Do you ever wonder what happens to the clothes we donate or throw away? While many people think they are donating their clothes to people in need or that they will magically disappear once thrown away, the reality is much different. To find out what happens to our clothes, we must shed light on the environmental impact that often goes unnoticed. And to understand this, we need to know what fast fashion is and how it harms our environment.
Fast Fashion is the rapid production of trendy and low-cost garments. These garments are mass-produced in factories and then shipped to stores or directly to consumers. Fast Fashion prioritizes speed and efficiency to meet the demand for clothing quickly. Now, what's wrong with that? Well, fast fashion creates pollution and uses non-renewable resources, contributing to the waste in our oceans and landfills.
Producing Fast Fashion emits pollution and an article from Greenpeace tells us that “different synthetic fibers like polyester are often blended to make fabric, making them hard to separate. And when it's left to break down in landfills, it pollutes the air, soil, and water with plastic microfibers and hazardous chemicals.”(Abelvik-Lawson). This reveals how just the process of creating garments in the fast fashion industry pollutes our earth. Using this faster and more efficient way to produce fabrics, we are poisoning our earth with chemicals and plastics by leaving them to decompose. So while this structure might be more logical for the factories that produce these garments, it is harming our environment.
Fast fashion is also contributing to waste. There is an overproduction of clothes due to the high demand in the garment industry. And it’s no secret that people buy excessive clothing. Why wouldn’t you? We all want to keep up with the latest trendy clothes. But when we have too many clothes and our closets practically burst with fabric, we donate or throw our clothing away. A study from Columbia University shows that “less than one percent of clothing is recycled to make new clothes”(Cho). By using non-renewable resources to produce these low-quality garments, we are contributing to the waste on earth by using practically non-renewable resources to create these garments.
And if less than one percent of clothing is actually recycled then where is the rest of it going? Research conducted from Princeton shows that “57% of all discarded clothing ends up in landfill”(Le). And because of the faster and industrialized way to create garments, our clothing is made of plastic microfibers. And while our clothes sit in landfills, these plastic microfibers eventually end up in the ocean. This can happen in many different ways, from surface runoff to waterways to our oceans. Our oceans are being littered with these microplastics coming from our clothes, which is bad for the ocean and sea creatures in the ocean. While these microplastics can come from many different things, such as tires, carpets, and bottles, clothing is a main contributor to this problem.
We now know what Fast Fashion is and how it is harmful to the environment. Although it might have not been a commonly known problem years ago, it's becoming a more popular issue. Now, what are ways we can help stop or reduce this problem? Well, we can start by spreading awareness about this issue, because in this place, one person might not be able to make a difference. But if more people become aware of this problem then more people can contribute to stopping this issue. My point is that although there is already so much microplastics in the ocean due to this issue, we can do something about it, whether it's repurposing old clothing or boycotting fast fashion brands. Instead of memorializing all of the damage already done, we should come up with solutions to prevent this issue from advancing.
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