HOW FAST FASHION IS DESTROYING THE PLANET.

There is that old saying “Fashion fades, style is eternal.” Literally speaking, that actually may no longer be true, especially when it comes to fast fashion. Fast-fashion brands may not design their clothing to last (and they don’t), it would be important to note some changes. More than 60 percent of fabric fibers are now synthetics, derived from fossil fuels, so if and when our clothing ends up in a landfill it will not decay. The focus today is global fast-fashion and regular fashion industries and how they came to be so enormous, voracious, so seemingly uncontainable. It is fascinating how NAFTA made possible the international success of fast fashion the textile industry has always been one of the darkest corners of the world economy. Fast fashion literally takes advantage of people and use their situations against them. Fashion is an industry that has depended on the powerless and the voiceless, and intend on keeping them that way.

In 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapsed in Bangladesh and had only two survivors. The explosion killed 1,100 people and injured another 2,500 and this is very common. Between 2006 and 2019, more than 500 Bangladeshi garment workers died in factory fires, and even with this no one grew less interested in fast fashion. ''The water alone that is used by fast fashion companies would not reach the demand of water in the entire world'' by 2025 nytimes says

HERE ARE SOME ELABORATED HORRIBLE EFFECTS OF FAST FASHION TO THE PLANET.

Water usage

A byproduct from textile factories in countries that produce fast fashion items en masse is untreated toxic wastewater. This textile waste contains substances like lead, mercury and arsenic that are extremely harmful to aquatic and human life.

According to pebblemag.com

Microfibres

Microfibres and microplastics are a key part of what’s wrong with the fashion industry. Microfibres are microplastics that come away from synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon every time you wash your clothes. Each wash sheds around 700,000 microfibres. These are consumed by aquatic organisms, which are eaten by fish, which are eaten by us. These cheap clothes are one of the sources putting plastic into our food chain.

Greenhouse Gasses

According to The Ethical Consumer and Greenpeace’s Journal, if the demand for fast fashion continues to grow at its current rate, we could see the total carbon footprint of our clothing reach 26% by 2050.

Producing, manufacturing and transporting the millions of garments produced each year uses a lot of energy. The synthetic fibres that most of our clothes are made of are generated from fossil fuels. China, Bangladesh and India are the countries that produce the majority of our clothing. They are powered almost entirely by coal.

Deforestation.

Goats and sheep, raised for their wool, are overgrazed in pastures. Overgrazing leads to soil erosion, land degradation, loss of valuable plant species, food shortages and famine. Chemicals used in the production of fabrics like cotton also degrade the soil. Wood-based fibres, like rayon and viscose, cause mass deforestation. Thousands of hectares of endangered and ancient rainforests are felled every year.

I mean the list is never ending I can continue to list the various ways that fast fashion is killing our planet but I want to believe that you get the idea, I get the fact that we all want the latest things but that should not be at the detriment of the only planet that can sustain life. I mean what do we gain if we lose the whole planet but have all the clothes in the world?

WHAT CAN WE DO TO REDUCE FAST FASHION?

DO WE NEED A REVOLUTION?

HOW CAN WE REDUCE REDUCE THE POPULARITY OF FAST FASHION?