Why is fast fashion bad?
A crash course in the history, problems, and solutions
All clothes are handmade.
When buying a $10 T-shirt, it’s easy to assume that it was made by a robot or some kind of T-shirt dispenser. In reality, skilled workers sew every seam on every garment.
Their wages account for not more than 3% of the retail price (Clean Clothes Campaign).
(Solidarity Center via Flickr)
A very brief history of fast fashion
Hudsons Bay Company in Edmonton, 1912. (Archives of Manitoba, H4-200-1-4)
1800s
Clothes are primarily made in the home or by dressmakers.
The Industrial Revolution lays the groundwork for modern manufacturing.
Early 1900s
Department stores begin to flourish and ready-to-wear clothing becomes more common.
Ladies’ suits are considered affordable at about $15 ($380 today).
1940s
During WWII, clothing is rationed in many countries, including Canada.
People focus on mending and upcycling to maintain clothes as long as possible.
1950s
People become accustomed to mass-produced clothing.
The fashion industry produces clothing for four seasons a year.
1960s–70s
Young people seek personal expression through cheap, trendy clothing.
Massive textile mills open in countries with low labour costs.
Teenagers in London, 1969. (The National Archives UK via Flickr)
H&M store in Montreal. (Alexcaban at en.wikipedia)
1990–2000s
The term “fast fashion” is first used when Zara opens its flagship store in New York City.
Stores like H&M and Forever 21 get daily shipments so there is always new product.
2020s
Consumers pressure brands to be more sustainable (and get better at spotting greenwashing).
Secondhand clothing sales are way up, especially resale.
How fast fashion affects people
Tazreen Fashion factory fire
In November 2012, the Tazreen Fashion factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was piled high with extremely flammable fabric and yarn. Then a fire broke out on the main floor.
It spread quickly, trapping everyone above. The workers were told to ignore the fire alarm. Then they tried to make their way out via narrow staircases, but they led directly into the source of the fire. Gates locked them inside and ground floor windows were barred. 117 people died.
After the fact, it was discovered that Walmart – whose garments were made at that factory – had blocked reforms that would have made them responsible for improving factory safety (New York Times).
Garment workers in Bangladesh demand safe factories on the one-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse. (Solidarity Center via Flickr)
Rubble from the Rana Plaza collapse. (NYU Stern BHR via Flickr)
Rana Plaza collapse
The day before the building collapsed, workers in Dhaka’s Rana Plaza noticed large cracks in the concrete walls. The building was evacuated and workers at several businesses in the building were sent home, but the garment workers were forced to come back the next day.
The next morning, April 24, 2013, Rana Plaza collapsed killing 1,134 people and injuring 2,500. It remains one of the deadliest industrial accidents in history.
This disaster brought the working conditions of garment workers into the mainstream news. Brands only learned their garments were manufactured in Rana Plaza when their tags were discovered in the rubble: Joe Fresh, Walmart, and the Children’s Place, but also luxury brands Gucci and Prada.
Business as usual
“The worse the dangers get, the more business comes in, so the government has no incentive to fix anything.”
Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium
(quoted by CNN in response to the Rana Plaza collapse)
This is how the garment industry works: big brands demand lower prices from factories and factories find ways to deliver on those prices at the expense of wages and safety measures. It’s a relationship in which multinational corporations hold all the power. Their goal is to get the cheapest product and they can easily move to a different factory to get it.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit globally, the fashion industry temporarily stopped. In Canada, spending on clothing dropped 85% between March and April 2020 (Stats Canada) and what we did buy changed – lots of pyjamas and not a lot of pants or bras (Adobe Analytics via CNBC).
In response, brands cancelled their orders, many of which were already in production. According to a survey of Bangladesh garment factories in March 2020, when orders were cancelled, 72% of brands refused to pay for materials (e.g., fabric) already purchased and 91% refused to pay for production that had already taken place (Center for Global Workers’ Rights).
Without payment from brands, factories couldn’t pay their workers – who already earn significantly less than a living wage.
Fashion and feminism
Like most countries, Bangladesh’s garment workforce is predominantly female. Of garment factory workers, 61% are women, most of whom hold the lowest paying jobs (ILO).
Add to this:
gender-based violence in the workplace (ILO),
the gender wage gap (18% in Asia’s garment, textile, and footwear sector, compared to a global average of 16% [ILO]),
and the fact that women bear the brunt of unpaid domestic labour (ILO).
In Lesotho, a 2019 report revealed “a widespread incidence of rape, sexual assault and harassment at multiple garment factories” (The Guardian). Women’s employment depended on their willingness to be raped by their male employers. One of the factories was a major supplier for Levi’s.
Consider this the next time you wear your “feminist” slogan T-shirt.
Garment workers make significantly less than a living wage (in USD/month)
Living wage source: Global Living Wage Coalition
Actual wage source: Clean Clothes Campaign
Most of them were young women.
In garment factory tragedies, the same thing can usually be said of the victims: “most of them were young women.”
(ILO Asia-Pacific via Flickr)
How fast fashion affects the environment
The Turag River in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is polluted by untreated wastewater from garment and dyeing factories. (Nushrat Yeasmin/REACH via Flickr)
Dead rivers
Communities in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and India all face the same problem: their rivers – used for food, washing, spirituality, and recreation – are biologically dead. Largely to blame are the garment factories and tanneries that dump untreated wastewater straight into waterways (CNN). This wastewater contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals like lead and mercury (RiverBlue).
As the pollutants build up in the rivers, sunlight can no longer penetrate the surface and aquatic plants and animals die. When this water is used for irrigation, carcinogenic textile dyes end up in vegetable crops (CNN).
It’s not a coincidence that corporations choose to manufacture garments in countries with limited environmental regulations. It’s a strategy – and countries seeking their business weaken the rules to encourage them to come (ILO). Even if rules are in place, they may not be enforced.
There is hope though. When countries do begin to mandate wastewater treatment, the rivers come back to life.
Polyester is plastic
Polyester, acrylic, spandex, nylon, and most “vegan” leathers all come from the same source: fossil fuels. These synthetic fibres already make up 69% of new textiles and that number is expected to grow to 75% by 2030 (Synthetics Anonymous).
The ways fossil fuels and plastic waste contribute to climate change and environmental degradation are well-documented. Like other forms of plastic, synthetic clothing is permanent whether it’s sitting in a landfill or washed out to sea.
Aiming to be more sustainable, many brands are turning to “recycled polyester,” which is PET from plastic bottles that has been turned into textiles. PET is an easily recycled form of plastic that could be repeatedly made into new water bottles. By using it for clothing, we give it one last stop before the landfill (Synthetics Anonymous). The high demand for rPET clothing has also led to another problem: it might not be recycled at all (Apparel Insider).
MICROPLASTICS
Every time you wash synthetic garments they shed microplastics. These travel through the sewage system and end up in lakes, rivers, and oceans, which in turn end up in our drinking water. A 2017 study found microplastics in 94% of drinking water samples taken in the United States (The Guardian). Microplastics have also been found in aquatic life (including one in three fish we eat) and human lung tissue (Synthetics Anonymous).
There are too many clothes
The city of Accra, Ghana, is home to one of the largest secondhand clothing markets in the world. 30,000 people work in Kantamanto Market selling clothes shipped from the global north. The OR Foundation estimates that about 15 million garments arrive at Kantamanto Market each week, roughly 40% of which ends up as waste (Apparel Insider).
According to The OR Foundation founder, Liz Ricketts, “Accra lacks the landfill space for this clothing waste, so much of it is burned in the open air, swept into the gutter from where it eventually makes its way to the sea, or dumped in informal settlements where Accra’s most vulnerable citizens live.”
At the same time, the rate of garment production and consumption is ever-increasing. From 1960 to 2018, the amount of clothing and footwear sent to American landfills increased almost tenfold (EPA), while the population less than doubled. And from 2000 to 2018, clothing waste doubled.
Where do our clothes go?
Exact numbers are hard to find and therefore this is a rough collage based on various data sets: 1 Fashion Takes Action; 2 The Atlantic; 3 SMART; 4 Apparel Insider.
No fabric or technology will make up for the quantity of clothing we consume.
A warehouse processes bales of unsold secondhand clothing. (MPCA Photos via Flickr)
Progress toward a sustainable fashion industry
Legislating ethical working conditions
BANGLADESH ACCORD
After the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, over 200 clothing brands, mostly from Europe, joined to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. What made it remarkable was that it:
was signed by garment workers’ unions, factories, and clothing brands
requires brands to help pay for safety upgrades
is legally binding
In eight years, the Accord conducted over 38,000 factory inspections at over 1,600 factories. By January 2021, 93% of issues identified by the Accord were fixed. These upgrades included things like clear and accessible emergency exits, reduced fire hazards, and structural capacity plans.
Set to expire in summer 2021, the Bangladesh Accord was ultimately renewed and expanded.
GARMENT WORKER PROTECTION ACT
Contrary to the positive connotations of “Made in USA,” Los Angeles has long been known for its sweatshops, employing undocumented workers and paying them by the piece – as low as $3 per hour – to work in poorly ventilated rat-infested rooms (LA Times).
In 2021, the Garment Worker Protection Act was signed, requiring garment factories to pay at least minimum wage and holding brands partially responsible for these wages.
Sustainable technology in fashion
TEXTILE RECYCLING
For a long time textile recycling – really downcycling – has been limited to chopping up fibres to use for carpet padding or repurposing cotton garments as industrial rags.
In the past few years, there have been several pilot projects of chemical textile recycling, with the aim of being able to recycle textiles into new textiles. Through various methods, chemical textile recycling is able to separate fibres (e.g., the cotton and polyester fibres from a T-shirt). Many forms of chemical recycling still use high volumes of toxic chemicals and/or energy which undermines environmental benefits (Fashion Takes Action).
Ultimately, the capacity of textile recycling is nowhere near the amount of clothing being produced and discarded. While this technology is exciting, it cannot be used to defend ever-increasing production volumes.
Garment workers in Turkey. (IndustriALL Global Union via Flickr)
Fashion Revolution
Fashion Revolution is the world’s largest fashion activism movement. Founded by Carry Somers and Orsola de Castro after the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, it quickly grew into a global movement with grassroots organizers in around 90 countries putting on events and raising awareness in their communities.
Fashion Revolution’s mission is for a clean, safe, fair, transparent and accountable fashion industry. From its first #WhoMadeMyClothes campaign to its yearly flagship report, the Fashion Transparency Index, the organization has demanded transparency from the fashion industry as a first step: we cannot change what we do not know.
Find your local chapter to get involved!
What you can do about fast fashion
Consume less
Wear what you already own
Mend your clothes
Wash your clothes less often and follow care instructions
Learn how to sew
Swap/borrow clothes from friends
Say no to giveaway/event T-shirts and tote bags
Shop better
Prioritize secondhand
Choose sustainable brands when you do buy new
Sew your own clothes using sustainable/thrifted fabrics – and don’t make more than you need
Only buy clothes you love and will value
Look for reliable sustainable certifications like B Corp, GOTS, and Oeko-Tex