The Global Impact of Fast Fashion

Patagonia seems to get at least a dozen mentions every lecture as the golden standard of responsible business ownership. They are pioneers of sustainable fashion, but with that comes a higher price tag. As a proud member of the starving students foundation, I have to turn to more affordable options to keep my wardrobe up to date. For that purpose, many of my colleagues and myself turn to fast fashion companies like H&M and Zara.

H&M, Zara, and rest of the industry don’t do anything inherently wrong. Rather they encourage customers to purchase their clothing often and in excess. Fast fashion provides cheap clothing that are meant to last only as long as they’re popular. Annually, the industry produces 80 billion articles of clothing (Bick et al., 2018). In the US, 85% of clothing is sent to landfills, amounting to approximately 80 pounds annually (Bick et al., 2018). This obscene level of consumption has two huge impacts on the planet, first in the production process and then again in disposal.

The ethics of clothing production has been a popular topic of discussion for decades, with no real change occurring. With a simple search, I can find that Gap has had child and slave labour controversies in 2004, 2007, and 2019. In addition to human rights violation, it is estimated that textile production accounts for more emissions than international flight and maritime shipping combined (Nature Climate Change, 2018). Moving our attention to the production of cotton, it takes 20,000 litres of water to grow enough to produce a single pair of paints and t-shirt (Whiting, 2019), or nearly 15 years of water for one person.

For myself personally, it’s nice to think that my clothes will be recycled or handed down to have a second life with a new owner. However, that is often not the case. H&M’s Conscious promotion gives customers a discount on their next purchase when they bring in clothes to be ‘recycled’. It sounds nice on the surface, but 90% of those clothes end up either in a landfill or being incinerated (Minhaj, 2019). H&M looks environmentally conscious, while getting customers to continue buying more clothes.

It’s an incredibly discouraging cycle, and understandably makes me feel very guilty. I am part of the problem, but I can also be part of a very simple solution. By either keeping clothes for just a few months longer or buying a few pieces second hand, its possible to cut your personal carbon footprint by 50% (Minhaj, 2019). Thrifting is the new trend, both for fashion and for the planet.

References

Bick, R., Halsey, E. & Ekenga, C.C. (2018). The global environmental injustice of fast fashion. Health and Medicine, 17(1). Retrieved from https://go-gale-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/ps/i.do?p=HRCA&u=ubcolumbia&id=GALE%7CA569155838&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon

(2018). The price of fast fashion. Nature Climate Change, 8(1). Retrieved from https://www-nature-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/articles/s41558-017-0058-9#citeas

Minhaj, H. [Netflix is a Joke]. (2019, Nov 25). The ugly truth of fast fashion | Patriot act with Hasan Minhaj| Netflix [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGF3ObOBbac

Whiting, T. (2019, Jun 27). ‘Sustainable style’: The truth behind the marketing of H&M’s conscious collection. Medium. Retrieved from https://tabitha-whiting.medium.com/sustainable-style-the-truth-behind-the-marketing-of-h-ms-conscious-collection-805eb7432002