Green vision, Marketing, Social media
Quick Trend, Great Loss – a Few Words about Fast Fashion
Mar
In recent years, the phenomenon of “fast fashion” has become very popular, i.e. providing consumers with the latest clothing trends as quickly as possible and at the lowest possible cost. However, we need to remember that in this case, the word “cost” refers to the amount of money a company has to spend to produce a given item of clothing and what we have to pay for it. Instead, today we’re going to focus on the real cost of fast fashion – namely, what the effects of producing cheap clothing are on our planet and our environment.
The Beauty of Fast Fashion
You have certainly come across advertisements from well-known brands encouraging you to shop in their stores. Colorful photos and slogans attack us at every turn – on the Internet, television and on billboards. Every now and then we hear about big price reductions and sales. Clothes that hit the market just a month ago are no longer keeping up with the constantly changing fashion. Or at least that is what large corporations are trying to convince us.
Does fashion really change so drastically in the span of a few months that things we recently happily showed off at school or work are now embarrassing? Of course not. Clothing preferences don’t change as quickly as chain store displays. However, companies that sell the same type of clothing throughout the season wouldn’t see as much profit as those that convince consumers that they constantly need something new to stay relevant.
Not to mention quality. More and more often, when talking to friends, I hear comments like “I recently bought a sweater, but one wash was enough to basically make it not appropriate to leave the house in anymore.” After all, it’s futile to expect that when producing tons of clothes every day, corporations will pay attention to the quality of each and every product. Quite the opposite – here, quantity does not go hand in hand with quality. Corporations use low-quality fabrics to save on production and be able to sell more pieces of clothing than their competition. The consumer loses out. Very often, after a few uses, the clothes are no longer suitable for wearing – they are pulled, stretched, lose their color. And what do we usually do in such a situation? We go shopping again to replenish the missing pieces of clothing. Again to shopping malls, again to chain stores.
Cheap Clothes and Hidden Costs
They say that nothing in life is free. If we save money in one place, someone else will take it back – and so it is with fast fashion. It is true that the clothes that hit stores every day are mostly very cheap. However, for it to be worth it, the manufacturer had to save money somewhere else. Most likely on ecology.
It takes 2,700 liters of water to produce a single cotton T-shirt, enough to last an adult for almost 3 years. A pair of jeans takes almost three times as much, at 7,500 liters. Producing one kilogram of cotton uses 20,000 liters of water. These are huge numbers, even before you consider how many T-shirts and jeans are produced per day. Not to mention that the water used to dye and process fabrics is often contaminated with toxic chemicals. The same water that we could use for farming or to provide people with clean drinking supply.
What’s more, no store sells 100% of what it produces, especially if it releases new collections every month. So what happens to the clothes that are produced and no one buys them? It’s simple – they end up in landfill, because it’s the cheapest option available to the manufacturer. On average, 100 million tons of clothing are produced every year, of which 92 million tons end up in landfill. In the case of fast fashion companies, it’s much faster and cheaper to throw away thousands of new, unused clothes than to invest in recycling. It’s easy to imagine how much damage to the climate and the environment will be caused by piles of polyester and synthetic materials that will decompose on piles of textile waste for up to 200 years, due to the high plastic content.
Tomorrow’s Problem Is Today
When we say “fast fashion,” brands like Zara, H&M and Shein first come to mind. As some of the leading producers of mass quantities of clothing, they contribute to huge damage to the environment.
The clothing industry is responsible for 20% of the world’s water consumption and 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions, adding to its carbon footprint every day. It’s worth remembering this before we head to the store to buy new clothes when the weather forecast says a heatwave is coming. And it’s not appropriate to be in vacation photos wearing the same clothes as last year (as clothing influencers paid by clothing companies claim).
And the heat will come, and with it – drought. This year’s hydrological situation in Poland is alarming. Already in February, many regions recorded extremely low levels of soil moisture, and forecasts for spring do not predict a significant improvement. Farmers are sounding the alarm, and experts are warning that the consequences may be severe – not only for agriculture, but also for the entire economy.
Perhaps many of us are not yet experiencing drought personally. If tap water and water on store shelves are still available in sufficient quantities, we think that drought will not affect us for a long time. Unfortunately, in many regions of Poland it affects not only farmers, but also ordinary citizens who are forced to limit water consumption in their daily lives.
The drought in Poland will be felt by everyone – especially financially. The lack of sufficient rainfall will lead to small crops, which will cause food prices to go up. And all this at a time when a single T-shirt uses as much water as an adult uses in almost three years.
Not All Is Lost
Despite the prevalence of fast fashion chain stores, there is still a chance to improve the ecological situation. Each of us can do our part to help. Here are some ideas that each of us can apply in our lives to combat fast fashion and protect the environment:
- Buy consciously – read labels and choose good quality clothes that will last longer. Opt for proven brands whose suppliers are transparent and meet quality standards. If you can, support local businesses. Don’t buy from companies whose core business is fast fashion.
- Give your clothes a second life – choose second-hand clothing stores. There are many options for buying second-hand, both in popular second-hand stores and online applications that allow you to buy clothes directly from their owner. This is a great alternative to buying “single-use” clothes that end up in the trash after a few washes.
- Take care of what you have – if you get a drop of ketchup on your white T-shirt, it doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to it. For example, you can try an interesting alternative, such as tie-dye (a method of dyeing clothes unevenly, which everyone can try at a low cost). And if you no longer like the clothes you own which are still in good condition – consider selling them or throwing them into an appropriate clothing container.
- Join the slow fashion revolution – approach fashion consciously and rationally. Slow fashion means thoughtful clothing purchases and avoiding impulsive buying under the influence of sales and passing trends. Invest in a smaller number of high-quality clothes that are universal and durable. This approach not only helps to keep your wardrobe tidy, but also helps to save money and reduce environmental pollution.
- How about a capsule wardrobe? – this idea is based on having a few basic, universal wardrobe elements and allows you to create a variety of styles without having to have a large number of clothes. We can also use the services of seamstresses to repair or modify clothes to better adapt them to today’s times. Or let the clothes wait a few years at the bottom of the wardrobe – they’ll be back in fashion in no time!
- Support ecology – educate yourself and others! More and more companies are focusing on sustainable production. Very often, information about good practices, such as reducing water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, can be found on their websites. Many companies also use recycled materials. It is worth spending a few minutes to find out where our money is better spent.
Ecology Is Not a Passing Fad
Water is one of the most valuable global resources. In the face of climate change and increasing drought, every drop counts. It is worth looking at clothing in a different way – not as a passing trend, but as a real cost that the entire planet bears.
The clothing industry needs to feel our impact. Together we can show them that we are not interested in a reduced cost per garment if it also increases the environmental cost. Clothes created 15 years ago could be worn for many seasons – today the fibers are ready to be thrown away almost immediately after purchase. They end up in landfills and oceans, and also in rivers, where they break down into microplastic particles and end up on our plates. According to experts, each of us consumes up to 5 grams of microplastic per week because we eat fish that absorb it. It is like eating a credit card four times a month.
So the cost of buying a T-shirt is not a record low – but a record high. Never before have we wasted so much textiles, used so much water and had such a negative impact on the environment as today. It is time to act to stop the growing phenomenon of overproduction of clothing, created quickly and cheaply today, and then decomposing for a long time and at a high cost.
Let’s protect the planet, reduce our impact, and join the fashion revolution that campaigns for a fair, transparent and responsible fashion industry. The revolution believes in a global fashion industry that protects and restores the environment and values people over growth and profit. Let’s be the change today.
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