On April 24, 2013 a textile factory in Bangladesh collapsed killing over 1,000 workers. Well before this happened, cracks in the building had been found. Regardless, the company overseers decided employees still had to return the next day. This resulted with people being stuck under concrete and rubble for hours to days before being rescued (this was covered by BBC News Here). This story is just one of the many caused by the damages of the fast fashion industry.
Fast fashion is a growing industry that focuses on making clothing as cheaply and quickly as possible. Fast fashion has been getting increasingly more popular over the years, and although it’s fun and cheap, it’s detrimental to our environment and to many lives. Slowing and shutting down fast fashion will improve the environment, and many lives and communities.
Shutting down fast fashion brands will help the environment. Over the years, pollution has been getting a lot worse and brands like SHEIN have played a big part in it. In an article published on Earth.org journalist Rashmila Maiti wrote that about 85% of textiles go to the dump each year. Decelerating fast fashion will only decrease these numbers. She also wrote that making one pair of jeans uses around 2,000 gallons of water. This will only keep growing as the want for more trending clothing increases. Shutting and slowing this industry down will help prevent the damage to come.
Another reason why fast fashion should be shut down and slowed down is to improve the lives of the workers. Many fast fashion factories have extremely poor working conditions. In this article published by EarthDay, journalist Mykhail Helm wrote that the fast fashion industry employs around “60 million factory workers worldwide yet less than 2% earn living wage.”
The people in charge of fast fashion companies invest less in their employees and more in profits. Shutting down rapid production and turning it into slower production could help many people get enhanced working conditions as it would allow less demand for constant production.
The Department of Labor writes that allegedly above 10,000 children are manufacturing footwear in Vietnam. Fast fashion is an industry where it seems money is put before child labor rights. Shutting down the rapid production of clothing will make prices increase for consuming countries yet lower the costs paid by children and people with terrible working conditions.
Lastly, the fast fashion industry should slow down their production to fight inequalities. It is nice to think that sending old and used clothing away to be reused is a good thing to do, but that is not always the case. In their article for ABC Australia, award winning journalist Linton Besser wrote that in the capital of Ghana there is a mountain of landfill almost 20 meters high made up of unwanted clothing. The used clothing was supposed to be reused but most end up never worn again since every week around 15 million garments come into the area. When our unwanted and cheap clothing keeps getting shipped into countries like Ghana, less developed countries will continue to be disempowered.
Fast fashion needs to be shut down and decelerated. Doing this will reduce overall pollution. It will also help the workers’ conditions by putting less pressure on their work while producing higher quality products. Lastly, doing this will lessen the inequality gap between wealthy and developing countries. So knowing all this at what measure should society’s want for style overpower the need for equality, a healthy environment, and human rights?
To support this cause you can buy from second hand stores and businesses that ethically make their products, educate yourself and others, and research how the brands you’re buying from are creating their products.
