Fast Fashion : PROS AND CONS
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
What is fast fashion?
We are in the age of" social media" and everyone, especially teens and young adults, want to be an influencer. It's hard not to get impressed by some kind of celebrity when we are constantly being bombarded by tones of pictures of famous people wearing cool clothes ,showing of their fit bodies, in awesome sports cars and so on, via different social media platforms.
In my opinion this is the cause of the sudden popularity of fast fashion. Everyone wants to look just as perfect as other famous people but not everyone can a fford "gucci" ,"dior" etc . This is exactly the point when some companies started to take advantage. Companies like "Wish" and "shien" produce incredibly cool and in-demand clothes out of cheap stuff and sell them online .
Teens are compulsive and due to the awesome advertisement by attractive models and cheap prices they can not stop themselves from wanting to look like a famous rich person in just a few bucks .
when i first heart about it in 2020 i was like wow ! what if it's not durable i just want to take some pictures who would possibly be able to check the quality of what i wear through a photo?? And i am sure most of the people think this way.
The dark side of fast fashion
well lets say you ordered something online from these type of companies and you are lucky enough to get what you what and it fits you just right now you are ready to put it on you show it to your friends , you took some pictures all went well but then the quality starts to get worse .what would you do ?throw it ? thats what most of us will do without giving it a thought were all these disposed of clothes are going .
the problem is that its hard to recycle it . there are many countries in which people are not able to wear new clothes but here we are wasting a tone of raw material which also harms earth just to be perceived as cool and rich !
my solution:
Well we can not stop people from buying what they want but we can creat some awareness using ... social media.
#the contribution of this industry in the carbon emission is immense so to control it government should put a limit to the production .
#we can take help from the celebs to inform younger generation to invest in long lasting clothes .
#above all that these companies should also invest in recycling methods like from biotech .
.>>>. https://youtu.be/BiSYoeqb_VY
the above link shows a lifecycle of a tshirt (i am surprised to know how it all works)
our small steps can change the world!
Comments (2)
Well, I think you are right because obviously anything that has a bad side definitely has a good side too. I know that it seems like fast fashion is bad, but it has definitely done some good in my country, I mean it is because of fast fashion that some people in my country even have clothes to wear, let me expanciate fast fashion causes people to have a lot of clothes that they do not need, hence when those clothes become too much, they give the clothes out to the needy. I am fully aware that the working conditions of fast fashion workers are horrible but thy still give people jobs, I mean if you were in desperate need of resources fast fashion could help, even though it mostly helps the consumers. Here are some advantages of fast fashion:
Fast fashion is affordable:
With the help of fast fashion consumers can buy new trendy clothing at a very low price. They can afford the latest styles regularly because they are cheaply made. Fast fashion accelerates supply chains and drives costs down to meet constantly evolving consumers' demands. Fast fashion brands and retailers employ factories in faraway countries where labor costs are very low. They offer jobs to underdeveloped communities trying to make a living.
There are many style choices:
Fast fashion creates new styles every week. Design and production time have decreased dramatically. Many fashion brands and retailers can sketch, produce, and distribute new garments inspired by the latest trends in a very short time. The large variety of style choices is very appealing to costumers.
Fast fashion is available everywhere:
It's difficult to ignore fast fashion because it's everywhere. It's very practical for consumers to be able to shop for new trendy clothes either on the Internet or in high-street stores.
I mean at least it provides us with some advantages.
You raise interesting points, accurate_wombat -- any thoughts on the environmental effects of fast fashion? For many people, that is just as much a concern as employee welfare is.
Yes, I actually have some effects of fast fashion on the environment.
Water
The environmental impact of fast fashion comprises the depletion of non-renewable sources, emission of greenhouse gases and the use of massive amounts of water and energy. The fashion industry is the second largest consumer industry of water, requiring about 700 gallons to produce one cotton shirt and 2 000 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans. Business Insider also cautions that 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.
Microplastics
Furthermore, brands use synthetic fibres like polyester, nylon and acrylic which take hundreds of years to biodegrade. A 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that 35% of all microplastics – tiny pieces of non-biodegradable plastic – in the ocean come from the laundering of synthetic textiles like polyester. According to the documentary released in 2015, The True Cost, the world consumes around 80 billion new pieces of clothing every year, 400% more than the consumption twenty years ago. The average American now generates 82 pounds of textile waste each year. I mean how did we manage to make things worse when we are hoping for the best.
Energy
The production of making plastic fibres into textiles is an energy-intensive process that requires large amounts of petroleum and releases volatile particulate matter and acids like hydrogen chloride. Additionally, cotton, which is in a large amount of fast fashion products, is also not environmentally friendly to manufacture. Pesticides deemed necessary for the growth of cotton presents health risks to farmers.
I mean this is just the bare minimum like we need to be smarter than this if you ask me we cannot keep harming the environment.
I get what you are saying but I hope you understand that just because something has a good side does not mean that we should engage in them, I mean for every advantage the disadvantage is worse. I feel like we need to start looking at the long-term result of things before we react. I mean take human sacrificing for example it gives the sacrificer money, it has advantages like the people involved get rich but innocent lives are harmed and it teaches the younger generations evil. I mean come on humanity is already bad as it is we cannot keep justifying wrongs with the excuse that it helps us out.