National Geographic

Tons of clothing have been discarded into the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, which has become a dumpling group for fast fashion.

Fashion is constantly changing, and trends come and go at lightning speed. From amazing deals to trending designs, fast fashion has made high-fashion designs more accessible and cheaper for the public through mass production. However, its convenience comes at a price. As a result of this mass production, the environment suffers heavily from climate change, pollution, and dried-up water sources. 

Fast fashion is cheaply produced and priced clothing that replicates the latest styles and is quickly distributed throughout stores across the United States. Popular retail companies such as Shein, H&M, Zara, Forever 21, UNIQLO, etc. sell new collections weekly at cheap prices, which entices customers to purchase constantly. As a result of customers buying more often, their clothes are worn very briefly and then discarded quickly. 

According to Earth.org, “the industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emission.” A single shirt requires around 700 gallons of water to produce one cotton shirt and 2,000 gallons for a pair of jeans. Additionally, textile dyeing is a major polluter of water since the water remaining after the dyeing process is dumped into streams and oceans. Due to a lot of the dyes being synthetic, they are not biodegradable and affect the environment. Countries such as Bangladesh and India, where much of the world’s clothing is produced, face contaminated water sources with high levels of toxic PFAS. Furthermore, the industry uses synthetic fibres like polyester, nylon, and acrylic, which take hundreds of years to biodegrade. Around 200,000-500,000 tons of microplastics from textile production enter the environment annually and synthetic textiles account for 35% of the microplastics found in oceans. 

On average, Americans buy 53 new items of clothing every year, which is four times more than in the year 2000. More clothes are being discarded and ending up in landfill, which takes decades to decompose. Due to fast fashion being cheaply produced and sold, the quality suffers immensely, leading to the clothes being worn less. Vanessa Xu (10) comments, “I have bought from Shein a few times, but the quality is so cheap and thin that I end up only wearing the items once or twice.” Fast fashion pieces are made with materials that are not designed to last such as polyester, rayon, acrylic, and nylon.

In the end, consumers ultimately have the decision to purchase whatever clothing they want. However, they can make a change by buying from sustainable fashion brands that serve quality clothing that can be worn more than once. For example, Patagonia, Allbirds, People Tree, and Adidas are examples of sustainable fashion brands. Other alternatives include thrifting, which has been gaining popularity as there are many affordable hidden gems. Overall, consumers should rethink their shopping habits and start rebuilding a more sustainable future for fashion to further help our environment.