Getting that 'Zara Shirt' at a cheaper rate might not be the best idea after all!
Fast fashion means the spectrum of fashion where the manufacturers make clothes based on what celebrities wear, or what's hot in the fashion industry. In addition to that, they sell it for a much cheaper rate than the originals. Even though these sound very accessible and liberal in terms of staying trendy, there are numerous dark truths about the fast fashion industry. We will be going to discuss five negative side effects of the fast fashion industry.
The amount of harmful elements emitted in nature through the fashion industry is sky-high. There are several reports that show that the fashion industry is only second to the oil industry when it comes to carbon emissions. According to a report from a leading newspaper, more than eight hundred billion kilograms of greenhouse gas was emitted from the generation of polyester clothing.
The primary focus of the fast fashion giants are to make the clothing as fast as possible. Due to this demand, the amount of work pressure on the labours increases dramatically. They work for hours without proper schedule of holiday. Along with that, they are mostly paid much lower than they actually deserve. The blocking of creating a union also paves the way for the higher authorities to exploit them as much as they can. Many of them have to work in a highly unhealthy and dangerous environment. A popular clothing factory in Bangladesh named Rana Plaza collapsed in 2013 where more than a thousand people were killed.
Fast fashion promotes the use of cloth for a short time. Hence, when the new trends start coming in, users stop to wear the old clothes and over time it gets wasted. Nowadays, clothes created are almost doubled than the previous centuries and more than half of them are gradually discarded. A huge amount of unsold clothes are often burned by the mega fast fashion companies. Much of the wasted textiles end up in landfills and other landscapes. They also play a huge role in increasing the pollution levels.
Fast fashion causes hazards to water in two ways. Firstly, they use a lot of water for the creation process of the clothes. According to reports by a UN-based association, one Jeans can use up to almost 2000 litres of water. A person can drink that amount of water for one and half years or more. Secondly, a huge amount of wastewater is produced at all these clothing factories.
