A heightened awareness toward the fashion industry’s environmental impact has emerged in recent years, stirred by mounting evidence of intensified global clothing consumption and driven by the increased accessibility and affordability of clothing. Fast fashion is a recent trend where consumers are spending low amounts on low quality items they will only wear a limited amount of times and then discard it. This is creating a major waste issue with a short product lifespan and additionally it is creating higher gas emission as factories are working overtime to produce more items. “Unfortunately, the increased accessibility and affordability of clothing simultaneously propagated not only a culture of excessive consumption but also a quicker disposal of clothing, as exemplified by an approximately 20% decrease in the average number of times a garment is worn before it is abandoned.”(Sustainability Initiatives in the Fashion Industry By Jennifer Xiaopei Wu and Li Li)Not only is the production being ramped up, it also is using synthetic materials that are bad for the environment as they require significant resources to produce. To see just how big the negative impact is, please refer to the statistics below with shocking information.
So how can you be a conscious consumer in the fashion industry?
-Invest in brands that are not fast fashion producers and sell better quality (non-synthetic material) pieces
-Don’t throw away old clothes, re-use what you have!
-Repair brokenitems and give them another couple years of use
-Invest in ethical brands with a message–such as OBAAT!
-Buy second hand clothes
-Donate old clothes to friends or charities
