FAST
FASHION

How can a t-shirt cost half the amount of a latte? While we may not be paying the price, the hidden cost of fast fashion negatively impacts the environment and manufacturers and labourers in developing countries.

Fast fashion describes the practice in the fashion world of moving designs from catwalks to mainstream retailers as fast and as often as possible. This means mass production of unprecedentedly cheap clothing that consumers buy and replace often to keep up with the micro lifespans of trends.

(Photo Source: BBC)

We have come to expect low prices, which provokes retailers to manufacture clothing at even lower prices. In order to keep their contracts with retailers, manufacturers in turn have to find a way to make clothing at the requested price. This requires them to cut costs, especially from wages and maintaining working conditions. These manufacturers are most often sweat shops in developing countries with limited job opportunities, exploiting workers that are left with little or no alternatives.

In April of 2013, a Bangladeshi garment factory collapse killed over a thousand workers. The owner of the building was unwilling to make necessary repairs in the months leading up to the disaster in an attempt to keep operating costs low. The story made international headlines, and exposed several companies that had ties with the factory. This cycle of poverty and oppression caused by the global fashion industry has been called a human rights violation.

The environmental impact includes a strain on natural resources necessary for clothing production, such as water and cotton, and the waste produced by clothing factories and discarded clothing. The culture of disposability around fast fashion results in increasing waste production. In Canada, the average person throws out 81 pounds of textiles each year.

To supply the extraordinary demand, genetically modified cotton crops and harmful pesticides are used, which severely harm the regions where cotton is grown. These effects include:

environmental damage
birth defects leading to mental and physical disabilities
increased rates of cancer in the regions

Additionally, many textile materials take significant time to decompose, and contribute to the creation of greenhouse gas like leather takes about 25 to 40 years, thread between 3 to 4 months and cotton about 1 to 5 months. But according to Upworthy, 95% of used textiles can actually be recycled or repurposed.

(Photo depicts surplus clothing headed for landfill. Source: BBC)

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