What is Fast Fashion?

How is Fast Fashion Bad for the Environment?

This impacts the environment at every stage of its production and consumption cycle.

Raw material extraction, manufacturing, and transportation consume significant resources and energy. These processes emit greenhouse gases, contributing to environmental degradation and climate change.

Fast fashion’s business model prioritizes trendiness over longevity. Even if consumers want to keep clothing longer, the low-quality items disintegrate quickly compared to traditionally manufactured garments.

The industry dramatically increases the frequency of discarded clothing. These items often end up in landfills or incinerators, causing further environmental damage.

Fast fashion’s constant production and disposal cycle exacerbates environmental issues throughout the product lifecycle. Reports show that 87% of materials used in clothing manufacturing end up in landfills.

Cotton requires substantial water and chemicals for processing. While natural fibres might seem environmentally friendly, mass production of any material exacts an environmental toll. Fast fashion amplifies this cost to excessive levels.

Fab.ng highlights alarming trends: fashion sales have doubled over fifteen years, while the number of times an item is worn before disposal has dropped by 36%. Consumers buy more clothes but wear them less frequently.

Many of these fashion factories operate in developing countries, necessitating long-distance transport to retail markets. This additional transportation further increases carbon emissions.

The industry’s rapid turnover of styles and emphasis on low-cost production creates a cycle of overconsumption and waste, placing an enormous strain on natural resources and ecosystems.

What is the Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion?

1. Water

The fashion industry, a major consumer of water, requires approximately 700 gallons to produce a single cotton shirt and 2,000 gallons to produce a pair of jeans. Additionally, textile dyeing is a significant water pollutant, with leftover dye often dumped into waterways.

2. Microplastics

Synthetic fibres like polyester, nylon, and acrylic used in fast fashion take hundreds of years to decompose. A 2017 report estimated that 35% of all microplastics in the ocean come from the laundering of these synthetic textiles.

The world’s consumption of clothing has increased by 400% in the past two decades, with the average human now generating 82 pounds of textile waste annually. The production of leather also has a significant environmental impact, requiring extensive resources and using toxic chemicals that contaminate water sources.

3. Energy

Producing plastic fibres into textiles is an energy-intensive process that requires substantial amounts of petroleum and releases harmful pollutants. Cotton, a major component of fast fashion products, is also environmentally unfriendly to manufacture, requiring pesticides that pose health risks to farmers.

To mitigate the environmental impact of fast fashion, there is a growing movement towards more sustainable fabrics like wild silk, organic cotton, linen, hemp, and lyocell. These alternatives offer a more environmentally friendly option for clothing production.

Fast Fashion and Climate Change

Impacts of Fast Fashion on Plastic Pollution

Synthetic fabrics like polyester, polypropylene, acrylic, and nylon, which are commonly used in fast fashion due to their low cost, are made from fossil fuels.

Since these synthetic fibres are essentially plastic and non-biodegradable, they exacerbate the growing problem of plastic pollution. Washing synthetic clothes releases microplastics that escape filtration systems and end up in rivers and oceans, harming aquatic life.

These microfibers, along with discarded plastic-based garments, are major contributors to the plastic waste in the world’s oceans. In fact, synthetic fibres are estimated to account for 35% of microplastics found in the oceans.

Sustainable Fashion

Awareness of the problems has grown, and analysts predict a decline in revenue from fast fashion brands over the next decade. This is a positive sign, but fast fashion remains a significant market.

Governments are starting to legislate to address the issue of fast fashion, focusing on fabric quality and the destruction of unsold clothing. Reducing textile waste is crucial to improving the life cycle of these materials, and ensuring clothing can be recycled and reused as part of the circular economy is the way forward for the fashion industry.

Affordable fashion must still be accessible for those on a budget. However, the low-quality manufacturing methods in fast fashion mean people need to replace clothes more frequently. Recently, initiatives focusing on well-made, good-value clothing have become more common.

Second-hand clothing is also a viable option for those looking to reduce their consumption of new items. Vintage clothing, in particular, has a thriving market both online and in high-street boutiques. More people are turning to second-hand stores or online shops specializing in vintage or designer garments, driven by a growing focus on sustainability.

Sustainable fashion brands and the slow fashion movement are gaining popularity. Consumers are now more likely to keep their clothes for longer and consider environmental factors when shopping. Overconsumption is increasingly recognized as a problem that needs to be addressed.

Lower-impact textiles and sustainable natural fabrics are becoming more prevalent. Organic and recycled cotton are on the rise, and today, shoppers can find jeans and t-shirts made from these more sustainable materials.

There is a shift away from synthetic fabrics towards those that are more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Popular sustainable fabrics now include organic plant-based options like organic hemp and animal-based materials like wool.

The Role of Consumers in Fast Fashion

The environmental impact is undeniable, and the solution lies in the hands of consumers. Without demand for these products, fast fashion brands would have no viable business model.

Corporations are often slow to change unless forced by legislation or public pressure from campaign groups exposing poor manufacturing practices.

Consumers need to shift their mindset, valuing quality and longevity over frequent clothing replacement. Ultimately, consumers play the most crucial role in minimizing the environmental impact of fast fashion.

Shoppers should demand transparency and accountability from fashion brands. By asking questions and researching a brand’s supply chain, manufacturing practices, and waste management processes, consumers can push the industry towards more sustainable practices.

Beyond slow-moving legislation, the fastest and simplest way to drive change in the fashion industry is for consumers to alter their buying habits, choosing more sustainable options when purchasing new clothes.

How the Plastic Collective Helps

The Plastic Collective is tackling the plastic problem through several innovative initiatives.

By offering an innovative plastic offsetting scheme, the Plastic Collective helps businesses reduce their plastic footprint. This scheme guides businesses in directly reducing their plastic consumption and use.

Additionally, the Plastic Collective collaborates with communities to reduce plastic waste. They provide educational programs and supply machinery to help communities build sustainable plastic recycling micro-enterprises.

For more articles, visit here.