe. Their goals include promoting active collaboration, knowledge sharing, strengthening synergies, and outreach and advocacy. Sustainability is important for uniform economic growth, protection & preservation of the environment, and respect & improvement of social, and human rights. Fast fashion is clothing that samples from the catwalk or celebrity culture and is made at an alarmingly fast rate from cheap materials. Although these clothes seem stylish and have a large following from celebrities promoting their lines and famous models showing off the designer’s clothes, what is the true cost of this fast fashion industry? With an increasing number of activism for the environment and social justice, we must begin to examine the industries we buy from every day.
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