The Rise of Fast Fashion
Ashley Jun ’26
Natalie Poole ’25
An issue that has recently surfaced over the past few years is the growing popularity of fast fashion, widely known for its inexpensive, trendy, and disposable quality. As a contributing factor to climate change, fast fashion is unsustainable and harmful to the environment, from production to the overconsumption that comes with it. As an act against this, there has been a continuous momentum of active participation in environmental protests, allowing citizens globally to voice their hopes for a sustainable world.
Under the influence of social media, fast fashion has gained substantial attention from media users, thus creating a steady increase in garments produced in the industry. However, while the idea of “fast fashion” has become more publicized among teenagers and media influencers, the downside of the industry’s influence is unknown to many. The synthetic fabric used in fast fashion clothing tends to shed large amounts of microfiber (tiny plastic fibers) while being washed in the laundry, causing unnecessary waste. According to the Guardian, “Each cycle of a washing machine could release more than 700,000 microscopic plastic fibers into the environment [...]” (Paddison, 2016). Also, the production of colorful clothes requires the use of chemical dyes and clean water. These chemical dyes have released toxic and undrinkable water into nature while its excessive usage of water has been drying up lakes. For example, CNN wrote that in Bangladesh, the world’s second-biggest garment manufacturing hub, “the sludge and sewage produced by textile dyeing and processing factories” turned the rivers and canals that run through Dhaka into a “pitch black color” (Regan, 2020). This toxic water not only endangers human health by causing illnesses like skin irritation but also destroys the ecosystem due to the death of many sea animals after they consume microfibers.
With such concerning issues, fast fashion has also impacted the climate detrimentally; the effect is two-fold. First, from processing raw materials to transporting clothing items to retailers, the fashion industry and its suppliers are responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions (World Bank Group, 2019). Additionally, methane is a greenhouse gas capable of trapping 25 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2016). Since most fast fashion items eventually end up in landfills, large amounts of methane are released as discarded textiles decompose in landfills, further contributing to climate change.
As a method of making a change, protestors are voicing their opinions against fast fashion’s environmental impacts. A case occurred during the London Fashion Week (LFW) in 2019, led by the Extinction Rebellion (XR). Vogue states, “On the first day of LFW, protesters covered in fake blood staged a ‘die in’ outside The Strand, symbolizing the lives lost and that will be lost due to climate change” (Farra, 2019). The Nationals News explains why Fashion Week was a fantastic platform for the protest, “‘It is part of the global fashion month where people travel from all over the world to come and see shows. If an organization like the [British Fashion Council] cancels Fashion Week in light of the climate emergency, I cannot think of communication that would have as much impact’” (Corkery, 2020). Nevertheless, as people introduce new clothing lines and trends, people often forget the devastating environmental impacts fast fashion creates and purchase garments from famous practitioners of “fast fashion,” influencing the growing harm to our environment. Hopefully, with the help of constant education and media outlets, the increasing number of global protests can illustrate a brighter future for the elimination and awareness of fast fashion, allowing us to take another step forward in conserving the beauty of our planet.
References
Corkery, C. (2020, February 15). London Fashion Week: protest group Extinction Rebellion stops traffic. The
Farra, E. (2019, September 17). Extinction Rebellion Is Protesting London Fashion Week With “Die Ins” and a Funeral.
Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/extinction-rebellion-london-fashion-week-climate-change-protests
Paddison, L. (2016, September 26). Single clothes wash may release 700,000 microplastic fibres, study finds. The
Regan, H. (2020, September 28). Asian rivers are turning black. And our colorful closets are to blame. CNN.
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/dyeing-pollution-fashion-intl-hnk-dst-sept/index.html
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2016). Importance of Methane. EPA.
https://www.epa.gov/gmi/importance-methane
World Bank Group. (2019, October 8). How Much Do Our Wardrobes Cost to the Environment? World Bank; World
Bank Group. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/09/23/costo-moda-medio-ambiente
