So, why is fast fashion a problem? In the past couple of decades, the fashion industry completely transformed. Clothes have become cheaper, and cycles of releases have sped up from four seasons a year to monthly or even weekly.
wanting to dress cute vs not wanting to support fast fashion pic.twitter.com/9dd0zhYIPi
— natasha (@llmanberg) August 14, 2020
Clothes in the fast fashion industry are made at a rapid pace, and out of cheap materials to keep up with trends. The fashion industry is a $2.5 trillion sector and is the second most polluting industry on Earth, behind oil.
The clothes are being made to be worn only a couple of times and then thrown out by consumers, due to the low-quality materials used. In North America, 9.5 million tons of clothing are sent to the landfill every year and it takes 80 years for the clothes to breakdown in the landfills.
Not only is the fast fashion industry killing the environment, but also the workers have to work in terrible conditions due to loose labor laws in developing countries.
Multinational corporations such as Zara and H&M have transferred their manufacturing processes to countries such as Bangladesh because it is cheaper. Garment workers are some of the lowest paid workers in the world, only 2% of all garment workers earn a living wage. Roughly 85% of all garment workers are women.
Garment workers are underpaid and work in extremely toxic and dangerous conditions. There was a wakeup call for the world when the Rana Plaza clothing manufacturing complex in Bangladesh collapsed. It killed over 1,000 workers and injured over 2,500.
Switching to sustainable fashion is easy, many brands such as H&M and Zara have started producing more conscious lines. Another easy step is buying clothes that you know you will wear for a long period of time.
There are many eco-fashion companies that are pushing the production of clothing with more environmentally friendly methods. Examples of this are clothing that can be recycled easily. There are hundreds of brands that have dedicated themselves to ethical and sustainable clothing.
As well as thrift shops, this can be an easy way to buy high quality products that are priced well.
Are you ready to switch from fast fashion to sustainable fashion?
Let us know in the comments below!