The more our lives become reliant on technology, the easier it is to quickly grab something cheap off the internet. Then, we can have it delivered to our door in only a couple of days. A website with a pretty home page and fashionable clothes only shows you the product, and not the excess waste. Just the cute clothing is portrayed, and not the colossal amounts of clothing dumped into landfills and scattered throughout the world. Every year, 1.92 million tons of textile waste is produced.¹ Some examples of fast fashion industries are Shein, H&M, and Zara.²

Preventing fast fashion waste doesn’t mean not buying new clothes, it simply means not buying huge amounts of clothes that we don’t actually need. Additionally, it means shopping from eco-friendly brands rather than wasteful companies.Along with our hardly worn clothes being poured into landfills, many of them are dumped onto poorer countries. Not only is it cruel to dump clothes that people didn’t even wear onto their land, but it is also a waste of material and labor. One area that receives a lot of textile waste is Accra, Ghana. The old clothing is dumped onto their beaches, and then the clothes flow into bodies of water and get buried beneath the sand. Because there are so many clothes lying around, the people have to burn the clothes, which makes the air toxic.³ Accra is just one example of an area that is needlessly polluted due to the wastefulness of wealthier countries. 

Fast fashion doesn’t just pollute poor countries, but it also uses a significant amount of carbon dioxide. In total, the industry produces 10% of global carbon dioxide usage. ⁴

Something I’m noticing is that there is a pattern in many climate issues. Plastic requires a large amount of carbon dioxide to be made, just like fast fashion. Then, plastic litters and pollutes the environment just like fast fashion does. Just like how we use plastic water bottles once, with clothing we must first think about the purpose of why we’re purchasing an item, and we must also be conscious of throwing away clothes that are still usable. Instead of discarding something that we may not need anymore, we can donate it or pass it along so that it doesn’t end up as waste. 

When we are trying to solve these climate issues, it really comes down to our everyday actions. Although people in power largely contribute to climate change through oil drillings or minings, we are also contributors. We are the cause of litter that is tossed around the world in the oceans or land, and we are the cause of much of the pollution that is created. By being more conscious of ourselves and the environment, we simultaneously prevent climate destruction from occurring. However, this does not mean that we should just take all of the climate blame on ourselves. It is important to put pressure on leaders and businesses to make changes in decisions that make just as large an impact on the environment as we do. 

The next time you go shopping, keep in mind what you are shopping for – a gift that will last for years, or a piece of clothing that will pollute the environment in a poorer country? Just like so many other climate issues, fast fashion is not just an environmental issue, but it is also a human rights issue. People in poorer communities should not be bearing the burden of being forced to burn rich people’s clothes or have to clean it off of their beaches. By being aware of our purchases, we can help keep the earth clean, while preventing unnecessary waste from polluting the shores of innocent countries. 

Image: Bernetti, Martin. “View of used clothes discarded in the Atacama desert, in Alto Hospicio, Iquique, Chile.” Fox 10, 26 September 2021, https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/the-price-of-fast-fashion-how-quick-trends-throwaway-culture-harms-the-planet

1. https://earth.org/statistics-about-fast-fashion-waste/#:~:text=1.,on%20landfill%20sites%20every%20second
2. https://earth.org/fast-fashion-companies/
3. https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/2022/03/the-massive-dumping-of-discarded-clothing-in-ghana-and-chile-must-stop/#:~:text=Western%20countries%20dump%20huge%20quantities,polluting%20than%20it%20already%20is
4. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/sustainability/fast_fashion#:~:text=The%20fast%20fashion%20industry%20is,of%20global%20carbon%20dioxide%20emissions