Let’s be honest, we all do our fair share of shopping, and maybe even more so while we are in quarantine. We look for the fashion trend we want and the best price tag without giving it a second thought. The problem with this is that we don’t think about fast fashion and how it affects the world around us. Read on, and you’ll learn more about what fast fashion is and how we can avoid supporting it.
Since the ’90s, consumers have been able to get trendy clothes quickly and cheaply. Being able to keep up with current fashion trends while not breaking the bank seems perfect, but it actually has a negative impact on the environment and people. Audrey Stanton, an author for The Good Trade, helps summarize fast fashion, describing how it “utilizes trend replication, rapid production, and low-quality materials in order to bring inexpensive styles to the public.” Companies like Zara, H&M, Forever 21, and other fast fashion brands produce new items constantly, and Stanton claims they “produce about 52 ‘micro-seasons’ a year.” Instead of planning out each collection for a significant amount of time, companies are having people overseas produce an increasingly larger quantity of clothing items that consumers buy eagerly.
Not surprisingly, due to the fast production in large numbers, fast fashion negatively impacts our environment. A company called Green Zone gives statistics to illustrate the impact, stating that “the average person attributes 81 lbs of textile waste to landfills every year…6% of the total U.S. Municipal Solid Waste stream.” It may not sound like too much in the grand scheme of things, but in the U.S. alone we contribute more than 15 million tons of textile waste each year. Consumer demands cause some of these fast fashion companies to grossly underpay their employees and force them to work in poor working conditions to keep up with the need and demand. Not only are almost all textiles recyclable with the textile recycling industry taking out 2.5 billion tons from the waste stream, but these textiles also shouldn’t have been mass-produced in the first place. The consumer’s demand for new trends that have a cheap price tag keeps these companies in business and pushes them to cycle through new styles frequently, so customers still want more.
There are several ways you can help lower the demand for fast fashion. On the College of Charleston’s campus, there are student organizations that have hosted clothing sales and swaps that allow the students to sustainably buy or trade their clothes. Ever heard of the Naked Lady Society? They are a group of women empowering other women by hosting meetups to discuss local female empowerment causes, swap clothes, and make new connections with other women in the Charleston community. This group hosts several clothing swaps annually, and the College’s Halsey Institute partnered with this group last spring to host a clothing swap on campus! Instead of buying cheap clothes from fast fashion stores, students get to buy gently used and still trendy clothes that might have otherwise ended up in the textile waste stream. For items you might not be able to resell or donate to places like Goodwill, stop by our Green Zone bin behind Addlestone where you can donate textiles not suitable for thrift stores.
If you’re not a C of C student and are curious about other ways to be sustainable when shopping for clothing, do a quick search for places to donate and check out thrift stores around you. Your local Humane Society might accept clothing donations, and there are often recycling centers that also accept old textiles. Also, look into where your clothes are being made and look for “slow fashion” companies. Audrey Stanton defines “slow fashion [as] a movement towards mindful manufacturing, fair labor rights, natural materials, and lasting garments.” Slow fashion is far more sustainable than fast fashion since it takes environmental and labor concerns into account.
Best said by Lucy Siegle, “Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone somewhere is paying.” It’s not always easy to avoid, but with little steps like going to clothing swaps or sales, we can start to phase out the demand for fast fashion.
Sources:
https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/what-is-fast-fashion