While scrolling through TikTok, you come across a clothing haul video. An influencer has gone viral for showing a clothing haul of the latest trending clothing, ranging from that butter yellow sweatshirt to a polka dot patterned top. Later, an ad comes across your feed promoting other similar clothing items, encouraging you and other viewers to keep up with the quickly changing trends, fueling fast fashion.
Fast fashion is a business model that focuses on rapidly producing clothing items inspired by recent runway trends and putting them on the market in stores or online as fast as possible. The goal is to produce and sell these trendy clothes before the next cycle of trends rolls around to repeat the process again. Fast fashion also refers to cheap, low-quality clothing items. Brands like Zara, H&M, and Shein are all well-known fast fashion companies.
Shopping can be addictive, and fast fashion can fuel it. According to a study from MIT, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon, researchers found that when someone sees something that they want to buy, the pleasure center of the brain activates. In addition, getting the item at a lower price maximizes the sense of pleasure in the brain. This can influence people to buy more and more clothes.
Social media also plays a role. Many fast fashion brands use social media to show their products with ads and limited-time deals. Consumers are constantly exposed to these new trends, making it easier for the consumer to buy their product. Influencers also promote products that make the viewers feel that they should have that same clothing item to fit in or stay in style.
However, since these clothing items are cheaply made and may only be trending for a short time, these pieces are often discarded after only being worn a few times. Earth.org states, “Many items are worn only seven to ten times before being tossed.”
Due to this cycle of quickly buying and discarding clothes, fast fashion has led to negative consequences on the environment.
Around 92 million tons of textile waste are produced every year. In order to meet the high demand for clothing, the industry uses large amounts of energy. According to the UN Environment Programme, the fast fashion industry is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions. This is more than maritime shipping and all international flights combined.
In addition, the fast fashion industry is extremely resource-intensive and is the second-largest consumer of water. Every year, around 93 billion cubic meters of water are used by the fashion industry. Not only does it require large amounts of water, but the industry is also one of the top polluters of water due to the dyeing processes of textiles. The excess water is released into rivers, streams, and ditches.
The materials used to create these low-quality clothing items are usually synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon. These fibers can take hundreds of years to biodegrade.
“Synthetic fibres like polyester and nylon can take between 20 and 200 years to decompose. So, say you buy a dress in your senior year, and you’re 18, it would still exist on the planet by the time you are 40 and could be longer,” AP Environmental Science teacher Jessica Young said.
Overconsumption is a problem and is affecting the entire world. It is estimated that there are enough clothes in the world to clothe the next six generations. The constant buy-and-dispose cycle is filling landfills with clothes.
“There are people who buy from fast fashion brands with the intent of donating their clothes to a thrift store whenever they don’t want them anymore, but only around 10% of clothes that are donated actually end up in stores to be purchased. The rest are adding to the landfill,” Young said.
In order to reduce fast fashion impacts, there are many initiatives being taken and steps that everyone can take to help.
The United Nations Alliance for Sustainable Fashion is an initiative that is committed to reaching Sustainable Development Goals by creating projects and policies that work to reduce social and environmental impacts.
When buying clothing, consumers may check out different options like local thrift stores to extend the lifespan of clothes to reduce waste. For buying new clothes, people can choose sustainable brands and materials like organic cotton and linen that will last a long time.
Fast fashion has reshaped how people consume clothing. This comes at a high cost to the environment and contributes to a cycle of overconsumption and waste. More awareness of our purchasing habits and where we buy clothes from can contribute to efforts to reduce these harmful impacts of fashion and make progress toward a more sustainable future.