How the Industry is Ruining Lives and the Earth And What We Can Do
I’ve always loved to thrift. When I was a kid, I went to Goodwill with my dad and sister to get new clothes to wear. I went in high school with my friends as a pleasurable activity, looking for stylish vintage pieces. In college, I love going alone, just listening to music and thinking for a while, with the added possibility of leaving with something to wear and love. Usually, any random Goodwill will have a wide range of brands. Lately, I’ve been seeing an increasing amount of one particular brand in the women’s section: Shein, a popularized fast fashion brand.
Fast Fashion can be defined as “inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends” (Oxford Languages). Essentially, it is all the clothes that you can buy that are currently trendy yet extremely affordable in big chain stores; both in person at malls like Zara, H&M, and Forever 21, and online; like Shein, Zaleful, Romwe, and now Temu. These clothes take newly stylish trends and mass produce clothes as quickly as possible. Once these clothes are created, time quickly ticks down on these microtrends until they are no longer what consumers are looking for. So these chains sell as much as they can within an impossibly short time frame, and the remainder is never bought, never worn, and discarded in landfills along with the massive waste and excess fabric from when they were originally made. It’s a vicious cycle, one that repeats with each and every fashion micro-trend. But it affects more than just fashion. It hurts the environment, the workers who are keeping up with the demand, and the terrible conditions under which they are making these clothes.
Fast fashion is an environmental crisis. It contributes significantly to resource depletion, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. The overconsumption and disposal of clothing have led to mountains of textile waste filling up landfills and incinerators, further exacerbating the ecological footprint of the industry. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the fashion industry is responsible for approximately 10% of global carbon emissions, more than the emissions of all international flights and maritime shipping combined (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017). The reliance on synthetic fibers, such as polyester, further compounds the problem due to their non-biodegradable nature and microplastic pollution. And these drastic measures aren’t even taken to produce long-lasting or better-quality clothing. Cheap quality is one of the main establishers of fast fashion clothing. These are not clothes that are made to last. They’re made of materials that can not withstand a lifetime of washing and wearing. They’re made to be discarded, generating a cycle where “more is offered and more demand is generated” (Ferreira de Araújo et al 5). Since 2000, Clothing sales doubled from 100 to 200 billion units a year, while the average number of times an item was worn decreased by 36% overall (Earth.org).
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These clothes aren’t being made in America despite being mostly for American consumption. Fast fashion companies outsource their production to developing countries, mostly in Asia, Central, and South America. This helps them evade regulations and laws meant to ensure the safety of their workers and the waste they produce. By outsourcing, they can also buy labor for ridiculously cheap prices. In fact, a sweatshop worker might be paid “less than 1 percent of the price of the garment in the United States” (Farley, Gordon, Jennifer, et al 123). Outsourcing labor also makes it easier for the American consumer to ignore the conditions, and harder for governments and others to monitor. The sweatshops creating these clothes are notorious for “disregarding the health and safety of its workers, paying them inadequate wages, and employing children” (Farley, Gordon, Jennifer, et al). Most of these workers live below the poverty line. They work in terrible conditions. There is usually rampant sexual abuse, child workers, insanely long hours, and health and safety complications. Every day, people working in these factories put their personal health at risk for almost nothing. Assoune writes in his article, “People working in garment factories, wastewater treatment facilities, cruise ships, and fish farming industries are particularly endangered. Hazardous chemicals cause burns, vomiting, diarrhea, reproductive disorders, immune-system disruption, endocrine disruption, impaired nervous system function, development of certain cancers, drowsiness, or death”. No one should be working in conditions that put them at risk.
In the documentary “The True Cost”, audiences hear from a worker in one of these textile mills named Shima. She is one of about 40 million garment factory workers in the world. The documentary states “Almost four million of these workers are here in Bangladesh, working in almost five thousand factories, making clothing for major Western brands. Over 85% of these workers are women. And with a minimum wage of less than $3 a day, they are among the lowest paid garment workers in the world” (21:06). We must also consider intersectionality with workers like Shima (Crenshaw). She is a woman, already marginalized because of her gender. In many of these sweatshops, “Many young women work in garments factories, being sexually abused, and forced to abort their pregnancy” (Assoune). Finding higher paying jobs in her country will be harder for her, deemed only appropriate for her to work in factories and sweatshops, cleaning or other jobs that are accessible to women. She doesn’t know if she will be able to earn more money elsewhere, so despite making so little, she stays to feed her family. She is in no position to leave any paycheck behind. Her class, her gender, her location, and her nationality all come together to create a complex intersectional situation that she is unlikely to escape. Her entire working life will probably be spent churning out clothing in an unsafe workplace for less than three dollars a day to be shipped to America in a “shein haul” and worn for one occasion before ending up in a landfill.
Fast fashion is not the only issue at play here. It points to a bigger societal problem- overconsumption. This is best understood in the context of the online world. Girls and women are more attracted to fast fashion (Horton). This is made especially interesting in the fact that fast fashion advertises mostly specifically to these women, yet research suggests that “young girls are represented in gender-stereotypical ways (Holland 2004) and their imagery is often sexualized” (Srivastava et al. 2). Unfortunately, advertisements that are stereotypical towards women don’t have much of a negative impact with consumers, as they are mostly interacting with these brands through social media. With social media sites like TikTok making styles and items trendy overnight, people scramble to play catch up. To buy whatever is ‘in’ right now rather than considering the longevity of an item, or if the piece will still be in style and wearable in years to come. In fact, back in the 1800’s, there were two fashion seasons, Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer. Nowadays, there are fifty two “micro seasons” in fashion, with new clothes coming out for seasons like Back to School, Spring Break, Winter Vacation, or Euro Summer. Also important to know that expensive retailers are guilty of this as well. “In 2020, Louis Vuitton featured “pre-summer/spring” and “pre-fall/winter” collections. These additional “seasons” were on top of nearly half a dozen collections they released in collaborations with other brands” (2021). Many of the styles I see popping up in thrift stores are items that were only ‘fashionable’ for one part of a season. The pandemic surged screen time and social media use, and there was a clear effect on the way that trends would come and go in a matter of months. Seeing these clothes in thrift stores or secondhand sites is better than seeing them in the trash but, unfortunately, that is still where most of these garments will end up. With social media perpetuating the idea that for every event, dinner, vacation, summer break, school year, birthday, concert, and more, new clothes are a necessity, of course, people will start to consider this cycle normal and sustainable.
Clearly, the growing industry and its practices are hurting people and hurting the environment. So what can be done? America is quite attached to its capitalistic and consumer-based tendencies. The companies that are exploding with millions of profits aren’t going to just stop their business because they know they are unethical. And they do know, that it’s unethical. The evidence is impossible to refute. The first step here is for everyone to have adequate education about this subject. Most people don’t consider how much happened before they add to cart. If more people know about the sweatshops, the environmental impact, the unfair wages, and the struggles of the women and children whose lives this is consuming, they should be more likely to change their habits. Education is the best way to make sure that fast fashion sales decrease. Until people understand why they should be investing in ethical and sustainable pieces, they won’t stop shopping at the cheaper brands. If people are unsure or don’t want to waste their time and resources researching what brands are ethically producing and environmentally friendly, there are websites available that do it for consumers, such as Good On You, which rates brands on a scale and offers alternatives for lower-rated brands.
Not only does education mean informing the average consumer of the negative consequences of education on this topic calls for activism and advocacy for worker’s rights. There are laws that are supposed to monitor these companies and their worker’s rights conditions as well as their environmental impact, so these laws need to begin to be enforced, coupled with stricter ones that actually limit the amount of waste that these companies can legally produce, and the conditions that these textile mills workers are under. And progress is being made! Bills such as California’s historic SB62 garment worker protection bill, the Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change (FABRIC) Act on the federal level, and the Fashion Act in New York, all new pieces of legislation that provide hope for the future.
Now, of course, the whole issue is the fault of the companies that are creating these volumes of waste and paying their employees nearly nothing, but that doesn’t mean that individuals cannot make a huge impact on this problem. Each and every person who limits or stops their fast fashion consumption makes a huge difference. Fast fashion isn’t the only option! Sustainable clothing exists, it just might be harder to find and cost slightly more. As Farley, Gordon, Jennifer, et al. write in Sustainable Fashion: Past, Present and Future:
“For a garment to be sustainably made, workers must have a clean and safe working environment. They should receive a living wage for the work they perform, and be treated fairly by their employers. In short, sustainable clothing is clothing that is not produced at the cost of the suffering and mistreatment of those who make it” (122).
In 2022 I made my New Year’s resolution to stop buying any fast fashion brands, and it has been much easier than expected. I’ve been able to find really cool clothes at swap meets, flea markets, thrift stores, and online secondhand shopping sites, with no compromise to my style. I love knowing that each clothing item I bought didn’t contribute to a problematic workers’ rights and environmental crisis. Not to mention- it’s usually way cheaper! I tend to only buy clothes I truly love and wear often.
People may excuse buying fast fashion if they simply donate the clothing afterward, but unfortunately, that doesn’t solve the issue. In fact, 95% of the weight of what people donate are clothing items (Brinson 2019b). It is also a fact that “only high-quality clothing items reusable in high-income countries can generate significant charity value. Low-quality clothing items are usually exported to low-income countries” (Farahani et al 2). There, exist literal mountains of fabric waste. Another common rebuttal is that fast fashion clothes are cheaper, and it’s all some people can afford. That may very well be true. A lot of people may not have the means to buy a $30 piece sustainably. It can be expensive. The most obvious answer is that thrifting is as cheap if not cheaper. That being said, I do think it is important to focus more on the people who are doing “MEGA $800 SHEIN HAUL BACK TO SCHOOL” or “Buying my entire Miami vacation wardrobe!!! SHEIN HAUL” or “MASSIVE SHEIN HAUL TRY ON (all under 4 dollars!!)”. Those people are much more problematic than people truly struggling with money and who buy a dress or pair of shoes for cheap every once in a while, or for an event. Times can be tough. I understand. But if “Shein is all I can afford” is the mindset, $500 mountainous hauls shouldn’t be the outcome, nor should a new order every single season.
Another way to combat this is by buying clothes that are versatile and timeless, which cuts back the ideology that you need to buy a new outfit for every event. Being a self-titled fashionista who enjoys new clothes and styling fun and on-trend outfits, I can understand that this isn’t the most straightforward task for some people, and of course, not every single person has access to thrift stores and buying only secondhand. But once someone who does comes to understand the gravity of the situation I have outlined in this paper, it is much more likely for them to change their habits. One idea that I heard and found to be particularly helpful was thinking about how vintage clothing will essentially cease to exist. Clothes won’t be passed down from grandmother to daughter to granddaughter, worn and appreciated by generations. They will fall apart in less than one lifetime, and be worn for a fleeting moment at best.
As Ferreira de Araújo et al puts it, there are two sides to the coin: “the so-called ‘bright’ side, with new collections in short release periods, at low prices, very quickly, the result of a so-called ‘dark’ side, resulting from an in- tense workday, under precarious conditions, paying low wages in remote countries” (5). In conclusion, fast fashion has led to environmental degradation, worker exploitation, and overconsumption. The industry’s rapid production of trendy and affordable clothing contributes to resource depletion, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Workers in textile mills endure poor conditions and low wages. Overconsumption fueled by social media trends perpetuates the culture of disposability. Addressing these issues requires education, stricter regulations, and individual actions. By choosing ethical alternatives, embracing secondhand shopping, and prioritizing timeless pieces, we can contribute to a more sustainable fashion industry that values both people and the planet.
References
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Fashion consumption practices of millennial women: between fast and slow fashion. Revista de Administração Da UFSM, 15(4), 615–633. https://doi.org/10.5902/1983465970206
Assoune, A. (2021, October 27). The truth about workers conditions in fast fashion. Panaprium.
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