# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes

1.9 and 2.5

Learning Intentions

I will learn about consumer responsibilities

I will reflect on the impact of my shopping.

I will learn about the impact businesses have on the environment through the production of clothes.

How might you use this stimulus material in class?

This video provides a great introduction to Fast Fashion - defining the problem and outlining the role of social and financial organisations in the industry.

Support resources: the question quadrant provides open and closed questions to support student discussion.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes

2.5 and 2.7

Learning Intentions

I will understand the impact organisations have on their workers

I will understand the impact organisations have on the environment through the production of goods

I will understand how an entrepreneur conducts field research

Learner experience

Show a variety of 2-minute clips of the video.

Use questions, created in a question quadrant, to help students explore the content. They should do so in pairs.

Explanation of resource

This video provides an excellent 10-minute introduction to Veja. It is narrated by the founder.

The video explains why they setup Veja, the missions statement of the organisation - to make high quality, sustainable shoes, while paying workers a fair wage. To do this in a financially sustainable way, they decided not to spend any money on advertising.

The video shows how they conducted field research to find sustainable suppliers

# data[].attributes.headline
Ethical Issues/Slave Labour (M McLoughlin)

# data[].attributes.subject
Ethical Issues/Slave Labour (M McLoughlin)

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcome

1.9 Describe the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development through consumer behaviour.

Learning Intentions:

I will learn about consumer responsibilities.

I will discuss consumer choices.

I will analyse employee rights and identify inequalities.

Stimulus Material:

Tony's website/social media pages.

How might you use the above stimulus:

Use Tony's chocolonely as a case study of a product/company campaigning for equal rights.

Link in with advertising/marketing mix to analyse the product.

Follow Tony's social media pages for information on campaigns.

Link with CSPE and Human Rights (UDHR).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
together we'll make chocolate 100% slave free. Will you join us? With incredibly tasty chocolate we show the world that chocolate can be made differently.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes

Learning Intentions

How it may be used in class...
Classroom divide and the inequalities in the Irish education System. Created a short Microsoft Forums for students to answer questions on also to keep them engaged.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Watch all your favourite TV shows Live or On Demand on your PC, smartphone or tablet for free.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes

Learning Intentions

How it might be used in class

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sign up for alerts from The Irish Times

Just click on "Allow Notifications" on the message appearing on your browser to activate them.

We will send you a quick reminder in the future, in case you change your mind.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Community takes to bikes to protest at lack of Salthill cycleway

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sign up for alerts from The Irish Times Just click on "Allow Notifications" on the message appearing on your browser to activate them. We will send you a quick reminder in the future, in case you change your mind.

# data[].attributes.body
Thanks for sharing! Could you open up the sharing so people outside your school can view the form, please? We cannot view it at the moment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Easily create surveys and polls to collect customer feedback, measure employee satisfaction, and organize team events.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes
3.11 Evaluate the benefits and costs of a government economic policy and assess who enjoys the benefits and who bears the costs

Learning Intentions

How it might be used in class
Debate over railway or greenway

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Railway, greenway, or disused line? The tangled, uncertain future of the Western Rail Corridor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The government is at a crossroads on the future of the disused track which could link counties in the west of Ireland.

# data[].attributes.headline
Human and Social cost of Fast fashion - Workers Rights 

# data[].attributes.subject
Human and Social cost of Fast fashion - Workers Rights 

# data[].attributes.body
Human and Social cost of Fast fashion - Workers Rights

Learning Outcomes

2.4  Distinguish between the rights and responsibilities of employer and employee from a legal, social, environmental and ethical perspective

Learning Intentions
- I will learn about the rights and responsibilities of an employer
- I will learn about the rights and responsibilities of an employee
- I will learn what Ethics means

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Opinion: fast fashion brings catwalk styles quickly and cheaply to the High Street, but it's a process which comes at a huge human and social cost
Fast fashion refers to fashionable clothes that are designed and manufactured as quickly as possible and sold to consumers at extremely low prices. New fast fashion garments arrive in stores weekly or even daily. They cost so little that many people can afford to fill their wardrobes with new outfits several times a year and then throw them out as soon as they go out of style.

Fast fashion or disposable fashion has become the norm in Europe. Initially adopted by Zara and Primark, the strategy has spread throughout the entire fashion industry. The message inherent in fast fashion brands is that the items are cheap so it's OK to purchase them for only one wear.

While fast fashion clothing may not cost the consumer much, it comes at a high price. The real cost of a €5 t-shirt lies in the low wages, dangerous working conditions and misery brought on by immense pressure from brands to churn out clothing for the lowest cost.

The rapid growth of globalisation since the 1980s has allowed large scale companies to shift the bulk of their production to the developing world. There, they can take advantage of lax regulations, as well as labour and factory costs, which are a fraction of those in Europe. Many fashion companies have stopped in-house production and instead have suppliers in developing countries manufacture for them.

We need your consent to load this YouTube content We use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preferences
Trailer for The True Cost, Andrew Morgan's 2015 documentary that focuses on fast fashion and explores the life of low-wage workers in developing countries
Globalisation has hugely strengthened the negotiating hand of retailers and brand companies and opened up the number of countries and factories they can buy from. This has created a growing number of developing world factories competing for a place in their supply chain. Fashion brands and retailers have tremendous power in negotiations and can demand faster more flexible deliveries at lower cost. Under such pressures, the smaller factory owners typically pass on the costs and risks to the weakest links in the chain: the workers they employ.

Until the 1990s, most fashion labels produced two main collections a year. However, today retailers need to compete not only on price but on their ability to be responsive and "refresh" products. Consumer demand is driven by the instant coverage of fashion weeks and street style in fashion magazines and online. Brands such as Zara, H&M, New Look, ASOS and Topshop compete against each other for market share by introducing more lines per year at lower costs, culminating in a situation where fashion retailers now offer up to 50 collections a year.

It used to take six months to bring new designs to the store, but the fast fashion brands manage to bring interpretations of catwalk designs to stores today in a minimum of two to three weeks

Retailers monitor demand for products using instore point-of-sale data which allows them to identify successful new products. Even when demand indicates that further supply is required for the same product, many retailers cannot resist 'tweaking' the product specification; making style adjustments to match the fashion of the moment. The supplier factories must be hyper-sensitive to cope with last minute orders with shorter lead times and last minute changes.

These developing-world suppliers would never tell a retailer that an order is too difficult, so workers simply must finish it. Suppliers manage this uncertainty and demand for flexibility by forcing workers to work long hours up to 18 hours a day. Oxfam report that a seven day working week is often the norm during peak times. Overtime is usually compulsory and workers penalised if they refuse to work it. In December 2010, the Clean Clothes Campaign reported that Zara and H&M sourced from a Bangladeshi factory where a fire killed 25 workers and injured another hundred. Many of these workers were unable to escape as exits had been locked.

Bangladeshi female workers clocking in for work at a garment factory for work in Gazipur on the outskirts of Dhaka in February 2018. Photo: Mehedi Hasan/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Prices on the high street have fallen dramatically in the last decade. The fast fashion retailers are known for their aggressive pricing strategies, selling 30 to 50 percent below the old fashion mid-market. Garment factories located in developing countries respond to this price pressure by keeping wages as low as possible, often resulting in workers eking out an existence on starvation wages. NGOs have reported on Bangladeshi sewing machine operators working for 90-100 hours a week yet not having enough to live on for the month. Often workers will accept lower wages and poorer working conditions rather than lose their job.

Occasionally, workers demand higher wages sometimes precipitating violence between protestors and police. Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA), a group of trade unions and labour rights activists, reported how workers were killed in Cambodia during clashes with paramilitary groups and police following factory protests.

Consumers enjoy the speeding up of fashion and it is difficult not to get sucked in by the lure of low cost when retailers offer €5 t-shirts. But when one considers the garment production process, it is impossible to comprehend how a €5 t-shirt could cover production and transportation costs, let alone allow for a living wage and produce a profit for the brand. In The True Cost, a garment worker in Bangladesh says "these clothes were made with our blood". She is not wrong.

We need your consent to load this rte-player content We use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio One's Morning Ireland in 2013, Jim Clarken, Chief Executive of Oxfam Ireland, talks about how retailers must take responsibility for working conditions of suppliers
In 2012 and 2013, three devastating disasters in garment industry history made the international news, including the Rana Plaza factory collapse that killed 1,138 garment workers and injured 2,600 more. Around the world, people expressed horror at hearing of the unsafe working conditions and misery of those people making their clothes. Despite this, the industry has grown 21 percent in the last three years.

After the disaster, the Rana Plaza Arrangement was established to collect compensation from the fashion companies who had recent orders with the garment factories in the collapsed building. Clean Clothes Campaign report that reluctant fashion brands only paid into the fund after some vigorous campaigning. Despite promises from European fashion brands, improvements to factories are behind schedule and activists stress that chances of another disaster like Rana Plaza remain high. Although some fast fashion retailers acknowledge that garment workers need better wages, no company has committed to date to providing a living wage.

We need your consent to load this rte-player content We use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preferences
A RTÉ Brainstorm video based on this article
Civil society organisations are working hard to bring about better working conditions in the fashion industry but, in order to make real change, consumers must get involved in the campaign for more ethically produced clothing. In the words of The True Cost, "we can do better than this."
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Opinion: fast fashion brings catwalk styles quickly and cheaply to the High Street, but it's a process which comes at a huge human and social cost Fast fashion refers to fashionable clothes that are designed and manufactured as quickly as possible and sold to consumers at extremely low prices.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes

1.9 Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development through consumer behaviour

Learning Intentions

How you might use the stimulus

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
‘It’s the worst we’ve ever seen’: Flooding in west leads to school and road closures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Clifden hit by ‘sudden and severe’ flooding following unexpected heavy rainfall

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes

Learning Intentions

How it might be used in class

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sign up for alerts from The Irish Times

Just click on "Allow Notifications" on the message appearing on your browser to activate them.

We will send you a quick reminder in the future, in case you change your mind.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Green Party chair consulting on challenge to Galway ring road

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sign up for alerts from The Irish Times Just click on "Allow Notifications" on the message appearing on your browser to activate them. We will send you a quick reminder in the future, in case you change your mind.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes
1.1, 1.7, 1.9, 2.5
Learning Intentions

I will learn about consumer responsibilities

I will reflect on the impact of my travel & lifestyle.

I will learn about the impact consumers & businesses have on the environment through consumption & production/provision of goods/services.

How might you use this stimulus material in class?

The footprint calculator helps students reflect on their consumption and their role in environmental issues. Great for starting discussions and debate.

Supplementary material: Online articles on transport pollution, the carbon footprints of well known companies and videos from environmental organisations.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/29/streamings-dirty-secret-how-viewing-netflix-top-10-creates-vast-quantity-of-co2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Calculate your environmental footprint and learn how you can reduce your impact with WWF’s Footprint Calculator.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning outcomes
3.10 3.11

Learning Intentions

I will learn about fair wages

I will learn/investigate the Gender Pay Gap

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/1130/1264098-an-post-eliminates-gender-pay-gap/#:~:text=An%20Post%20has%20become%20one,eliminate%20its%20gender%20pay%20gap.&text=For%20the%20first%20time%20ever,more%20than%20women%20in%20Ireland.

How might I use this stimulus material in class?

This article can get a discussion going about the inequalities with pay

Could then get the students to investigate a company of their choice to look at their attitude to gender pay

find out the minimum wage etc..

Further development

Feb 2022: discussion about current rising prices and the effects on wages

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An Post has become one of the first big companies in Ireland to eliminate its gender pay gap. Over the past two years, the company has reduced the gap from 3.7% to effectively 0%. For the first time ever, women now earn slightly more than men at An Post.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes

2.4 but links to 1.7, 1.9 and 2.5

Learning Intentions:

I will learn about the right and responsibilities of employees and employers

I will learn about the impact of palm oil production

I will reflect on the impact of my shopping

How might you use this stimulus in class?

Depending on the class, you may have already covered rights and responsibilities of the consumer so they will have an understanding.

Watch the video asking them to identify rights and responsibilities that are being broken from the perspective of the employee and employer.

Questions can be designed around learning intentions using a question quandrant.

# data[].attributes.body
1.7

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Fast fashion is 'fast' in a number of senses: the changes in fashion are fast, the rate of production is fast; the customer's decision to purchase is fast; delivery is fast; and garments are worn fast - usually only a few times before being discarded.

The rise of fast fashion has had devastating consequences, from its reliance on plastic fabrics and its enormous carbon footprint to its erosion of workers' rights.

In this article we explain what we mean when we say 'fast fashion' and why it is so bad for people and the planet.

What is fast fashion?

In the last few decades, we have seen fashion trends changing more and more quickly. Pressures on workers to produce more and at lower prices have grown alongside pressures on consumers to turn to the newest trends.

Fast changing trends

At its heart, the fast fashion business model relies on consumers endlessly buying more clothes. Brands tempt consumers by offering ultra-cheap garments (for example, Missguided's £1 bikini) and ever-changing new ranges. At the time of writing, fast fashion brand Shein featured 21,139 clothes under the 'New in' section of its website.

Fashion brands have long used new styles and lower prices to attract customers, but previously brands would plan new ranges many months, even years, in advance. The pace of change was relatively slow and there were fewer products on offer. In comparison, fast fashion is focused on responding to ever-changing consumer tastes as quickly as possible.

For example, in the BBC's 'Breaking Fashion' show we see Manchester-based fast fashion company, In the Style, reproducing a bodysuit worn by Kylie Jenner. The company manages to have the piece designed, manufactured and on sale within 10 days of the piece first being worn publicly by the celebrity.

The rise of fast fashion is intertwined with social media and celebrity/influencer culture. A celebrity posts a photo wearing a new outfit, and their followers want it, so fast fashion brands rush to be the first to provide it. Fast fashion brands often target young people - so called Gen Zs -, who have been brought up amongst social media and influencer culture. In fact, a recent survey found that almost 75% of 18-24 year olds believe influencers can be held somewhat accountable for the rise in disposable fashion.

Of course, the flow of causality is not that simple: fast fashion brands are not simply reacting to consumer demand, they are also creating it. But the essential point is that these brands operate on the basis of constantly producing new lines of clothes to meet the insatiable and ever-changing consumer demand for all things new.

Fast production

Faster changing trends means that producers are under pressure to manufacture clothes more and more rapidly. Factories are expected to produce new lines with only a couple of month's notice, meaning that their workload - and therefore the amount of employment they can offer to workers - is unpredictable and insecure.

The drive to produce garments rapidly has led many UK fast fashion companies to reshore clothing production to the UK, where previously almost all clothing brands sourced from less-economically developed countries such as Bangladesh or Vietnam.

Leicester has become a central hub for clothing production and many of the scandals associated with workers' rights in the UK have been found in factories in the city.

The exploitation of workers in fast fashion supply chains is partly the result of brands pressuring suppliers to produce clothes as cheaply and quickly as possible. We talk about this more below.

Fast sale and delivery

The low-cost of fast fashion items encourages fast sale. The average person in the UK buys 60% more clothing today than in 2000. We buy more clothes per person in the UK than in any other country in Europe, and our addiction has grown - with online searches for 'cheap clothes' increasing 46.3% during the first coronavirus lockdown.

Even if you are out-of-pocket you can buy items using Klarna and other easy credit services. Its post-purchase payment options allow you to defer paying for your garment for 14 to 30 days, much like a payday loan.

Most companies also offer cheap deals for quick delivery. At the time of writing, Boohoo offered unlimited next-day delivery for one year for just £7.99.

Fast use

It's estimated that the average item of clothing is worn just 14 times, and in 2019 The Guardian reported that one in three young women considered an item worn just once or twice to be old.

Much modern clothing is not made to last. Due to super-fast production, designs are generally not well stress-tested before sale, and cheap synthetic fabrics are used in order to keep costs low. Much of it will end up in landfill after only being worn a handful of times.

Five things you need to know about fast fashion

The problems with fast fashion

What are the environmental problems with fast fashion?

The endless creation of new clothes comes with a heavy environmental price. Every year the sector requires 93 billion cubic meters of water, which is enough to meet the consumption needs of five million people, and is responsible for around 20% of industrial water pollution as a result of textile treatment and dyeing.

There are also numerous problems with the materials and processes used. For example, cotton production uses 6% of the world's pesticides and 16% of insecticides.

The industry also has a heavy carbon footprint, which is responsible for up to 10% of total global carbon emissions, and estimated to increase by 50% by 2030.

The above problems affect the clothing sector more broadly, but one issue is particularly endemic to fast fashion: plastic.

How much plastic do clothes contain?

The rise of fast fashion has been heavily dependent on synthetic fibres such as polyester, nylon, acrylic and elastane, which are made from heavily processed petrochemicals (fossil fuels). These materials are cheap to produce - polyester, for example, costs half as much per kilo as cotton - and therefore allow brands to keep prices low, though with a high environmental price-tag.

Polyester is the most widely used of these synthetic fibres and is now found in over half of all textiles produced. It is generally produced from polyethylene terephthalate, better known as PET, a type of plastic derived from crude oil and natural gas - also used to make items such as plastic bottles.

The ubiquitousness of plastic in clothing means that the textile sector accounts for 15% of total plastic use; the only sectors that use more are construction and packaging. Many brands are making a song and dance about using recycled plastics for their clothes, but a recent report by the RSA found that the actual level of recycled content was pitifully low. Across four major online fast fashion brands, the use of recycled fabrics was a mere 4%.

Our analysis of Shein's website found its recycled content was even lower, at only 0.5%, despite the brand claiming, " When selecting materials, we do our best to source recycled fabric, such as recycled polyester."

Recycling plastics where possible has some benefits, but it does nothing to address the problem of microfibres - the miniscule bits of fabric that are released when clothes are worn, washed, or disposed of, that find their way into our bodies and the natural world.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, clothes release half a million tonnes of microfibres into the ocean every year, equivalent to more than 50 billion plastic bottles.

These fibres have been found almost everywhere: from the summit of Mount Everest to the placentas of unborn babies. We still do not know the effects they may have.

How much waste does the clothing industry cause?

The industry is also responsible for enormous amounts of textile waste. The amount of textiles being produced globally per person has more than doubled from 5.9kg to 13kg over the period 1975-2018.

Many of the clothes bought are thrown away after being worn just a handful of times: the industry produces an estimated 92 million tonnes of textiles waste annually, much of which is burnt or finds its way to landfill, while less than 1% of used clothing is recycled into new garments.

Some of this waste consists of items that never even reached the consumer - clothing lines that have become outdated and so are destroyed instead of sold.

Atacama clothing mountain highlights over-consumption

The shocking reality of fast fashion's waste problem hit the headlines in November 2021 with an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report on the mountains of discarded clothing ending up in Chile's Atacama Desert. A total of 59,000 tons of second-hand clothing is said to arrive in Chile for resale each year from Europe, the US and Asia. However, an estimated 39,000 tons is unable to be sold and ends up dumped in the desert.

The situation highlights the myriad of problems in the fashion industry. The over-consumption of new clothing means that even an increasingly thriving second-hand clothing market cannot keep up, and this is exacerbated by the amount of poor-quality clothing not suitable for resale.

While second-hand markets certainly play a huge role in reducing the carbon impact of clothing when replacing the purchase of new items, a system where clothing gets shipped around the world multiple times, only to be wasted anyway is clearly not sustainable.

Clothing made of plastics

The piles mounting up in the Atacama, and in landfills across the world, are not biodegradable. Much of our clothing is made from synthetic plastics and also contains chemicals harmful to the environment.

Many fashion brands are pledging to address the issue of the use of virgin plastics in clothing manufacture, a material derived from the fossil fuel industry. However, this is often by replacing it with recycled synthetics.

And this may well be from recycled plastic bottles but, as a recent Guardian article points out: "PET bottles are also part of a well-established, closed-loop recycling system, where they can be efficiently recycled at least 10 times. The apparel industry is 'taking from this closed-loop, and moving it into this linear system because most of those clothes won't be recycled', said Maxine Bédat, Executive Director of New Standard Institute. "Converting plastic from bottles into clothes may actually accelerate its path to the landfill, especially for low-quality, fast-fashion garments which are often discarded after only a few uses."

The fashion industry, governments and consumers need to act to slow down consumption and ensure that garments are sustainable at every stage of their life cycle, from fibre production, to manufacture, to end-of-life.

Why is it bad for workers?

In order to offer clothes at ultra low prices, fast fashion brands need their costs to be low. One of the main ways of doing this is to drive down the wages of garment workers in the supply chain.

For years, brands have 'chased the cheap needle' around the world, seeking countries with the lowest labour standards so that garment workers can be easily exploited. In recent years, many UK fast fashion brands have found the cheap needle closer to home, often in quasi-legal factories in cities such as Leicester.

In the UK, Boohoo has become somewhat the symbol of fast fashion's worker exploitation problem. Numerous exposés have shown that while the pockets of Boohoo's directors are bursting at the seams, the people who actually stitch the seams of its clothing are paid a pittance, with some found to have been paid under half the minimum wage.

The Levitt report, which looked in depth at Boohoo's Leicester supply chain, found that "The allegations of unacceptable working conditions and underpayment of workers are not only well-founded but are substantially true." Levitt also claimed that these problems were endemic to the system and likely found across Boohoo's supply chain.

Worker exploitation is an essential part of the fast fashion model. If an item is very cheap, chances are that the person who produced it was paid little.

A 2022 report Unbearable Harassment: The Fashion Industry and Widespread Abuse of Female Garment Workers in Indian Factories, found that every single woman spoken to for the report (90), had either experienced or witnessed gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) carried out by male supervisors and managers at the factories they worked at.

"Verbal, physical, and sexual harassment exists in every garment factory - not just this one. It existed before COVID, it exists during COVID, and it will exist after COVID..." Smita, Tamal Nadu.

The report goes on to state that:

"Violence on the factory floor cannot be dismissed as just a factory-level problem; rather, it must be understood as an industry-wide culture of violence driven by the business model of global fashion brands".

Which are the leading fast fashion brands?

It is important to note that most of the fashion sector has become 'faster' in recent years. As such, even the more mainstream, established brands will be 'fast' to some extent. However, there are some brands that stand out as much faster than the rest:

Boohoo, which also owns the following brands: Burton, Coast, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Karen Millen, MissPap, Nasty Gal, Oasis, Pretty Little Thing, Wallis, Warehouse

In the Style

I Saw it First

Missguided

If a brand is offering vast numbers of 'new in' clothes (usually thousands of new items every day) and its products are super cheap, then it is a fast fashion brand.
UPDATE
Missguided collapsed at the end of May 2022, leaving suppliers and workers out of pocket for months of completed orders.

The Frasers Group, controlled by the Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley, has reportedly bought the company out of administration for £20m. This process will take around two months to complete.

We will review the impact of the collapse and new owner in due course.

Meanwhile, Labour Behind the Label have campaigned to demand workers and suppliers are paid, amidst reports that many are owed thousands of pounds.

Update from COP26 on fashion

Considering its comparative carbon impact, maybe the fashion industry deserved more focus at the recent COP26 summit in Glasgow, but it was not totally without attention.

In the second week, an update to the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action was announced, with more ambitious targets for carbon reduction to align with the Paris Agreement's 1.5-degree aim. The charter currently has 130 signatories including brands such as H&M, Primark, Levi's, Chanel and Adidas.

A request for government-backed incentives for using sustainable materials was also submitted by global non-profit Textile Exchange, with its COO, Claire Bergkamp, stating: "We need both regulations to stop bad action and incentives for sustainable materials to help reduce the price burden that currently exists for sourcing more responsibly. Our hope is through trade incentives and tariff reductions, we can level the playing field, without placing the burden on suppliers across the value chain".

The call was supported by 50 of the world's largest fashion and textile companies. It is an interesting turn of events considering the UK Government's complete reluctance to regulate the UK fashion industry as recommended by the 2019 Fixing Fashion report. The call could also be viewed as a profit-driven industry with a history of wreaking havoc on the environment, now demanding it be subsidised for doing the right thing. However, it is true that with such a harmful and complex industry strong legislation is badly needed to start curtailing fashion's destructive path.

Awful conditions at a Shein factory exposed

A Channel 4 documentary broadcast autumn 2022 went undercover at a Shein factory to expose predictably awful conditions and exhausted, exploited workers.

The brand is also shown to copy designs from independent designers, rely on unpaid influencers for its marketing, and use manipulative sales techniques such as countdown timers and multi-buys to encourage overconsumption.

Yet the company is hugely popular and massively outsells its fast fashion rivals. Despite many similar documentaries and decades of campaigning on garment worker rights, it seems that cheap clothes are an addiction we just can't break.

Check out our clothing guides to find some much more ethical options for new clothes, or choose second hand.

What progress has been made in the decade since the Rana Plaza disaster?

The Rana Plaza disaster and the Accord

April 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh which killed more than 1,100 garment workers, an event that exposed the appalling human cost of fast fashion. Simon Birch asks what progress, if any, has been made over the past decade in the fight against fast fashion.

Following the Rana Plaza disaster the Bangladesh Accord was established. This was the first and only legally binding agreement that holds brands to account for health and safety in the garment industry, and is designed to prevent another Rana Plaza tragedy from ever happening again.

"The Accord represents a significant victory for textile workers," says Anna Bryher from Labour Behind the Label, one of the UK's leading campaign groups against fast fashion. "There's been a massive improvement in the safety of clothing factories in Bangladesh," acknowledges Bryher.

Whilst this is welcome good news, the bad news is that the Accord hasn't done anything to address the pitifully low wages that Bangladeshi garment workers still receive.

But whilst the global fast fashion business model is still based on exploitative low wages, the brands themselves are now coming under increasing pressure.

Profits at fast fashion pioneers ASOS and Boohoo are tumbling whilst last year Missguided, one of the UK's flagship fast fashion companies went bust, all largely as a result of the cost-of-living crisis that's seen soaring costs of everything from cotton to shipping.

Environmental claims from fast fashion companies under the spotlight

Last year, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into whether eco-friendly and sustainability claims made by the fast fashion chains Asos, Boohoo and George at Asda constitute greenwashing.

Meanwhile over in Europe, the EU is stepping up its fight against throwaway culture by aiming to end fast fashion by 2030.

In an ambitious initiative launched last year, the EU announced its intention to vastly expand its clothing design rules on recycling and sustainability. In just seven years' time, all textiles sold within the EU must be recyclable, free of hazardous substances and contain a high percentage of recycled fibres.

All these actions are clearly good news for the environment but the bottom line is that fast fashion still demands the exploitation of garment workers.

However, it's important to remember that the problem is with the clothing companies, not with the clothing industry.

"We all need clothes and the clothing industry provides millions of jobs around the world from farmers who provide the cotton and fabrics to workers in garment factories," says Heather Webb, a former researcher at Ethical Consumer who has since worked within the fast fashion industry as an ethical trade analyst.

"Big fashion brands are consistently treating the factories they buy from poorly and it's the workers and environment who suffer," says Fiona Gooch from Transform Trade that campaigns for a more ethical global trading system.

"We need a fashion watchdog to regulate UK garment retailers along the same lines as the existing supermarket watchdog that's successfully reduced the unfair buying practices of the UK's largest food retailers," explains Gooch. "A fashion watchdog would reduce abusive and unfair purchasing practices of the garment retailers which would ultimately benefit garment workers."

Whilst acknowledging that a fashion watchdog would be a good thing, Anna Bryher believes that it wouldn't fix the problem of low wages within the clothing industry. What's needed says Bryher is new legislation to enable clothing brands to be held to account for their unfair purchasing practices.

Heather Webb agrees. "We need government intervention in the market," says Webb. "One of the key things that could improve both the pay and working conditions of garment workers is a law outlawing the unethical buying practices of clothing brands."

Progress by brands is extremely slow

The Ethical Fashion Report published in 2023, 10 years after the first edition, found that although there has been some progress for garment workers, overall change is still too slow. Their research found that at the current rate of progress, it would be 75 years before all companies are paying a living wage at even a minimum of one factory per company. The vast majority of clothing companies (84%) were not sourcing from any factories which paid a living wage.

Find out more in the report and also use the charity's 'Speak Out' tool to see how individual brands are doing and let them know what you think.

People's clothing habits are changing

Despite the pervasiveness of fast fashion, things are beginning to improve.

New research from WRAP has found that compared with similar research carried out in 2013, we are wearing our clothes for slightly longer. Jeans, for example, now have a longevity of just over four years, compared to just over three in 2013. The research also found that more than half of us are happy to buy second hand clothes; nearly 60% of us put a lot of effort into maintaining our clothes; and that a similar proportion look for ways to repair clothes when they're damaged.

The WRAP research also estimates that the UK's wardrobes hold 1.6 billion items of unworn clothes, an average of 31 items for each adult. And yet we're still spending more than £4 billion on shopping for clothes each month. WRAP makes the point that as textiles and fashion are responsible for between 4% and 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, we need a revolution in our clothing habits to make our wardrobes sustainable.

Circular clothing industry

The purpose of the WRAP research was to understand the population's receptiveness to circular business models for clothing. These included second hand, upcycling, subscription, rental (pay-per-wear) and repair (where a brand repairs an item of clothing a customer has purchased from it for a fee).

WRAP found that 40% of people are likely to use a subscription service and that 58% are open to using a repair service. Among those who have already used a circular business model, the majority said they would do so again.

WRAP argues that this shows there is a clear case for clothing brands and retailers to adopt circular business models.

Read the full WRAP report into clothing longevity on their website and read tips on repairing and buying second hand in our article on upcycling and buying second hand clothing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is fast fashion and why is it a problem? | Ethical Consumer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Alex Crumbie explores the growing concern about the social and environmental impacts of the fast fashion clothing industry and sets out what's wrong with fast fashion.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning outcomes:

1.7 Distinguish between rights and responsibilities as consumer

1.9 Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from the consumption of goods......

Learning intentions

Students will look at the impact of their decisions as consumers on the environment in relation to packaging

Students will learn about alternatives regarding packaging and how to make more informed decisions.

Stimulus material

The YouTube clip highlights the amount of packaging that may me generated by an individual.  This will encourage debate and review of alternatives in the classroom.

How to use:

1. Show video clip

2. Class discussion and debate

3. In groups come up with alternatives/ideas

4. Research if any of the ideas are used

5. Are they being used locally ?

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/louth/news/new-drogheda-refill-shop-aims-to-reduce-packaging-waste-40939953.html

# data[].attributes.headline
Businesses Tackling Ireland's Food Waste 

# data[].attributes.subject
Businesses Tackling Ireland's Food Waste 

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes:
1.9 Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods
and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development
through consumer behaviour

Learning Intentions:
- Learners will research the impact of food waste in Ireland
- Learners will examine how Irish Businesses are tackling food waste.

Class outline:
1. Examine the Nature and Extent of Food Waste in Ireland report (https://www.epa.ie/publications/circular-economy/resources/nature-and-extent-of-food-waste-in-ireland.php) to gather a background to the issue of food waste in Ireland.
2. Watch the above video on Irish businesses and their attempts to reduce food waste in Ireland.
3. Students will discuss how the following can address food waste in Ireland:
- Households
- Food Producers
- Retailers
- Hospitality Industry
- Government

-

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Food-waste, which connects consumers with surplus food from local businesses, launched in Ireland

# data[].attributes.headline
Rights vs Responsibilities as Consumers 

# data[].attributes.subject
Rights vs Responsibilities as Consumers 

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes

1.7 1.9

Learning Intentions

I will learn about consumer responsibilities

I will learn how my choices impact others

https://brightly.eco/low-waste-grocery-shopping-tips/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Overview

Much of our waste could be recycled or reused and some can be avoided all together by making a few small changes.

Buy things to last longer rather than buying disposables. For example, rechargeable batteries can be reused many times, and washable nappies can create a substantial reduction in what you throw away.

Read our suggestions for easy ways you can reduce and reuse, and help to make Croydon more sustainable.

What happens to your rubbish

Find out what happens to your waste.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Much of our waste could be recycled or reused and some can be avoided all together by making a few small changes. Buy things to last longer rather than buying disposables. For example, rechargeable batteries can be reused many times, and washable nappies can create a substantial reduction in what you throw away.

# data[].attributes.body
Lidl steps to a better tomorrow...
Learning Outcome
2.1 Identify different types of financial, cultural and social enterprise and appreciate the role each plays in society

Learning intentions

To use an enterprise to learn about different elements of sustainability

To understand an enterprise role in society

Click here to see what Lidl do for society and sustainability.

# data[].attributes.body
Video provides an introduction about workers rights and employer responsibilities

Learning outcome

2.4  Distinguish between the rights and responsibilities of employer and employee from a legal, social, environmental and ethical perspective

Learning Intentions

I will learn about my rights as an employee

I will understand the responsibilities employers have to their employees

How might the resources be used in class:

Intro-Video-Discussion-is it fair/exploitation/breaking laws?

Group work-List what they believe should be employer/employee rights

Whole class discussion-agree/disagree

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Article #23, Workers' Rights, Salary, No Discrimination : Youth For Human Rights Video

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. 2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. 3.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0E_c7xI_ek

Learning Outcomes

3.10, 3.11, 3.3, 3.1, 3.2

Learning Intentions:

I will learn about scarcity and having to make choices

I will learn about how organisations and governments can work together to distribute resources

I will learn about supply and demand in different markets

I will learn about how economic growth can positively and negatively impact on society and the environment and justify the promotion of sustainable development

I will use a range of media sources to discuss economic and current events

I will evaluate the costs and benefits of current government policies and see who benefits and who bears the costs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
RESIDENTS at a new Co-operative Housing Ireland (CHI) development in Drumcondra spoke last week about their delight at moving into their new homes.
Deakin Court on Richmond Road is providing 40 homes to families and individuals ranging in age from 84 to just under 12 months.

The families were drawn from Dublin City Council's housing list and many were previously homelessness or living in overcrowded or emergency accommodation.

One of the families now enjoying a permanent home is Egle Riaukiene and her daughters Gabi and Eva.

"Having somewhere to live, it means a lot to us," said Egle.

"It feels like a real home, so we're happy and we feel safe."

Egle's elder daughter, Gabi, explained how finding a home had been a struggle for the family.

"We were just always renting houses and it was really expensive so eventually we had to go into the hotel for a year and it was like, very crowded," she said.

"Just one room, me and my sister and my mom, so when I heard that we were getting our own place I was delighted, it was like my own room with my sister. It's much better."

Speaking at the new development, Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, said the 40 homes were part of 10,000 social homes due to provided across the country this year.

Deakin Court is built on a CHI-owned brownfield site and was developed in partnership with Dublin City Council at a cost of €10.5 million.

CHI is the national organisation for co-operative housing in Ireland and Deakin Court is its second development in Drumcondra after Calderwood.

"The collaborative approach and close partnership of Dublin City Council in developing these projects has been key to their success," said CEO, Kieron Brennan.

"CHI is making a real contribution to meeting housing needs across Ireland. Currently CHI provides over 1,540 homes in Dublin city and county and over 2,400 across Ireland.

"Last year alone saw us provide new homes for 245 families, up from 190 the previous year and with a further 450 homes planned for completion by 2020."

The Deakin Court development combines a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments with landscaped gardens overlooking the Tolka River.

The internal fit out of heating systems, kitchens, bathrooms etc. were all carried out to a high quality finish and the scheme is within easy reach of local services, schools and universities.

Dublin Lord Mayor, Paul McAuliffe, who launched the development with Minister Murphy said the opening was a great day for the 40 families now living there.

"Deakin Court is to become their new home, their new beginning," he added.

"We are all acutely aware of the current housing crisis in Ireland, impacting most heavily on our capital city.

"The lack of stability and security caused by this crisis bears serious consequences for family and community life.

"Here, in the heart of the city, however, CHI with Dublin City Council has built the foundations of a sustainable community that will allow families to thrive and flourish."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A place to call home at last - Dublin People

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
RESIDENTS at a new Co-operative Housing Ireland (CHI) development in Drumcondra spoke last week about their delight at moving into their new homes. Deakin Court on Richmond Road is providing 40 homes to families and individuals ranging in age from 84 to just under 12 months.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes:

3.5 , 3.9

Learning Intentions

1. Describe the wealth gap that exists throughout the world

2. Explain the impact that the wealth gap has on economies

3. Explain policies that could address the income gap.

Stimulus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWSxzjyMNpU

How to use material

1. Have students choose five of their favourite sports / entertainment figures and compare their yearly salary to a range of jobs (teachers, nurses, guards, admin staff, etc). Have student figure out how many years the compared jobs would have to work to equal one year of athletes / entertainers salary.

2. Review the impact of progressive taxes on the amount of take home pay

3. Setup a class debate on the whether 'wealth inequality' is a necessary part of the capitalist system to function.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Global Wealth Inequality  -  What you never knew you never knew (See description for 2017 updates)

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcome:
1.9
Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development
through consumer behaviour.

Learning Intentions:
I will learn about sustainability.
I will explore consumer choice.
I will investigate ethical considerations by organisations.

Use of material in class:
I would use as a discussion point as an introduction to the topic.
I would link in with CSPE class.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Change a little, change a lot | McDonald's UK

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes:
2.4 Distinguish between the rights and responsibilities of employer and employee from a legal, social, environmental and ethical perspective

Learning Intentions:
- I will learn about employer responsibilities
- I will reflect on the impact of businesses that I use on their workers

How might you use this stimulus material in class?
- This article provides an introduction to the impact of western businesses cancelling orders during store closures during COVID19 lockdowns.
- It enables students to consider the responsibilities of businesses to both direct and indirect employees. They should consider whether firms have a moral responsibility to treat all worker's equally or if they should just adhere to local laws.
- Support resources: discussion questions for students to use as a think, pair and share activity. For example, what stakeholders are effected by Primark's decision to cancel orders? Should Primark consider the interests of some stakeholder groups over others?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Campaigners claim to have found evidence of "wage theft" in the supply chains of Primark, Nike and H&M in a report that outlines the devastating consequences of the pandemic on garment workers in Indonesia, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

Research by the Clean Clothes Campaign found that, while none of the brands had broken any laws, they had failed to ensure that their workers were properly paid throughout the pandemic.

Interviews with dozens of garment workers in Indonesia, Cambodia and Bangladesh discovered many had experienced periods in the last year when they had not been paid their full wages. Of 49 workers interviewed, more than half said they were paid less than before the pandemic.

The Clean Clothes Campaign said workers faced increasing production targets amid a trend of mass layoffs and lack of overtime pay.

In 2020, global fashion brands cancelled billions of pounds of clothing orders placed with supplier factories as coronavirus lockdowns shuttered high streets across the world.

There is a growing body of evidence that "wage theft" of poorly paid workers has occurred at a significant scale throughout the pandemic, linked to many of the world's largest fashion brands. A Worker Rights Consortium report in April estimated that total severance theft during Covid-19, across the supply chains of global brands and retailers, was $500m to $850m (£360m-£620m).

"Brands have continued to profit and can afford to pay workers. They have the power and responsibility to make sure workers in their supply chains are being paid," said Meg Lewis, lead author of the Clean Clothes Campaign's report.

"Wages in the garment industry are already set at poverty levels so any drop in pay is a huge factor in workers' lives. It shouldn't be the workers who are paying for this pandemic."

All the brands named in the report acknowledged that the pandemic had been devastating for the global fashion industry.

H&M and Nike said that workers in their supply chains had all been compensated in accordance with local legal requirements on wages. Primark said it was taking the findings of the report seriously and would welcome receiving any evidence of wage problems at the supplier factories named in the report.

After suffering losses in the first half of 2020, Nike, H&M and Primark have all returned to making considerable profits. In November 2020, Primark's owner, Associated British Foods, reported a £914m profit before tax for 2020. H&M Group announced an operating profit of 3,099m kronor (£262m) for 2020, and Nike's net income for the year to 31 May 2021, was $5.7bn (£4.2bn).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Wage theft' in Primark, Nike and H&M supply chain - report

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Campaigners claim to have found evidence of "wage theft" in the supply chains of Primark, Nike and H&M in a report that outlines the devastating consequences of the pandemic on garment workers in Indonesia, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes
- 1.9
Learning Intentions:
-I will be able to:

Name 3 things fashion giants are doing to improve their environmental image

Identify problems with fashion giants 'concious/sustainable' collections

Explain my own motivation for buying fast fashion

Learner Experience:
Students answer questions while they watch 2 minute video on fast fashion.
Mix of multiple choice and open ended questions.
Link to video and questions:https://edpuzzle.com/media/5ea5d0d6e29ccc3f096641cf

# data[].attributes.body
1.1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
lessia Teresko, a 21-year-old student from Nottingham, seldom wears the same outfit online twice. Which is why, last month, for a friend's birthday, she bought a minidress: a 70s-style Zara dress in a swirling print, for which she paid £27.99. On Instagram, she posted a photograph of herself in her new dress, with a caption that read "Besties wknd". The post racked up 296 likes and with it, Teresko's Zara purchase was sent to the giant wardrobe in the sky. (Namely, the Depop account, where she resells the clothes she no longer wears.) "I can't take another picture in it because I already posted it," says Teresko. "I know that sounds very superficial."

In Edinburgh, 23-year-old Mikaela Loach, a student and climate justice activist, understands the pressure that Teresko is under. "Honestly," she says, "as someone with a platform, even I feel pressure to be wearing different clothes online." She buys her clothes secondhand. "Only if I can't find it secondhand," Loach says, "will I buy something new and then make sure I've done rigorous research on the company."

Just two years and a few hundred miles separate these women, but in their perspectives on sustainability, they might as well be speaking different languages. Teresko and Loach represent a dichotomy within Generation Z that is becoming increasingly pronounced. Whereas Gen Z, a term used to refer to people born between 1997 and 2012, is typically thought of as socially progressive and environmentally aware, it is also a rapacious consumer of fast fashion, one of the world's most polluting industries, often linked to human rights abuses in the global south.

A 2020 Vogue Business survey of 105 members of Generation Z found that more than half reported buying most of their clothes from fast-fashion brands. Around half the young people they surveyed said that they would continue to purchase from Boohoo, even after learning that workers in Leicester factories that supplied the fast-fashion giant were paid less than £4 an hour. Data from the market research firm Mintel suggests that Gen Z out-consumes older generations when it comes to fashion purchases: 64% of British 16- to 19-year-olds admit to buying clothes they have never worn, compared with 44% of all adults surveyed. And yet Mintel data also shows that Gen Z claims to care more about the environmental impact of their purchases: 70% of 16-19-year-olds agree that sustainability is an important factor when purchasing fashion items, compared with just 20% of 65- to 74-year-olds.

How to explain this schism, and the fact that a generation that has given the world Greta Thunberg, the climate change activist who excoriates the fashion industry from the pages of Vogue Scandinavia, also produced Love Islandrunner-up Molly-Mae Hague, recently announced as the creative director of the ultra-low-cost fast-fashion brand PrettyLittleThing in a rumoured seven-figure deal? "It did seem paradoxical to us, which is why we wanted to shed some light on it," says Malthe Overgaard, a former researcher at Aarhus Business School. In 2020, Overgaard co-authored a paper with fellow researcher Nikolas Rønholt which surveyed members of Gen Z to find out why they consumed fast fashion while professing to care about sustainability and the environment.

"Young people have this feeling of complexity and ambiguity related to sustainability," says Overgaard. "They all agreed that they thought of themselves as conscious consumers, but on the other hand, they were incentivised to buy more and consume more because of the need to stay trendy."

The fashion industry is designed to be exploitative ... the lack of transparency is what allows it to exist

Scott Bowden, 23, a delivery driver from Saltash, has online shopping delivered to his house so frequently that his dad has a running joke with the postman. "The guy who delivers to my house finds it funny how many clothes I've ordered," Bowden says. Bowden estimates he spends around £50 a week on clothes, usually from Asos, but occasionally from the ultra-low-cost retailer Shein. Bowden is aware of some of the ethical issues around purchasing fast fashion. "Recently, when all the stuff came out about people [at other companies] not being paid the minimum wage," he says, "stuff like that makes you feel awful, if it's true that they are getting paid that little."

But Bowden is a regular young person, working, seeing his friends, and conforming to the pressure we all feel - young and old - to look fashionable. He is not familiar with the ins and outs of fast fashion's supply chain. "If it came out that people were being mistreated or underpaid," says Bowden, doubtfully, "it would make me think twice about buying from a brand." This, says Overgaard, is a common response among the Gen Z members surveyed. "They feel that they don't have enough information about the products, and how they are being produced."

Loach can relate to this sentiment. "When I was at school," she says, "I'd buy new things all the time and I never really considered the impact of my habits or how harmful the industry was." What changed for Loach was watching the 2015 documentary The True Cost, which explored the environmental damage and labour violations inherent within the global garment industry. "It was transformational," she says. But she feels empathy for people who, as she once did, choose not to engage with the reality of fast fashion. "The fashion industry is designed to be exploitative and that opaqueness, the lack of transparency, is what allows it to exist," says Loach.

Of course, not all young people would stop buying fast fashion if they were forced to confront the reality of the industry they are supporting. Some do know, and choose to purchase anyway. When I ask Teresko if she knows that people are being exploited to make her clothes, she is honest. "I am aware but I don't really actively think about it," she says. "If I buy something online, I'm not thinking, 'that's fast fashion, I shouldn't buy it '. Has she ever felt guilty about buying fast fashion? "I have never felt like that. I only feel guilty if I spend a lot of money."

Money: when it all comes down to it, this is what keeps the fast fashion water-wheel turning. Every generation of young people has embraced the newest fashions, whether it was the flappers of the 1920s or the hippies of the 1970s. But before the advent of brands such as Boohoo and Missguided, which had the effect of pushing down prices across the entire industry, it was too expensive for young people to buy new clothes every week. Nowadays, £3 party frocks and £15 tracksuits are routine. "I would rather buy 20 things for £50," Teresko says, "because I feel like I am getting more worth than from two things."

Social media has intensified the pace at which young people are encouraged to consume. "Haul" videos, in which people unpack large orders of clothes, are ubiquitous on YouTube and TikTok. Because social media thrives on novelty - no one wants to see the same outfit posted dozens of times - trends that would have stuck around for months, even years, disappear in weeks. "Planned obsolescence is such a feature of fast fashion," says Dr Patsy Perry, reader in fashion marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University. "The marketing machine makes us feel that last season is not quite right for this season, if you want to look hot."

"When you think about how fast fashion has sped up," says Aja Barber, author of Consumed: the need for collective change: colonialism, climate change, and consumerism, "if you think about the popularity of social media, there's a huge connection there. I don't remember being encouraged to spend and buy the way that teenagers are spending and buying today, because social media didn't exist."

Influencers fuel this cycle of overconsumption. The footballer Jack Grealish and the rapper DaBaby have both released collections with BoohooMan. Teresko is a fan of Molly-Mae Hague and Kylie Jenner. "Kylie is such an icon," she says. But Loach believes that we need to hold the public figures collaborating with fast-fashion brands to account. "The fast fashion industry is not being propped up by people who need to shop there," Loach says. "It's being propped up by people who want to wear a new outfit every week, or by influencers who promote people buying huge amounts of clothing."

Many Gen Z teens do prefer to buy secondhand, often using the reselling app Depop ( recently sold to Etsy in a $1.6bn deal). "The Post Office hates me," sighs Evan Sellick, 16, a student from Cwmbran, south Wales. Sellick is a Depop reseller: his online secondhand store, Clothing View, has nearly 6,000 followers. "People say that vintage is expensive," Sellick says, "but in reality it's well under retail price, the quality is better and it's not made cheaply in factories."

But buying vintage or secondhand is not always an option, particularly for young people who want to dress fashionably but do not fit into so-called straight (meaning six to 18 ) sizes. While there are size-inclusive sustainable brands, including Birdsong and WithLoveEvie, many ethical brands stop at size 18. "PrettyLittleThing just did a catwalk show," says Sophie Coates, 20, a student from east Yorkshire. "Honestly, it looked incredible. There were models of all sizes and shapes. You feel like you're wanted in those sorts of brands."

Coates struggles to shop secondhand. "Vintage stores don't have curve sizes," she says. "They are all standard fittings - and with the outfits that do fit your size, they are not very body-positive. They don't show off your skin. They are oversized and baggy." She would prefer to buy sustainably, but as there are limited options in her size, she shops at Boohoo, Misguided and Shein. "I wish there were sustainable brands that did the new trends," she says.

Ironically, reselling apps may also facilitate overconsumption. "I resell a lot of my clothes on Depop," says Bowden. "Sales are usually pretty quick." Teresko uses the money from her Depop sales to subsidise her £100-a-month fast-fashion habit. But Perry warns against clearing out your wardrobe to recoup more money to spend on fast fashion. "We can't shop our way to sustainability," she says. "We have to slow down our consumption. The whole idea of buying stuff, wearing it once and sticking it on eBay or Depop - that needs slowing right down."

What also becomes apparent from speaking to Gen Z is that many buy from sustainable or eco-friendly ranges within fast-fashion brands because they believe that these products are more ethical. Coates has started shopping more from H&M Conscious and New Look Kind, for this reason. "I want to play my part," she says.

But even these ranges fuelthe same monstrous over-consumption. "Impulse-buying something that is made with slightly more sustainable fibres is not going to help," says Perry. Overgaard tells me that the young people he surveyed "lacked awareness of the sustainable alternatives to the products they were consuming from the fast-fashion producers". Some ethical brands they might wish to consider would be Finisterre, Lucy & Yak, Baukjen, They May Be, Community Clothing, Raeburn, Passenger, Rapanui, Ninety Percent, AYM, Form & Thread and Story MFG.

When it comes down to it, it is unfair to condemn Gen Z for being consumers of fast fashion, when people of all ages keep the system going, or at least fail to challenge it. Gen Z did not create fast fashion and are often funded by their parents, who also sign for the packages. "I can think of millennial parents that allow their kids to buy Shein without ever talking to them about it," says Barber. The truth is that we should all be held accountable, regardless of age, because we are all complicit. "I don't think this system is good for anyone," says Barber. "Not the garment workers. Not the environment. And not the person buying the clothing. This is a bad system that needs to change on all fronts."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Out of style: Will Gen Z ever give up its dangerous love of fast fashion?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As a generation, they care deeply about the environment and sustainability - but are also under pressure to change their wardrobe constantly. Which impulse will win?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Food waste occurs along the entire spectrum of production, from the farm to distribution to retailers to the consumer. Reasons include losses from mold, pests, or inadequate climate control; losses from cooking; and intentional food waste. [1]

This waste is categorized differently based on where it occurs:

Food "loss" occurs before the food reaches the consumer as a result of issues in the production, storage, processing, and distribution phases.

Food "waste" refers to food that is fit for consumption but consciously discarded at the retail or consumption phases.

Wasted food has far-reaching effects, both nationally and globally. In the U.S., up to 40% of all food produced goes uneaten [2], and about 95% of discarded food ends up in landfills [3]. It is the largest component of municipal solid waste at 21%. [1] In 2014, more than 38 million tons of food waste was generated, with only 5% diverted from landfills and incinerators for composting. [3] Decomposing food waste produces methane, a strong greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Worldwide, one-third of food produced is thrown away uneaten, causing an increased burden on the environment. [4] It is estimated that reducing food waste by 15% could feed more than 25 million Americans every year. [5]
Benefits of Less Food Waste

Cost savings on labor through more efficient handling, preparation, and storage of food that will be used.

Cost savings when purchasing only as much food as needed, and avoiding additional costs of disposal.

Reduced methane emissions from landfills and a lower carbon footprint.

Better management of energy and resources, preventing pollution involved in the growing, manufacturing, transporting, and selling of food.

Community benefits by providing donated, untouched, and safe food that would otherwise be thrown out. [6]

Proposed Solutions to Food Waste
Globally, reducing wasted food has been cited as a key initiative in achieving a sustainable food future. Sustainable Development Goal 12 addresses responsible consumption and production, which includes two indicators to measure (in order to ultimately reduce) global food loss and food waste. [7]

In the U.S, on June 4, 2013, the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge, calling on entities across the food chain, including farms, agricultural processors, food manufacturers, grocery stores, restaurants, universities, schools, and local governments. [1] The goals are to:

Reduce food waste by improving product development, storage, shopping/ordering, marketing, labeling, and cooking methods.

Recover food waste by connecting potential food donors to hunger relief organizations like food banks and pantries.

Recycle food waste to feed animals or to create compost, bioenergy, and natural fertilizers.

On September 16, 2015, both agencies also announced for the first time a national food loss and waste goal, calling for a 50% reduction by 2030 to improve overall food security and conserve natural resources.

The National Resources Defense Council issued a summary paper providing guidelines on how to reduce waste throughout the food production chain. [2] The following are some focal points:

State and local governments can incorporate food waste prevention and education campaigns, and implement municipal composting programs. Governments can provide tax credits to farmers who donate excess produce to local food banks. Proposed bills are currently in place in California, Arizona, Oregon, and Colorado.

Businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, and institutional food services can evaluate the extent of their food waste and adopt best practices. Examples include supermarkets selling damaged or nearly expired produce at discounted prices, or offering "half-off" promotions instead of "buy-one-get-one-free" promotions. Restaurants can offer smaller portions and donate excess ingredients and prepared uneaten food to charities. Schools may experiment with concepts that allow children to create their own meals to prevent less discarded food, such as with salad bars or build-your-own burritos.

Farms can evaluate food losses during processing, distribution, and storage and adopt best practices. Farmers markets can sell "ugly" produce, which are discarded, misshapen fruits and vegetables that do not meet the usual standards for appearance. Farms can sell fresh but unmarketable produce (due to appearance) to food banks at a reduced rate.

Consumers can learn when food is no longer safe and edible, how to cook and store food properly, and how to compost. See Tackling Food Waste at Home.

The Environmental Protection Agency provides the "Food Recovery Hierarchy" graphic to explain ways to handle excess food. [8] From the most preferred at the top of the pyramid to the least preferred at the bottom tip, the methods include:

1. Source reduction: Earliest prevention by reducing the overall volume of food produced

2. Feed hungry people: Donating excess food to community sites

3. Feed animals: Donating food scraps and waste to local farmers who can use them for animal feed

4. Industrial uses: Donating used fats, oils, and grease to make biodiesel fuel

5. Composting: Food waste that is composted to produce organic matter that is used to fertilize soil

6. Landfill/Incineration: A last resort for unused food

Read Next: Tackling Food Waste at Home " Related

References

1. United States Department of Agriculture. U.S Food Waste Challenge. https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm Accessed 3/20/2017.

2. Gunders, D., Natural Resources Defense Council. Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill. Issue Paper, August 2012. IP: 12-06-B. https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf Accessed 3/20/2017.

3. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Sustainable Management of Food. https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food Accessed 3/20/2017.

4. Salemdeeb Ramy, Font Vivanco D, Al-Tabbaa A, Zu Ermgassen EK. A holistic approach to the environmental evaluation of food waste prevention. Waste Manag. 2017 Jan;59:442-450.

5. D. Hall, J. Guo, M. Dore, C.C. Chow, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, "The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and Its environmental Impact," PLoS ONE 4(11):e7940, 2009.

6. United States Environmental Protection Agency. How to Prevent Wasted Food Through Source Reduction https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/how-prevent-wasted-food-through-source-reduction Accessed 3/20/2017.

7. United Nations. Sustainable Development Goal 12.3. http://www.fao.org/sustainable-development-goals/indicators/1231/en/. Accessed 1/16/2018.

8. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Food Recovery Hierarchy. https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/food-recovery-hierarchy Accessed 3/20/2017.

Terms of Use

The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The Nutrition Source does not recommend or endorse any products.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Food waste occurs along the entire spectrum of production, from the farm to distribution to retailers to the consumer. Reasons include losses from mold, pests, or inadequate climate control; losses from cooking; and intentional food waste.

# data[].attributes.body
Learning Outcomes

1.9 Debate the ethical and sustainability issues that arise from their consumption of goods and services and evaluate how they can contribute to sustainable development through consumer behaviour

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Iceland palm oil advert: petition launched for ban to be overturned | euronews 🇬🇧

# data[].attributes.body
Learning outcomes 1.9 and 2.4