Fast Fashion Problems – a Melting Pot of Human Rights Abuses and Ecological Disaster

Did you know that people wear fast fashion clothes only seven times before they discard them? That’s just one of the fast fashion problems.

With each record heatwave and flood coming at us thick and fast, we’re learning more about what threatens our life on this planet. And lo and behold – fast fashion is one of the reasons people on the shore would have to sell their houses to Aquaman.

But how does it do it? How does fast fashion slowly drag humanity into a cesspool of human rights abuses and climate catastrophe? Below are some snippets of facts that show its adverse effect on the world.

Key takeaways

Now that we’ve made these bold claims, let’s not be lazy populist reactionaries about them and actually use facts to prove them. The first thing to do is find out how it all started.

History of fast fashion – the birth of a monster

*If you don’t care for history lessons, skip the whole bit and jump straight into the textile waste section.

The term fast fashion is relatively new. In the 1990s, New York Times coined the term to describe Zara’s retail strategy at the time. Zara aimed to adapt catwalk trends into ready-to-wear garments as quickly as possible.

But you can find its source much earlier – way back in the 1830s.

The emergence of ready-to-wear clothing

Before the invention of the sewing machine in 1830, being fashionable was exclusive to the upper classes. Going to a tailor was expensive since your only option was to get a made-to-measure garment.

The sewing machine flipped the script – its speed allowed for mass production and gave birth to the concept of ready-to-wear clothing. These were clothes made in standardized sizes, which allowed for a much lower price. Suddenly, the middle class and even the lower class could afford to be fashionable.

And guess what came with mass production?

The good old violations of labour rights and workplace safety, of course. Staples of the fashion industry then, now, and tomorrow. And back in the day, it often happened in the developed world, even in Manhattan. Just like in our example below.

The Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire

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March 25, 1911, saw the deadliest industrial disaster in New York City to date. One hundred and forty-six people died in a fire, out of which 123 girls and women and 23 men.

The fire happened at a clothing factory owned by two controversial businessmen. Men whose four previous businesses also burned in suspicious circumstances.

To make things worse, the Triangle Shirtwaist factory was on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Brown Building. This meant that people had little chance to survive.

Did we say little? We meant almost no chance. Here’s why.

Because it was the early 20th century, worker unions still had power. The two businessmen fought tooth and nail to stop their underpaid and often underage workers from unionizing.

One of the methods was to lock fire exits so that the union organizers couldn’t access the building.

In the epilogue of this sad event, controversial businessmen banked around $60k from insurance. They didn’t serve even a millisecond of jail time, even though that was the fifth suspicious fire at a business they ran.

But that’s already too much politics for today. Let’s see how the seed of fast fashion turned into a sprout.

Growing need for more fashion in the post-WW2 era

Before the 60s and 70s, you’d add items to your wardrobe four times a year at best. Post-war economic growth worldwide increased people’s ability to spend and the fashion industry saw the opportunity. Instead of serving four seasonal styles a year, brands started dishing out more designs than ever before as there was more demand. This expansion went to crazy lengths that brought to life a curious fad called paper fashion.

Paper fashion?

In the 1960s, the cradle of mindless consumerism – the USA witnessed an intriguing fad called the disposable paper dresses.

You read it right. Paper. Dresses.

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Scott Paper Company started the disposable fashion fad as a marketing trick to sell more paper goods. However, it went all too well. They had to pull the plug on the project because it was taking too many resources from their main revenue stream – paper.

Regardless of this fad’s destiny, fashion kept accelerating in the coming decades. Also, paper dresses have set the stage for what is today’s fast fashion motto – wear it once and chuck it.

 70s, 80s, and 90s: the rise of overseas manufacturers

The 70s marked the emergence of big textile mills in Asia and Central America. Clothing brands realized this on time and started the transition slowly. It wouldn’t be until the 90s that most brands would switch to an overseas manufacturing model.

With labour and raw material costs at an all-time low, clothing brands could invest more in promoting mindless consumption. The result? Now, people wear a piece of clothing up to seven times before dopamine wears out, and they need another fix of fast fashion. A survey conducted by Barnardo’s in 2015 backs this up.

We now spend as much if not more on clothing but we litter the planet hundreds of times more, all thanks to fast fashion. Let’s get down to brass tacks of just how much it litters the planet.

Fast fashion and textile waste

Below are important facts about fast fashion and textile waste from research by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

In 2018 in the US alone, there was a total of 17030 million tons of textile waste. Out of that total, 11300 million tonnes went to landfills, and 3220 million tonnes went up in smoke. Compare it with the data from the 90s, when fast fashion started its exponential growth, that’s three times more. And it didn’t stop growing since 2018.

To be fair, not all that trash and CO2 emissions are fast fashion’s wrongdoing. But since it is the most productive branch of the fashion industry, a solid chunk of those emissions belongs to it.

At least 20% does, though. That’s 2260 million tonnes of textile waste in landfills and 644 million tonnes of incinerated textile (which is burnt plastic for the most part). All this in a single year.

Let that sink in.

Microplastics and fast fashion – a sea full of particles

Microplastics in sediment from the rivers Elbe, Moser, Neckar, and Rhine.

According to the European Environment Agency, ocean floors host over 14 million tonnes of microplastics. That number will only keep growing. Every year, half a million tonnes of microplastics find their way into our rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.

Almost all microplastics ending up in these bodies of water come from our washing machines. Fast fashion clothing consists mostly of low-quality synthetic fibres. So, guess what happens when you wash them?

They release significantly more microplastics than any other piece of clothing.

Fast fashion in your blood? Yes.

We’re not talking figuratively here, we mean it literally. Environment International published a research paper that showed that 77% of its study participants had microplastics in their blood. Most of all polymers found was PET (50%), which is the most present polymer in polyester fibres, the bread and butter of fast fashion.

Researchers are still assessing the extent of the adverse effects of this to human health, but the signs are worrying as they should be. It’s plastics in our blood.

Fast fashion negatively affects you as a consumer. And if you think you got it bad, wait until you learn how bad it is for the people making it.

You think slavery has ended? Think again.

Slavery is alive and well. Its permanent address is the fast fashion industry.

To double-check this fact, all you need to know is simple math. A simple cotton t-shirt from a fast fashion brand costs around €8. A simple cotton t-shirt from a sustainable fashion brand costs around €40.

Guess which brand can’t afford to respect labour laws and international humanitarian laws if it is to make a profit? That’s right, the fast fashion brand.

That doesn’t absolve the sustainable brand in the slightest. If it wants, it too can break the laws and get away with it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be in a situation where some of the poorest people in the world work in the textile industry.

Let’s see how this pans out in real life.

What fast fashion factories do to stay afloat

In the world we live in today, one thing holier than God almighty is profit. With that in mind, both the brand and the factory owner MUST make a lot of money. And if a brand owner that sells a t-shirt for €8 is to afford that new private island, (s)he must bank at least €6 from it.

Then we have the factory owner that simply must buy that €150k car. (S)he has a problem, though. (S)he must settle for a €2 price for the cotton t-shirt. So how to afford the car and charge just €2 for a tee?

Simply severely overwork and underpay the employees, defund workplace safety, and hire children. To make sure this goes unnoticed, the government officials get their blind-eye envelopes from time to time and it’s smooth slaving. Sorry, sailing.

Modern slavery stats

According to the Walk Free’s Global Slavery Index study, 49.6 million people were victims of modern slavery. The report covered 160 countries, while to company conducted interviews with survivors from 75 countries. To make matters worse, each year the number of people at risk of modern slavery is greater. From 2018 to 2021 it jumped by 9 million. That’s equivalent to the population of London….

Now let’s see how fast fashion slowly tightens the grip on all our throats, not just the global south’s.

CO2 is the language of fast fashion

According to the McKinsey&Co and Global Fashion Agenda (2020) Fashion on Climate report, the fashion industry contributed 2-8% to the total annual global carbon emissions. Since fast fashion must cut corners everywhere to remain cheap, it is responsible for the vast majority of that 2-8 %.

Accessories to the crime

Fast fashion couldn’t do all these terrible crimes alone, it had massive help from corrupt and/or complacent governments.

Law and disorder

Many countries in the world have pretty decent labour laws. A vast majority do. However, not many apply them. In the countries where the most textile production happens, lawmakers often don’t enforce them at all.

That’s why child labour, forced labour and a myriad of other human rights breaches are rife. If it weren’t like that, you wouldn’t be reading this depressing article.

To make matters worse, some countries even enforce forced labour.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you reached the end and now have a choice of these four emotions – anxiety, guilt, anger, and despair. You can combine them if you’d like.

Fast fashion is here to stay. No matter how hard we try to keep it out of our water and bodies, it will keep getting stronger.

For real change, a worldwide, systematic effort to regulate or even stop fast fashion from existing, let alone growing. A sliver of hope is the upcoming legislation in the EU that aims to phase out fast fashion from its market.

 

FAQ

1. What are the 3 problems with fast fashion?
2. What is the biggest problem with fast fashion?
3. What is the most effective solution for fast fashion?
4. What are other alternatives to reduce the impact of fast fashion?
5. What are the negative social impacts of fast fashion?
6. What’s the opposite of fast fashion?

What are the 3 problems with fast fashion?

The three problems with fast fashion are:

1. Human rights abuses
2. Destruction of the planet
3. Allowing for the mindless consumerism mindset to flourish

Fast fashion problem no1 – human rights abuses

Human rights abuses are something no fast fashion brand can do without. It’s a foundation of the profitability of such a business. The only difference between fast fashion brands is the extent of such abuses.

Because for a product to be that cheap, making it from low-quality and often toxic materials isn’t enough. Clothing factories must break laws, where garment workers get unfair compensation for their work.

Destruction of the environment – fast fashion problem no2

On average, people throw fast fashion items after wearing them seven times. That’s why these clothes insane amounts of waste. Also, fast fashion production causes:

• Soil and water pollution
• Uses fabrics derived from fossil fuels
• Exacerbates climate crisis

Fast fashion problem no3 – bad influence on buying habits

Fast fashion brands use questionable sales and marketing tactics. Through games that often uses gambling scenarios, they trigger dopamine release in people. And dopamine is addictive.

That’s why people end up buying things they don’t need that they throw away once dopamine wears off.

What is the biggest problem with fast fashion?

The biggest problem with fast fashion is that it is one of the main contributors to the growing issue of modern slavery. Modern slavery affects almost 50 million people. A substantial percentage of that 50 million belongs to fast fashion.

What is the most effective solution for fast fashion?

Laws that would phase out fast fashion would be the best. It should become reality in the EU by 2030. What will end fast fashion in the EU is the mandatory full transparency of each product entering the market. Fast fashion supply chains are notorious for being secretive.

Sadly, in the rest of the world it probably won’t at least not in the foreseeable future. Especially the countries that make most of fast fashion clothing. Most of them are still dependent on orders from such brands.

What are other alternatives to reduce the impact of fast fashion?

The alternatives would be things we as individuals can do and they are:

1. Getting in touch with organizations like Clean Clothes Campaign and helping their campaigns in any way we can
2. Informing the closest ones about the adverse effects of fast fashion
3. Thrift and second-hand shopping
4. Repairing and renting clothes
5. Voting for ecologically conscious political options with a proven track record in the field (far-fetched, we know)

Why is fast fashion bad?

Negative social impact

Negative social impact is reflected in the following burning humanitarian issues in the countries where fast fashion manufacturing happens:

1. Child labour
2. Perseverance of modern slavery
3. Perseverance of extreme poverty

Unfortunately, all three fast fashion issues are highly consistent in a vast majority of fast fashion clothing factories. Profit for the brand and profit for the factory owners always remain intact. That’s why the workers have to suffer inhumane working conditions and miserable pay.

That’s why fast fashion is bad. You can read many studies we posted in this article to see the extent of human rights abuses. You can read many studies we posted in this article to see the extent of human rights abuses.

Ecological impact

Fast fashion is bad for the environment because of:

1. Overconsumption of water
2. Water pollution
3. Soil pollution
4. Excessive CO2 emissions
5. Deforestation

What’s the opposite of fast fashion?

Common sense. Common sense is the opposite of fast fashion.

Fast fashion’s only purpose for existing is to exploit the workforce and manipulate the consumer for profit. If a piece of clothing is cheaper than a meal at a cheap fast-food joint, something is wrong with it. Expect shoddy quality, poisonous garment made by literal slaves.

Other than common sense, slow sustainable fashion is the alternative. It is a concept of buying clothes out of necessity and with the idea of wearing them for the longest time possible. It includes the following:

• Buying new high-quality clothes made in ecologically and ethically sound circumstances
• If buying such clothes isn’t financially viable, buying at thrift stores and second-hand stores
• Repairing and renting clothes