FAST FASHION AND THE DAMAGE DONE
Fast fashion revolutionised the clothing industry, boosting the growth of some of the high street’s best-known brands.
The pace of production has ramped up in recent years with the turnaround of designs offering cheaper versions of catwalk trends becoming ever faster.
Fuelled by the internet, globalisation and technological innovation, fast fashion operates on a far faster product turnover than traditional garment manufacturing. Usually retailers would offer new clothes lines every few months but fast fashion brands now offer them every few weeks. Constant turnover and affordable prices are designed to lure shoppers at all income levels. In past years, factories made roughly 40,000 garments across four different styles in 20 weeks.
Now, suppliers have to manufacture
four styles at 500 garments per week for five weeks. The use of cheap labour in poorer countries allows firms to increase production speed and volume.
The industry has other negative impacts. Fast fashion is reportedly responsible for around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Water and microplastic pollution is caused by the industry’s synthetic materials and toxic chemicals – some 2.5 billion gallons of textile waste contaminate around 70% of Asia’s waters.
Last month, images emerged of the damage done by the industry after piles of unwanted clothing washed up on beaches in Accra, Ghana.
Ghana is one of the main recipients of the UK’s used clothing but nearly half of the imported clothes there cannot be resold because they are either of low quality or are one-off items that no one wants such as hen party T-shirts or novelty sports kit.
These unwanted items are dumped in landfill sites or end up polluting rivers, beaches and the sea. Each year, an estimated 39,000 tons of clothes from developed countries are also being dumped in Chile’s Atacama Desert.