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Fast Fashion has been around since the 19th century but really began ‘blowing up’ everywhere in the 2000’s. It is the most common choice for consumers because of the cheap clothing costs, giving the consumers an increased appetite for fashionable apparel. An average consumer is able to stay on trend while only having to pay a fraction of the price that you would typically pay for a name brand clothing store like the Gap. While this may seem to be incredible and foolproof, Fast Fashion clothing is actually extremely hazardous to the world and has done more bad than good. In today’s modern society, the fast fashion industry has not only created a ‘throwaway culture’ but also has negative impacts on both the people and the environment.

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The Negative Effects of the "Fast Fashion Industry"

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The Negative Effects of the "Fast Fashion Industry"

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- The materials that these fast fashion companies use to create these cheap clothes are packed with chemicals and nonbiodegradable materialsthat seep into the ground and pollute the earth. Materials like...
*polyester = emits greenhouse gases and increases the carbon footprint on the earth
*cotton = uses up 6% of the earths water just to produce clothing. The more clothing that these fast fashion companies produce the more cotton needed for the clothes. The more cotton they use for these clothes, the more water that is wasted for the cotton.
*dyes = use harmful  chemicals like Teflon which are known to cause serious health issues. Nonylphenol ethoxylate is another harmful chemical in dyes that can harm the environment

- The colossal demand for these clothes allows for more of these fast fashion companies to keep making money off of their cheaply made clothes that contain harmful chemicals in them. Sites like Romwe, Zaful, Shein, Fashion Nova, etc. are constantly putting out advertisements on any site or social media app you can think of which rings in more customers thinking the can get trendy clothes for cheap. What these consumers don't know is that these sites sell clothes that use harmful materials to produce the cheap clothes. They don't know that the materials in those clothes are full of things that harm the planet and should not be used.

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Refers to mass consumerism amongst a human society that influences people to feed into creating an unhealthy environment.

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In today’s modern society, the ‘fast fashion’ industry, has created a “throwaway culture”  which has negatively impacted both the people and the environment.

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What are the POSITIVE effects of the 'fast fashion' industry?

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What are the POSITIVE effects of the 'fast fashion' industry?

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1. Creates affordable clothing options ----> Cheap! (This means they can save for other areas of their life because cheap clothing is accessible).
2. Latest trends can be produced.
3. People can get what they want and NOT have to wait for anything, because there are so many retailers to choose from.
4. In-store or online.
5. Can enjoy spending/buying the 'new' clothing the person WANTS.

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What is the Science behind sustainable fashion?

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What are the environmental costs of 'fast fashion'?

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It's tough to love our clothes and keep wearing them for longer when we are faced with a tempting array of newness on offer in the shops. But before you head out into the January sales for those irresistible deals, spare a thought for the impact of fast fashion on the environment.

Fast fashion focuses on speed and low costs in order to deliver frequent new collections inspired by catwalk looks or celebrity styles. But it is particularly bad for the environment, as pressure to reduce cost and the time it takes to get a product from design to shop floor means that environmental corners are more likely to be cut. Criticisms of fast fashion include its negative environmental impact, water pollution, the use of toxic chemicals and increasing levels of textile waste.

Vibrant colours, prints and fabric finishes are appealing features of fashion garments, but many of these are achieved with toxic chemicals. Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of clean water globally, after agriculture. Greenpeace's recent Detox campaign has been instrumental in pressuring fashion brands to take action to remove toxic chemicals from their supply chains, after it tested a number of brands' products and confirmed the presence of hazardous chemicals. Many of these are banned or strictly regulated in various countries because they are toxic, bio-accumulative (meaning the substance builds up in an organism faster than the organism can excrete or metabolise it), disruptive to hormones and carcinogenic.

Polyester is the most popular fabric used for fashion. But when polyester garments are washed in domestic washing machines, they shed microfibres that add to the increasing levels of plastic in our oceans. These microfibres are minute and can easily pass through sewage and wastewater treatment plants into our waterways, but because they do not biodegrade, they represent a serious threat to aquatic life. Small creatures such as plankton eat the microfibres, which then make their way up the food chain to fish and shellfish eaten by humans.

The devastating impact of toxic chemical use in agriculture, for growing cotton, was shown in a documentary called The True Cost, including the death of a US cotton farmer from a brain tumour, and serious birth defects in Indian cotton farmers' children. Cotton growing requires high levels of water and pesticides to prevent crop failure, which can be problematic in developing countries that may lack sufficient investment and be at risk of drought.

Most cotton grown worldwide is genetically modified to be resistant to the bollworm pest, thereby improving yield and reducing pesticide use. But this can also lead to problems further down the line, such as the emergence of "superweeds" which are resistant to standard pesticides. They often need to be treated with more toxic pesticides that are harmful to livestock and humans.

There is growing interest in organic cotton, with H&M and Inditex, the parent company of Zara, featuring among the world's top five users of organic cotton by volume in 2016. But overall use of organic cotton represents less than 1 per cent of the world's total annual cotton crop.
Hunger for newness
Textile waste is an unintended consequence of fast fashion, as more people buy more clothes and don't keep them as long as they used to. The international expansion of fast fashion retailers exacerbates the problem on a global scale. Wardrobes in developed nations are saturated, so in order to sell more products, retailers must tempt shoppers with constant newness and convince them the items they already have are no longer fashionable.

Increasing disposable income levels over recent generations means there is less need to "make do and mend", as it's often cheaper and more convenient to buy new than have an item repaired. Busy lifestyles make many people more time-poor than previous generations, and with the loss of sewing and mending skills over time, there is less impetus to repair our garments. The rise of supermarket fashion that can be purchased alongside the weekly shop and the regular occurrence of seasonal sales make clothing seem "disposable" in a way it didn't used to be.

There is interest in moving towards a more circular model of textile production which reuses materials wherever possible, yet current recycling rates for textiles are very low. Despite a long-established national network of charity shops and increasing numbers of in-store recycling points in UK high-street stores, three-quarters of Britons throw away unwanted clothing, rather than donating or recycling it.
What shoppers can do
So, can consumers reduce the environmental cost of fast fashion when out shopping? Choosing an eco-friendly fabric is complex as there are pros and cons to all fibre types. Garments which are labelled as being made from natural fibres are not necessarily better than synthetic, as fibre choice is only one part of a complex picture. Fibres still have to be spun, knitted or woven, dyed, finished, sewn and transported - all of which have different environmental impacts.

For example, choosing organic fabrics is better than choosing non-organic fabrics in terms of the chemicals used to grow the fibres, but organic cotton still requires high amounts of water and the impact of dyeing it is higher than the impact of dyeing polyester.

Recycled content is often best of all, as it reduces the pressure on virgin resources and tackles the growing problem of waste management. For example, Patagonia was the first outdoor clothing brand to make polyester fleece out of plastic bottles. In 2017, it decided to rationalise its T-shirt ranges and from spring 2018, will offer only two fabric options of either 100 per cent organic cotton or a blend of recycled cotton and recycled polyester, recognising that even organic cotton has a negative environmental impact.

The Love Your Clothes initiative from the charity Wrap gives information for consumers on each stage of the purchase process, from buying smarter, to caring for and repairing items, to upcycling or customisation and finally responsible disposal. Ultimately, the best thing we can do is to keep our clothing in use for longer - and buy less new stuff.
Patsy Perry is a senior lecturer in fashion marketing at the University of Manchester. This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com)

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It's tough to love our clothes and keep wearing them for longer when we are faced with a tempting array of newness on offer in the shops. But before you head out into the January sales for those irresistible deals, spare a thought for the impact of fast fashion on the environment.

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Why 'fast fashion' needs to slow down?

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This piece was first published by Food Tank
Have you ever thought about what your clothes are made of? About who makes your clothes, or what happens after you donate them or throw them away? The truth about the fashion industry is actually pretty ugly.

A recent study by the Ellen McArthur Foundation found that one garbage truck of textiles is wasted every second. And the Copenhagen Fashion Summit reported that fashion is responsible for 92 million tons of solid waste dumped in landfills each year.

The fashion industry is also the second-biggest consumer of water, producing 20 percent of wastewater while also generating more greenhouse gas emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.

Ahead of World Environment Day on June 5, themed "Beat Plastic Pollution," it's worth remembering that synthetic microfiber pollution is washing up in our oceans at alarming rates. Around 100,000 marine animals are killed each year by plastic waste, including microfibers.

We need to rethink our fast-fashion habit-we can't continue to make clothes that do not consider our environment.

First, it's up to apparel brands to take responsibility for the waste they're creating. Brands need to address chemicals, use of textiles waste and synthetic fabrics that don't break down, and unfair working environments in the clothing industry head-on.

The no-waste economy must be applied to fashion, just as it is in the food industry. We need action at each stage of the supply chain, starting with sustainable sourcing of fabrics, through to design, exploration of possible alternatives to distribution, and recovery and recycling of clothing.

Big brands are starting to take notice: Nike, H&M, Burberry, and Gap have all recently signed up to the Make Fashion Circular initiative. It aims to improve the industry's record on sustainability and reduce global waste from fashion by recycling raw materials and products.

While recycling is certainly one solution, it is by no means the only solution. In fact, we should be asking a different question: how can we eliminate the need for recycling altogether? How can we design with the end in mind?

I'm developing a take-back program for my sustainable apparel brand, NOVEL SUPPLY CO., where we accept back our apparel at the end of its life and find alternative ways to use, recycle, and compost it. But as a global community, we also need to shift the way we consume fashion.

I currently source my fabrics from a Fair Ware mill in China, but this is not ideal. In general, richer countries are consuming fashion that is made and produced in poorer countries. But all countries are involved in the value chain.

In countries with emerging economies, there are an estimated 2 billion new consumers waiting to buy the latest trends. We are racing against the clock to include poorer countries in more sustainable manufacturing models, so they can produce clothing locally and more sustainably.

To shift typically linear take-make-waste fashion towards a circular model with no waste, we all need to be part of the movement to innovate and redesign our fashion industry. We can start by buying clothes with the circular economy in mind.

It's up to us as consumers to trigger change by voting with our wallets. The average number of clothing collections in Europe more than doubled between 2000 and 2011: we are buying more clothes and wearing them less.

Our fast-fashion habit is expensive. More than US$500 billion in value is lost every year due to under-utilized clothes and lack of recycling. We as consumers need to educate ourselves about Circular fashion: we need to buy less clothing and when we do, we need to make sure that is more sustainable and higher quality. We also need to demand transparent sourcing.

It will take time for the fast-fashion industry to slow down. The trends already set in motion by the Make Fashion Circular initiative and others are starting to gather steam. But to stop stretching our planet, we all need to play our part.

Consume consciously and responsibly by reading the labels before you purchase. Be sure to look for natural and organic fibers, non-toxic dyes, take-back programs, and ethical production.
The Young Champion of the Earth Prize 2018 finalists have been announced! Vote here, to help protect our environment and bring someone's dream to life. The Young Champions of the Earth Prize is powered by Covestro.

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This piece was first published by Food Tank Have you ever thought about what your clothes are made of? About who makes your clothes, or what happens after you donate them or throw them away? The truth about the fashion industry is actually pretty ugly.

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Sustainable Fashion