The Problem with Fast Fashion Waste: How Cheap Trends Are Costing the Planet
Fast Fashion Waste is harming the planet through pollution, landfills, and exploitation. Learn how cheap trends damage the environment and what we can do.
The fashion industry at large loves speed, new collections every few weeks, “limited drops,” and clothes so inexpensive that one barely has to give purchasing a second thought. But behind that cycle of instant style lies one of the planet’s most urgent environmental crises: fast fashion waste.
Countless clothes are manufactured, worn for a season or two, and then discarded. What initially seemed like inexpensive self-expression rapidly evolves into pollution, landfills, and toxic waste.
The Real Price of ‘Cheap’ Clothes
That T-shirt that costs less than a coffee comes with a much higher hidden price. The UN Environment Programme estimates that the fashion industry produces more than 92 million tonnes of textile waste every year, and a lot of it ends up in developing countries, which have become the world’s dumping grounds.
The business model of fast fashion is built on quantity over quality. Brands release dozens of micro-collections annually, encouraging people to buy impulsively.
The Landfill Mountains of Fashion Waste
The figures are enormous. Satellite images show massive piles of discarded clothes visible from space in Chile’s Atacama Desert, dumped there by Western countries unable to recycle or resell them. Ghana’s Kantamanto Market also has its fair share of this same story, as its traders spend days sorting through mountains of second-hand clothes, most of which are too damaged to sell.
The waste that is produced by fast-fashion occupies landfills, clogs waterways, and simply pollutes ecosystems and affects the communities around the dumping sites. When fabrics are burned, carbon dioxide, methane, and other toxic chemicals are released, which will only exacerbate climate change and air quality.
The Human Element
It is so easy to forget that someone – usually a woman in a low-wage country making a few dollars per day – has to make each “disposable” garment. Fast fashion creates significant pressure on garment workers to keep up with the demand for ongoing new inventory.
The same system that makes clothes affordable for the consumer keeps people living in manufacturing nations in poverty.
Can Fast Fashion Be Fixed?
Brands like Patagonia and Eileen Fisher are examples of the profitability of sustainable fashion with organic fibres, recycling of old garments, and fair wages.
We, as consumers, can also make a difference with each small purchase: buying less, choosing quality over quantity, shopping at thrift stores or supporting local designers, and finally recycling worn-out clothes to be disposed of responsibly. Each mindful purchase helps slow down the atrophied waste.
