NO TO FAST FASHION

FASHION is one of the most fast-growing and important phases nowadays. Everyone wants to be trendy and fashionable. Fashion is constantly changing and evolving from time to time. But with Fashion, there comes a lot of exploitation. Let’s talk about Fast Fashion. Basically, Fast fashion is a term used to describe a highly profitable and exploitative business model based on replicating catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at low cost.

Now you must be thinking what is wrong with fast fashion? Well, there’s a lot of impacts of fast fashion on the environment and others. Due to fast fashion, we are floored by the bright hues of the fabrics and prints appeal to us. Now you must know how much these colors and dyes produce. Well, toxic dyes, are the second-largest water pollutants. Yes, after agriculture, if there is anything that is polluting freshwater, it is a dye. These dyes release toxic fumes, which are hazardous to all living beings and our ecosystem. A lot of these chemicals used in producing garments are carcinogenic and can disrupt hormonal levels in both humans and animals. The main issue that can be due to fast fashion is Water Crisis because of the amount of clean water being depleted by the fashion industry. A lot of water goes into producing textiles, especially during the manufacturing phase. The fashion industry uses 21 trillion gallons of water annually, enough water to fill 37 million Olympic swimming pools. The process of producing a single pair of jeans — from growing raw cotton to the finished product — takes around 2,000 gallons of water. To make matters worse, a lot of manufacturing work is done in smaller countries where environmental laws are not stringent enough. This means that untreated water from factories is dumped into freshwater bodies like rivers and lakes. Now, we buy a lot of clothes from time to time and also discard some of them. But you ever wondered where all these discarded clothes go? Well, they get collected as a Landfill for a very long time. As per the news, 8% of the clothes sold in the USA, find themselves in garbage dumps. Also, it’s a fact that Polyester can take up to 200 years to decompose. So while the fabric is sitting in landfills, it releases microplastics in the soil, to pollute the nearby area. These are some of the reasons how fast fashion affects the environment.

Fashion is an extremely labor-dependent industry because each piece of clothing must be handmade. Fast fashion is able to be “affordable” because it relies on the exploitation and mistreatment of other people. The people who work hard to mass-produce your clothes are most probably being paid the lowest wages. These people work in bad conditions which are often dangerous. Fast fashion is a threat to human rights as much as environmental preservation, with companies implementing inadequate labor conditions. 97% of fast fashion is being produced in developing countries with poor labor and human rights protections, where in-factory abuse and negligence are concealed. Workers in textile factories have to use toxic chemicals, often with no protective gear whatsoever, which leads to the textile industry, having one of the highest rates of occupational illness. For example, they have to treat waterproof jackets with highly fluorinated compounds, which increases the risk of neurological and endocrine conditions. To achieve that popular “acid wash” or distressed effect on jeans, workers have to dip their hands in a harmful agent, causing rashes and other severe skin conditions. In India, an investigation found that factories supplying clothes for popular fast fashion retailers were leaking toxic chemicals into rivers. As a result, there was a massive spike in cancer, tuberculosis, and congenital disabilities in villagers in the area. Cheap fashion comes at a high cost that isn’t on the price tag, but someone somewhere is paying.

So we see that Fast Fashion is not good for the environment and for us. Nowadays many big brands are affecting humans and the environment in name of Fast Fashion. We should need to say no to fast fashion. There are a lot of small businesses and a lot of small artists that need to be more encouraged. We should find more ways to recycle clothes and decrease the number of products every month, every day. We should buy from local businesses and most importantly we should do thrift shopping. Thrift shopping is the best way of recycling clothes. Due to these small steps, we can achieve something better. Also, don’t throw your clothes in the normal bins! Most of them consist of synthetic, non-biodegradable fiber and will just pile up in the landfill. There are other options:

- Try to repair them. Sometimes with a bit of imagination, you can repair or even redesign a torn garment.

- Donate your clothes to your friends, family, neighbors, or to charity.

- Sell them on second-hand apps.

- Some clothes shops take back used clothes from their own brand or even from other brands.

- Put them in the textile recycling bin. Textiles can be recycled to make new clothing.

This is what we can do to protect our environment and us from fast fashion. Buy Less. Choose Well. Make It Last.