Ditching Fast Fashion

When you think of ‘waste’, a few things probably come to mind. Maybe it’s those leftover potato peelings that you throw in a composter. Maybe it’s leaving the tap running for a bit too long while you brush your teeth. Maybe it’s plastic packaging, piling up in your bin, and our environment.

But how about your clothes? It’s hard to imagine how the garments that we wear can be impacting the global waste crisis – that is, until you hear that 150 billion pieces of clothing are produced each year, with studies finding that we now wear our garments for an average of just seven times before discarding them.

Fast fashion – the term used to describe the clothing industry’s model of mass producing cheap, on-trend clothing – has skyrocketed in recent years. The average person now buys 60% more clothing now than they did 15 years ago. And as demand for low-quality, low-cost garments increases, so does the waste. On average, consumers throw away 60 percent of their clothes in the first year after purchase, and the Ellen Macarthur Foundation reports that over 150 million tonnes of clothing will be piling up in our landfills by 2050.

This puts fast fashion alone as responsible for a crazy 10% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, but the environmental impact of our clothes doesn’t stop there. The weekly new clothing line releases and ‘trendy’ nature of fast fashion has turned the focus from long-lasting clothing made from durable and sustainable materials to cheap, one-wear garments. An estimated 60% of clothing material is now polyester, because of how cheap and easy to use it is. Polyester might ring some bells – it’s a common type of plastic, which means that it’s man-made, and produced from the fossil fuel oil.

The clothing industry is globally estimated to produce more than 42 million tonnes of synthetic fibres each year, with around 80% of these being used to make just polyester garments.

These plastic fibres used in clothing cause problems all throughout our clothes’ lifetime. From their production – releasing greenhouse gases in the refinery of oil to produce plastic – to even each time we put them in the washing machine. Washing just one piece of synthetic clothing, like a polyester fleece, can release thousands of microscopic pollutants into our natural environment. They’re called microfibres, and they now make up 35% of microplastic pollution in the oceans – plastic pollutants that have been found to have now made their way into our blood, lung and brain tissue, and even unborn embryos.

As scary as that is, the human impact of fast fashion goes further than plastics in our bodies. Fast fashion brands are notorious for their workers rights abuses, with their employees (mostly women) being found to work ridiculous hours at incredibly low wages.

It’s time to go back to the principles of waste management – starting with ‘reduce’.

Fast fashion can be a lifeline for people when there is no other affordable option, and it’s more than just a consumer issue. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t all have a role to play in trying to fix this broken system. Fast fashion is rife with overconsumption, inequality, and exploitation of people and the planet – but luckily, there are things that we can all do to combat it.

1. Try to ditch the fast fashion brands. Ethical or environmentally conscious brands are almost always more expensive to buy from than fast fashion, due to a completely flipped business model that prioritises clothes made fairly and at a high-quality. If you can invest in pieces like these, great! But it’s not just a case of fast fashion or £100 t-shirts. For most of us who find that an unaffordable change to make, second hand clothes can prove an amazing alternative. Online marketplaces of preloved clothes or even your nearby charity shop can provide the garments you’re looking for at a price point kinder to your wallet – whilst helping a good cause and tackling the huge volume of unwanted clothes around on our planet. There’s also been a rise in new options like renting or swapping clothes online!

2. Think more carefully before you buy. The best way to help the planet and save money? Buy less! Do you really need that new item of clothing? How many times will you wear it, if you’re honest with yourself? To counteract the carbon emissions created during clothes’ production, we need to wear an item 30 times – so the most sustainable garment is always the one that you already own! Plus, buying less also does the obvious job of saving money at the same time.

3. Support the movement to demand change from fast fashion retailers. Our voices as consumers go a long way. Check out movements like Fashion Revolution, Good on You and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to see the campaigns and projects that they run to reshape the fashion industry for the better and follow how you can get involved.

And finally, remember that the most sustainable and ethical option is always the one already in your wardrobe. Fast fashion is a waste crisis, so it’s time to go back to the principles of waste management – starting with ‘reduce’. By pulling out that old jumper buried in the back of your cupboard and giving it a new lease of life, you’re already on your way to limiting the impact your clothes have and protecting people and the planet.

Find out more about Kids Against Plastic.