Frills to Landfills

The problem with fast fashion

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How often do you buy new clothing? Are you aware of the effects of your latest shopping spree on the environment? As consumers purchase more clothes, the growing market for these new and cheap styles is taking a toll on the environment. The significant environmental impact of the airline industry, coal plants, and plastics are common knowledge, but the impact of our fashion choices are lesser-known.

The fashion industry emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined! It makes up 10% of humanity's carbon emissions, dries up water sources and pollutes rivers and streams.

1) Emergence of Fast Fashion and Increased Consumerism

Fast fashion emerged as a supply chain innovation that allowed fashion retailers to increase clothing production. It refers to cheaply produced and cheaply priced garments that imitate the latest catwalk styles and are sold quickly through stores to capitalize on current trends. According to a World Bank report, as of 2019, 62 million metric tonnes of apparel were consumed globally.

Customers are motivated to frequently make more purchases, by selling the idea that items may not be available for long. However, this mentality has created a “throw-away” attitude. Thus, more items tend to end up in landfills as these poor quality clothes wear out only after a few washes which in turn creates a demand for more new clothes.

What's more, 85% of all textiles sold go to the dump each year. The equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second!

To keep up with the pressure of producing the cheapest clothes in the fastest way possible, corners are often cut, creating a negative environmental impact. Water pollution, the use of toxic chemicals and increasing levels of textile waste are grave concerns.

2) Excessive Water Consumption, Pollution and the issue of Microplastics Ever thought of the amount of water consumed to make your favourite pair of jeans? It’s more than 7,570 litres. The fashion industry is the second largest consumer of water.

In Uzbekistan, for example, cotton farming used up so much water from the Aral Sea that it dried up in a mere 50 years. What used to once be one of the world’s four largest lakes, is now little more than a desert and a few small ponds.

The Shrinking Aral Sea. Photo Credit: NASA

Textile dyeing is the world’s second-largest polluter of water since the water leftover from the dyeing process is often dumped into streams or rivers. A lot of chemicals used in producing clothes are carcinogenic and can disrupt hormonal levels in both humans and animals.

Washing clothes releases 500,000 tonnes of microfibers into the ocean every year which is the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles!

Most of them are released from polyester, one of the most commonly used fabrics in the fashion industry. Producing polyester releases two to three times more carbon emissions than cotton. Microfibres from polyester take hundreds of years to degrade and pose a threat to aquatic life.

3) Human Rights Violations

A lot of brands have been criticized for employing children to produce clothes. Women aged 18-24 who form the majority of the fast fashion workforce, work in abysmal conditions with very little compensation. As if the slave labour was not enough, life-threatening health standards and workplace accidents are common for garment industry workers. An accident in the Rana Plaza (where) killed more than 1,000 people. Do we really need a new t-shirt at the cost of someone’s life? A lot of brands have taken notice of these issues and have started sustainable lines and recycling centres. However, there is a long way to go. There is a significant cost to fast fashion, and while the industry needs an overhaul, our consumption habits must also change. Stay tuned for the next article where we’ll talk about a few fashion habits that go a long way in reducing your negative environmental impact.