“It works as an enabling agent for rising consumerism, allowing people to expand their closets without it being a strain on their pockets. While this seems like an ideal scenario for consumers, the truth of the fashion industry is not that simple.”

 

In recent years, sustainability has become a buzzword and turned quite a few heads. People have started questioning the existing ways in which many industries are thriving in the market while turning a blind eye to the damage they’re causing to the environment. One such example is the fast fashion industry, which refers to clothing manufacturers/fashion giants which use cheap, unsustainable ways to produce affordable clothes which often have a short shelf life. Their concept is simple: Quick manufacturing at affordable prices. It works as an enabling agent for rising consumerism, allowing people to expand their closets without it being a strain on their pockets. While this seems like an ideal scenario for consumers, the truth of the fast fashion industry is not that simple. 

One of the widely acknowledged concerns it poses is environmental. H&M, forever 21, Asos, GAP and many other fast fashion brands are affecting the planet in ways more than one. Some of the environmental threats they pose are listed below-

• 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year

• While people bought 60% more garments in 2014 than they did in 2000, they kept them for half as long.

• Washing clothes releases 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean every year, the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles.

• Many of those fibres are polyester, a plastic found in an estimated 60% of garments. Producing polyester releases two to three times more carbon emissions than cotton, and polyester does not break down in the ocean. 

• It takes about 700 gallons of water to produce one cotton shirt. That’s enough water for one person to drink at least eight cups per day for three and a half years. It takes about 2,000 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans made out of cotton. That’s more than enough for one person to drink eight cups per day for ten years. 

• Textile dyeing is the world’s second-largest polluter of water since the water leftover from the dyeing process is often dumped into ditches, streams or rivers. 

 

However, there’s another severe threat that they pose. The process of manufacturing affects humans who are engaged in it. A garment worker’s health is being jeopardized through their long hours, lack of resources, exposure to harmful chemicals, and often physical abuse. The people who make fast fashion clothing are underpaid, underfed, and pushed to their limits because there are usually few other options. 

As clothing prices decrease, the chance the company is turning to exploitative and outsourced manufacturing to maintain low prices increases. The United States has the largest clothing industry in the world, yet only a mere 2 per cent of it is made in the United States. 

By using foreign manufacturers, American retailers can produce more clothing for much less than if they were manufactured in the country, sacrificing normal pay and safe conditions for low prices. Most of the production happens in developing countries where companies are able to pay extremely low wages and are not burdened by employee healthcare and benefits. This is made possible by two ways: underdeveloped labour laws or weak law enforcement. 

Many factories cut corners on a regular basis to reduce production costs. Work areas are frequently found to have poor lighting, which can be damaging to the workers’ sight, and toxic chemicals, which can be harmful to their respiratory systems. The number of home-based workers is also significantly large in India. They’re informally employed at the bottom of the fashion supply chain. Due to the lack of transparency and the informal nature of home-based work, the worker has virtually no avenue to seek redress for abusive or unfair conditions.

 

With the harms of fast fashion getting more recognized, an alternate industry, the sustainable fashion industry has come up. Sustainable fashion is based on the principle of producing clothes, shoes and accessories in environmentally and socio-economically sustainable manners. It also promotes more sustainable patterns of consumption and uses which require shifts in individual attitudes and behaviour. It provides an alternative to fast fashion by promoting slow fashion. 

Slow fashion is the process of manufacturing clothing ethically, taking into consideration the workers and the environment. It ensures the workers are paid fair wages and are provided with a safe working environment. They are made from better-quality materials, which are more durable and will last longer than clothing manufactured using fast fashion methods. However, ethical manufacturing methods are the most costly, resulting in more expensive clothes. Thus the sustainable clothing industry remains inaccessible to large sections of consumers.