The Rise Of Fast Fashion
Shopping used to be an occasional act that would be done for the season changing or the factor of outgrowing your clothes. However, shopping is now a daily/weekly activity. With the rise of fast fashion, this has caused a shorter life cycle for clothing, more trends to keep up with and cheaper clothing. But the main question of all is Why fast fashion?
Fast fashion allows customers to shop the latest trends at a very cheap price. However, just like everything in life, it comes with a cost. Fast fashion is one of the largest contributions to pollution and resulting into exploitation of workers in third world countries. In the early 2000’s, fast fashion increased when digital shopping was at a peak. Brands such as TopShop, Zara and H&M produced knock off look alike items from expensive luxury brands and offered them at a much lower cost which allowed everyone to shop and wear the latest trends.
The Destruction Of Fast Fashion
At the rate that fast fashion is going, we will destroy the Earth. There is so many negative effects fast fashion has on the environment such as, pollution due to the toxic textiles which will result into global warming as well as the massive waste of textiles. More than 500Kg of clothing gets wasted yearly and this is due to fast fashion. Consumers are trying to stay on top of the latest trends which is causing the product life cycle to decrease drastically.
Sustainable Fashion
Sustainable fashion is clothing that is produced that does not have a big impact on the environment. An example of this can consist of the use of organic and natural materials, upcycling, ethical practices and many more. Not only does sustainable fashion focuses on the use of less harmful production, it also highlights ethical practices such as ensuring fair pay among the workers as well as ensuring that their work environment is safe.
Is Sustainable Fashion The Future?
The fashion industry currently, has a huge negative impact on the environment and if we do not do anything to stop it right now, our environment and natural resources are in deep trouble. Sustainable fashion is the future, it solves all the issues we are currently facing with fast fashion. It creates a better impact on the environment by producing and using durable fabrics as well as making sure the workers are treated fairly and safe. The three top benefits of sustainable fashion are improving quality by creating durable products. With fast fashion comes a lot of consequences and one being the decrease in good quality products. However, sustainable fashion produces durable and high-quality products which results in longer life cycles which means less clothes will be wasted. Also, it also preserves the natural resources.
With the use of biodegradable and chemical free materials, we are protecting the environments natural resources like land, energy and water. Lastly, sustainable fashion is more cost effective in the long run as consumers will not need to be so much clothing as they do now.
What Can We Do To Help
As consumers, this issue may not personally affect us right now, however, soon it will. What we can do to help is to be selective on brands we shop from, it would be more ideal to shop eco-friendly brands, as well as think about quality over quantity. There is no need to be shopping weekly and overflowing your closets and dressers, try investing into clothing with better quality so they can last longer. This will not only save you money but reduce the amount of clothes that get wasted in the landfills. Lastly, try upcycling your clothes before you think about throwing them away.
No comments:
Post a Comment