Chey’s Guide: Fast Fashion
By CHEYENNE HAMM
Do you know that over 11.3 megatons (1 megaton is equivalent to 1,000,000 tons) of clothing waste ends up in landfills? And that we discard 92 million tons of clothes-related waste each year? Or that the average person wears a piece of clothing 7-10 times before donating or throwing away? And not even 1% of donated clothes become recycled into new clothes, or are re-bought in thrift stores? That’s A LOT of waste.
With the rise of social media, especially tiktok, there has been a gigantic uptick in fast fashion. You may have heard the term, “micro-trend,” which basically means a trend that is around for a short amount of time, but becomes hugely popular and then soon forgotten. A rise in the use of Shein is 50% responsible for fast fashion waste. Since 2000, clothing production has doubled, but garment usage lifetime has decreased. As a society, we have normalized buying clothes on a whim. Need an outfit for tonight? Just go to the mall! Or see a cute and cheap outfit from Temu? Buy it! And the justification for this trend is that when people no longer want clothes, they’ll donate them to a thrift store and that’s them being sustainable!
It’s a common misconception that donating clothes to thrift stores is you being eco-conscious. After donating, people think the clothes just disappear- they don’t. Only 20-30% of donated clothes actually make it to thrift store shelves. The majority of unsold items shipped overseas end up as waste. Donating your unwanted clothes to a thrift store doesn’t mean you should go buy more clothes to make up for the donated clothes; they don’t cancel out. It’s just giving yourself an excuse to buy more clothes.
Not only does this pollute the environment, but the industry underpays workers way below legal minimum. The industry exploits predominantly women and children in developing countries to work in extremely dangerous environments, work for unbelievably low wages, and take away their fundamental human rights. Slavery is still very prominent in today’s world, and a good majority of it comes from fast fashion factories. Child labor has also skyrocketed recently, to work for companies like Shein or H&M. The reason fash fashion clothes are so cheap is because the industry benefits from producing an excess amount of clothes which then they’ll profit from the billions of dollars that come from “cheap clothes.” If you think your $3 cheetah print tube top can’t affect the industry that much; think of 6 million other people thinking the exact same thing.
So how to combat this? Wear your clothes! Donate clothes and DON’T go buying new ones. Especially avoid going to the mall for one-time outfits. This is beyond common for holidays, like new-years or halloween. Don’t buy something that will serve you one time. If you really want something new from the mall, do what I do! Before I allow myself to go to buy new clothes, I wait 1-2 months, and see if I still want it. Even I fall victim to micro-trends, and usually, my desire for it disappears. I believe, even just making the smallest effort, is a step in the right direction. I believe in you all! See you next time! ☮♡
