Pollution
Fast fashion is one of the largest polluters of clean water in the world. According to Human Rights Pulse, 85% of textiles are thrown away every year. This means that the planet is exposed to toxic waste for up to 200 years after they are discarded.
Explosion Of Waste
Fast fashion is also responsible for the explosion of waste. It requires massive amounts of land to produce the materials that are used in apparel. This, in turn, increases the pressure on the planet. The same goes for transportation. In 2006, 2.5 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste was collected. It took over 20 years for the landfills of Australia to decompose the textiles. In the UK, it takes over a century for textile waste to be fully decomposed.
Quality
Another impact of fast fashion is its low quality. As a matter of fact, some people believe that cheap clothing does not last as long as high-end clothing. This is because it is made with cheaper materials, often resulting in poor quality. In some cases, workers have to work in poor conditions.
Carbon Footprints
In addition, fast fashion creates an outsize carbon footprint. It uses the same amount of energy as transportation and creates the same amount of pollution. In fact, the same amount of energy is required to produce a dollar’s worth of clothes as a dollar’s worth of gas.
