Fast Fashion

Fast fashion is produced and disposed of at an alarming rate: Americans consume clothing at a faster rate than any other country in the world. 

The average US citizen throws away approximately 80 pounds of clothing annually. In America, that results in roughly 3.8 billion pounds thrown away every year. Since numbers are hard to grasp, think about it this way:

So 3.8 billion pounds of clothes thrown away every year in America is a big number.

And all of that is being either landfilled, incinerated, or ends up in the environment.

The problem with fast fashion is really how cheap and fast it is.

According to Business Insider, it only takes Zara, ASOS, Boohoo, and Misguided "between one and eight weeks to get a product from concept to sale". Most fast fashion stores receive new clothing shipments daily.

Since they produce at such high speeds, the number of clothing being produced has doubled since 2000. To keep up with this rapid pace, their clothes are usually not of very high quality. Instead, they opt for producing an enormous volume of clothes very cheaply, so the average American will continue buying more and more clothes when trends change. 

Americans keep buying more and more clothing, but what do we do with the old clothing? 

According to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, over 50% of fast fashion produced is disposed of in less than a year. Even if you donate your used items, Goodwill has to throw away much of the clothing that is donated because there it simply too much for them to sell- often people will donate their clothes only 6 months after the garment was sold in stores. The average number of times a garment is worn before it is thrown away has decreased by 36%, as shown in the graph below.

Fast Fashion is perpetuating this mindset of disposability- wear your clothes once or a few times, then get rid of them and come back to buy more. This mindset is really profitable for the industry because it encourages consumers to keep coming back for more clothes again and again; the founder of Zara is the third richest person in Europe. This technique makes billionaires richer, and it is unfortunately very destructive to the environment and low-paid workers.

Although the cost of fashion fashion may not be felt in your pocket, it's certainly felt elsewhere: in the sweatshops. These companies choose to manufacture in countries with extremely low minimum wages, like China.

Companies working to produce garments for fast fashion are looking to create clothes for the lowest price at the fastest rate. This leads to people working in sweatshops for long hours for an unlivable wage. In addition, many chemicals used to dye clothes are hazardous to workers who touch or inhale them. 

Worst of all, this isn't new. A report about these business practices by Jay Kerr revealed that companies were doing this in 2002. This is an ongoing issue that often gets overlooked because it's convenient and cheap.

What are the environmental problems with the Textile Industry?

When trying to research the impact of specific companies, one will come across these kinds of articles, often found in online magazines:

• "Doesn't provide transparent information about its practices" (goodonyou.com)

• "Provides insufficient relevant information about how it reduces its impact" (goodonyou.com)

• "Delivers inadequate appropriate evidence about how it decreases its influence" (fashion-manufacturing.com)

• "Cider has got to initiate methods for uncovering more data on how items are manufactured, where they are made, who produces them" (fashion-manufacturing.com)

• "SHEIN still has zero transparency when it comes to its supply chain" (aninjusticemag.com)

• "notorious for its murky ethics and sustainability" (goodonyou.com)

• "SHEIN is as opaque as a brand can get" (goodonyou.com)

• "has much to answer to in terms of how and where it makes its clothes and under which conditions" (fashionunited.com)

• "the brand’s impact on the planet will always be questionable" (goodonyou.com)

• "no evidence it ensures payment of a living wage across its entire supply chain" (goodonyou.com)

• "it has received an 'It’s a Start' rating" (goodonyou.com)

• "There is no evidence it minimises textile waste ... no evidence Urban Outfitters ensures payment of a living wage ... no evidence it traces any animal products to the first stage of production ... no evidence that its 'policies' regarding labour and transparency in the supply chain are actually undertaken" (goodonyou.com)

•  "scored a measly 11-20% in the Fashion Transparency Index" (wear-next.com)

• "The brand doesn’t have a published animal welfare policy" (wear-next.com)

The fast fashion industry has a big problem with greenwashing. 

For example, SHEIN's website claims that they "believe that reducing supply chain waste (is a) ... key starting point to building an environmentally sustainable industry" yet they have no evidence of reducing their supply chain waste. Additionally, they claim to have "invested in costlier ... printing technologies in an effort to reduce water use throughout the production process". Again, they have no evidence to back up these claims.

This a common theme with nearly every fast fashion company.

One solution is what the Ellen MacArthur Foundation defines as   "A New Textiles Economy"

The First Step: Phase Out Substances of Concern and Microfiber Release

The Second Step: Increase Clothing Utilisation

The Third Step: Radically Improving Textile Recycling

The Fourth Step: Making Effective Use of Resources and Moving to Renewable Inputs

Instead of spending your money at the mall, go to a thrift store

They have awesome prices, and you never know what you'll find!