Words by Melody Lewis
As the world wakes up to the threat of climate change, it’s time to realise the impact of unsustainable commerce and take responsibility for our buying habits.
With Black Friday and the festive season fast approaching, fashion brands are facing their busiest time of year – most are designing and selling new items to meet the latest trends every single day. From the catwalk to our ever-increasingly online baskets, a rather vicious circle is being created, and it’s important to question whether the industry is moving too much, too quickly. If 2020 has given us anything, it is a new or renewed appreciation for our planet and the eco-systems within it. So, with that being said, is fast fashion damaging the place we all call home, and what can we do as individual consumers to stop it?
Many major brands use harmful chemicals in their production lines, products that are polluting our oceans and rivers. Whether through cotton production or waste water, they are damaging not only our oceans but devastating ecological systems and the creatures who inhabit those environments. A single pair of Levi’s 501’s, for example, demand 3,781 litres of water from production to decomposition.
But all is not lost. Luckily, places like the UK and US have rules when it comes to this sort of thing, so buying from companies who produce their clothes in these locations would be a good start for environmentally-conscious consumers. There are plenty of big brands that still produce their goods at home and in the States, so you don’t have to worry about cutting out your favourite names. Just take a look at the label inside your product, and if it was made anywhere in the EU or America, it’s likely to have been produced using eco-friendly materials and under sustainable conditions.
As well as polluting our waters, fast fashion is polluting our land too. Think of how much waste is produced when each fashion trend has a maximum shelf life of a year, not to mention the unstoppable influx of seasonal clothing items. When your sweatshirts, tees and hoodies leave your loving homes, they aren’t always sent on to another loving owner, and this is where the problem begins to escalate a little too much. On average, one family produces 30kg of clothing waste each year, with only a fraction of that amount being donated. Landfill sites are becoming overwhelmed with fashion waste. Not only is this so easily preventable by simply donating or recycling our unused clothes, but it is important we shop more organically to reduce the lifetime of those products decomposing in landfill.
During lockdown, there is nothing many of us want more than a holiday – but these beautiful foreign destinations are also being destroyed by fast fashion. Places like Indonesia and Nigeria are experiencing huge deforestation rates due to the exploits of the fashion industry. Replacing these forests with plantations to aid industry production is not only devastating our planet’s natural environment but also the very fabric of the societies affected by these processes. The livelihood and cultures of often-indigenous communities are exploited for the next fashion trend.
But these negative environmental effects can be prevented with a little education, open mindedness and some exercising of our moral compass. Don’t panic and feel guilty – simply do your bit by shopping organically when you can, educating yourself on harmful fabrics and chemicals and try out some smaller businesses, too. Often, these labels tend to make their own clothes and can be just as fashionable (if not more!).
In light of the effects of fast fashion, we’ve detailed Why Second-hand Shopping is a Mood for 2020.