- floraisobel
Creating Generative Value
Link to news article: https://phys.org/news/2022-07-ultra-fast-fashion-charms-young-environment.html
Did you know that textile production being the 3rd biggest manufacturing industry contributes more to climate change than international travel and shipping combined. This alarming information is just one many problematic area involved with fast fashion. Fast fashion is a sector that produces items, clothes, accessories etcetera at extreme speed and at rock bottom prices. Stemming from the article by Emeline Burckel entitled Ultra-fast fashion charms young despite damaging environment, I want to go deeper into what and how the environment is being damaged and affected by this youthful fashion trend.
From the article, we get a sense of how fast fashion is harming the environment, and we also get the usual connotations and jargon about the negative impacts it has. However, the article only scratched the surface of the problem, focusing more on why it is popular and the idea of quantity not quality. When in fact, the environmental issues that surround fast fashion are what needs to be prioritised and talked about the most. For example, would you believe me if I said that it takes 2,700 litres of water to produce 1 single t-shirt . That is 8 times as much water as an average Australian household uses per day. And that’s only for 1 t-shirt. In this perspective you can really start to understand the crippling devastation that fast fashion can cause on the environment. Especially in current times and after the coronavirus pandemic inflation and economic pressure has rendered “a huge demand for low-price garments”. With this of course comes, the influx of youthful buyers and consumers who want everything but don’t have much to spend. Through my own experience this is a very tempting way to shop, particularly online. Sites such as Shien and others mentioned in the article seriously pose a temptation to spend very little yet buy so much, and this is exactly the trap that is harming our environment. The article makes a good point of pricing, stating “with t-shirts costing just the equivalent of $4.80 and bikinis and dresses selling for just under $10”. Yet it is a mystery to me how almost none of this gets recycled or reused, as the cost of this is $0. So the question becomes, what is the cost of sustainability, what is the cost of lowering our environmental damage, and what is the cost of choosing the ethically correct solution to clothing?
With fast fashion being such a contributor to the climate crisis, it is no wonder that figures such as Greta Thunberg has commented on the issue saying that this climatic and ecological emergency is all “for some to enjoy fast fashion that many treat as disposables”. This disposable nature of fast fashion has resulted in more than $500 billion dollars lost due to the lack of recycling. To further identify the problem through numbers, we see that 8% of carbon emissions worldwide, are caused by the fashion industry. This stems from fast fashion’s reliance on machinery, and over production, which means that those who purchase fast fashion are contributing to a global polluting machine. Not to mention, that with the purchase of fast fashion, you are also buying into an industry that does not pay its workers a living wage and has its workers working hours of up to 75 per week.
So, my question to you the reader is, is it really worth buying that $10 handbag?