Fast Fashion

What is it?

Noun: inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends.

The leading fast fashion brands available in the UK include: Zara, H&M, SHEIN, Mango, Topshop, Pretty Little Thing, Nike, Forever 21, Primark, Urban Outfitters, Missguided, Victoria's Secret, Zaful, GAP, Hollister, Peacocks, Adidas, ASOS, Nasty Gal, Anthropologie, Dior, New Look, Wish, Fashion Nova, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, River Island - and this is just to name a few!

WHY IS FAST FASHION SO BAD?

MODERN SLAVERY

The conditions in which a lot of our garments are made is horrific & shameful, to be simply put. For most people, the idea of slavery is something of the past -- something you only learn about in history lessons, when in reality it's happening every day, largely because of the demand we create by shopping with fast fashion brands.

ENVIRONMENT

The fashion industry is the third largest polluter in the world, behind the fuel and agricultural industries. In particular, the fast fashion industry has a huge negative impact on the planet, in pretty much every way possible. Deforestation, water consumption and contamination, soil degradation & CO2 emissions are all effects of the industry.

WASTE

This sort of ties in with the environmental factor, but it's such a large issue it deserves it's own box! It seems absolutely mind-boggling that an item of clothing is only worn 7 times on average before being thrown in the bin. In recent years, the UK was named the fourth largest textiles waste producer in Europe. That's a big problem!

MODERN SLAVERY

There are an estimated 40.3 million people living in modern slavery across the world. This is more than three times the figure during the transatlantic slave trade, before slavery was made illegal. Offenders get away with their crimes by purposefully choosing countries with slack law enforcement to build factories and produce their garments/materials - laws don't mean an awful lot if they're not enforced.

Possibly the worst part of the fashion industry is the way in which all of this happens behind securely locked and reinforced doors. A lot of the time, big brands will hide their supply chain information to try and mask their involvement in these crimes. They don't want the general public seeing the 'behind the scenes', as it could impact their profits and ultimately that's all they really care about. It's not just the fashion industry either - clothes, smart phones, make up and coffee industries have all been known to be involved in modern slavery.

It is often the most vulnerable, poverty stricken people (including children) who are targeted by slave owners. In fact, one in four victims of forced labour is a child, some as young as 6 years old. In addition to this, children as young as six months have been rescued from a life of slavery. Almost 71% of slavery & forced labour victims are women and girls, possibly caused by large companies participating in Sumangali Schemes; an employment scheme that is essentially bonded labour (when a person is forced to work to pay off a debt) and child labour. Agents from spinning mills will visit impoverished families, recruiting young girls to work in the mills for a 3-5 year contract, with a promise lump sum of money at the end that they can use as dowry (money given to their husbands family when they get married - a common tradition in this area). Parents are fuelled by desperation and the prospect of the money, and they are also ensured their daughters will be protected and 'kept clean', despite this not (at all) being the case. Excessive working hours, poor working environment, physically challenging and dangerous work, poor living/hostel conditions, extremely poor wages, lack of rights & sexual abuse are just some of the things these workers have to endure.

EXCESSIVE WORKING HOURS

A typical day for a garment maker is an average of 12/13 hours working per day, 6 days a week. Sometimes workers will be expected to pick up additional hours, meaning some of the women are working over 16 hours in one go. In addition to this, a lot of the time there is no fixed resting time and the food they are served lacks in nutritional value - leading to the workers becoming rapidly weak and still being forced to work.

In some recorded cases, young women were promised that they could continue in their studies whilst also being recruited for the scheme, but instead were forced to work for 12 hours. It has also been known for supervisors to torture girls in attempts to extract work beyond their capacity.

THE ENVIRONMENT

From beginning to end, the fashion industry has a huge impact on our environment in so many ways - from our waters to our forests.

WATER

It's estimated that the processes use around 93 billion cubic metres of water per year - 4% of all freshwater extraction globally... and if we stay on our current trends, this amount is going to double by 2030! To put this into context: just one cotton shirt requires approximately 2,500 litres of water to be produced, and it's estimated that processing a kilogram of fibre requires 100 to 150 litres of water. In addition to this, despite cotton needing a lot of water in the growing process, it is often grown in areas with little rain. Around half of the production requires additional irrigation and this adds stress on local water supplies. Not only does the industry consume an insane amount of freshwater, but it also dumps a ton of toxic contaminated water straight into local rivers, which eventually ends up around the world, having a harmful impact on aquatic life and residents living nearby the riverbanks.

It's estimated that there are 22,000 litres of contaminated water (containing substances such as lead, mercury, and arsenic - amongst others) being dumped in Bangladesh rivers every day.

23% of all chemicals produced worldwide are used for textiles.

20% of all water pollution comes from textiles treatments and dyes.

The fashion industry currently uses enough water to quench the thirst of 110 million people for an entire year.

85% of India's daily water needs would be covered by the very water used to to grow cotton in that same country.

2.6% of the global freshwater is used to produce cotton.

The Aral Sea in Central Asia has shrunk to just 10% of it's former volume, largely due to irrigation for cotton.

Who knows what will happen if we continue to use water at the rate in which we do.

SOIL DEGRADATION

Healthy soil is important for so many reasons. It is a fundamental natural resource and plays a vital part to all terrestrial life. We need it for food production but also to absorb CO2. The degradation of soil (the decline in soil condition caused by its improper use or poor management) presents a major threat to global food security and also contributes to global warming.

There are multiple causes of soil degradation throughout the fashion industry, including: heavy use of chemicals in farming, deforestation for wood-based fibres and over-grazing of pastures from cashmere goats & sheep raised for their wool. In fact, 90% of Mongolia's surface is facing the threats of desertification, mostly due to the over-breeding of goats.

If we don't do something about the soil degradation, it is estimated to lead to a 30% decrease in food production over the next 20-50 years.

DEFORESTATION

Each year, thousands of hectares of endangered & ancient forests are cut down & replaced by plantations of trees used to make wood-based fabrics such as rayon, viscose & modal. In fact, 30% of rayon & viscose clothing comes from endangered and ancient forests. The reason why it is better for us to keep our ancient forests is that they play essential roles in wildlife habitat, species diversity, hydrological regimes, nutrient cycles, carbon storage and numerous other ecological processes.

70-100 million trees are chopped down each year for the creation of clothes, but a study revealed that dissolving-pulp (the base material for rayon/viscose) wastes roughly 70% of the tree and involves a chemically intensive manufacturing process. 70% of all clothing produced by such fibres end up in landfills every year. This means that after all of this already unnecessary exploitation of forests, a mere 30% of clothing actually makes it to recycling - the rest is literally wasted.

The loss of our forests is threatening the ecosystem & indigenous communities, and the demand on cutting trees for fabric production is estimated to double by 2050.

CO2 EMISSIONS

The apparel industry accounts for 10% of the global carbon emissions, and according to James Conca from Forbes, "cheap synthetic fibres also emit masses like N20 - 300 times more damaging than CO2". The mass creation and distribution of clothes is one thing, but when you also consider the amount of returns made each year and the emissions as a consequence of that - the number just keeps rising.

Another thing to consider is that a lot of clothes have been and continue to be produced in China, Bangladesh & India - countries which are amongst the highest coal consumers in the world (Chine & India being the top 2).

WASTE

To say humans are wasteful would be the understatement of the century. Think about it this way: the production of most man-made things creates waste (a lot of it, too). Then, more often than not the created item itself goes to waste too. We quite literally create waste in order to create more waste. If we aren't careful it will get to a point where we've simultaneously used too many resources and generated too much waste for the planet to sustain us. Is it really worth it?

BUT DOES ANY OF THIS AFFECT THE CONSUMER DIRECTLY?

Well actually, yes. The environmental impacts of fast fashion affect us all, as we're all inhabiting the Earth and we all use its natural resources daily. If we use up all of the resources on things we don't necessarily need, it may lead to a shortage of resources for things we do need... like food and air.

AND, the damage doesn't stop after the clothing has been produced. Once it eventually reaches it's consumer, a synthetic garment will release micro-fibres during a wash cycle (roughly 700,000 individual micro-fibres per garment!). When you add up all of the micro-fibres entering our waters from everyone washing their clothes, this amounts to a lot of them floating around in our oceans, causing problems for the aquatic life.

But potentially the worst effect on the consumer is the exposure to the many harmful chemicals used in the process. Chemicals are actually one of the main components of clothes, used during the fibre production, dyeing, bleaching & wet processing. Our skin is our bodies largest organ, and it absorbs anything we put on it - including the chemical residue on our clothes!

A Greenpeace study for the Detox Campaign has identified 11 chemicals frequently used to make our clothes that contain toxins, carcinogens and hormone disruptors. The use of these chemicals should be banned, but it is not. You might think that large brands couldn't possible get away with putting their consumers at risk, but a recent study found hazardous chemicals in 63% of the items tested from 20 different textile brands (including fashion giants). This is why it is recommended that you wash any new item of clothing.

I would definitely recommend doing your own research on what is happening in our world, but if you're interesting in seeing my sources, click here

YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING WHAT YOU CAN DO?

Buy less: even the most green, eco-conscious garments use resources in production & delivery.

The root of our problem lies in our excessive consumerism as a whole. Try to resist the temptation to buy new things just because, and buy things only when you actually need them.

Reuse & recycle: It's so easy to recycle and reuse nowadays, so there's really only few good reasons to not be doing it. Even if you're not someone who feels comfortable using other people's things, be conscious about where your own clothing waste goes. Consider taking old clothes to a charity shop or textiles recycling centre instead of throwing it in the bin.

Be conscious when washing: No one is trying to tell you not to wash your clothes, but only wash them when they actually need washing, and if you can, avoid doing washes that aren't full - this lessens the amount of micro-plastics entering our waterways, and also saves on electricity and water!

Buy consciously: I'm not suggesting you should boycott all of your favourite brands, but definitely be aware of their impacts. Opt for better quality garments which will last longer and don't feed into the fast fashion industry. Call out big brands on their lack of accountability and be part of the reason things change!