When was the last time you bought a cheap piece of clothing and how often do you do it? Do you buy clothes when you don’t need them, just because you came across huge discounts in stores? Do you throw away clothes that you no longer need?
If you found yourself in the answers to these questions, read how fast fashion and cheap clothes affect climate change.
It may seem naive, or even cute, the joy when you come across an interesting blouse with a chic design, and in a store from the world’s leading brands in the industry. In addition to the fact that it is “branded”, you find it at a tempting price, so you immediately compare: “ah, that’s as much as two packs of cigarettes!” and the decision has already been made.
Of course, the story of the blouse, how it ended up in the window and what path it took to get to you, does not even cross your mind. But it is time to start thinking about these things because this practice and, in general, fast fashion is not a naive thing at all.
Just one aspect of the dark side of fast fashion is its contribution to air pollution – a global problem that requires urgent measures and long-term strategies, a problem that particularly affects less developed countries like ours. According to a Business Insider study, clothing production contributes as much as 10% to overall carbon dioxide emissions, and that’s just within Europe.
But in addition to this aspect, there is inevitably the irresponsible enormous consumption of water within clothing production – the fashion industry is the second largest consumer of water, but also the second largest polluter of water in the world because the very water used in the process of dyeing clothes ends up in rivers, streams, seas and oceans, leaving serious and long-term consequences.
Furthermore, major global brands use uneco-friendly materials such as polyester, acrylic, etc. that take hundreds of years to decompose, involve intensive energy processes and resources, and of course there is a huge problem with cheap labor, given that the factories of these fashion giants are most often located in economically underdeveloped countries. Thus, the argument that is often used that cheap clothing is of enormous benefit to poor people automatically falls apart when we realize that it comes from poor people and their exploitation, which can best be described as “modern slavery”.
And here we are, in front of a window with a chic blouse with an interesting design from that, the dark side of the story. But what can we, as individuals, do?
For starters, a huge step is making a wise choice when buying clothes, and for this, as for many other things in life, the rule applies: it is better to be rare but of good quality! When it comes to clothing, it is better to buy pieces made from environmentally friendly materials and of course, to avoid fast and cheap fashion, no matter how tempting it may seem at times. Recycling and reusing textiles are other very important things we can do when we no longer need specific pieces of clothing. Education, spreading the information we ourselves possess, are also of enormous contribution to raising awareness about the harmful effects of fast fashion on overall health and the future of our planet. And finally, the best way to approach positive change is not next time, nor this piece of clothing, but right now, NOW!
