The Impact of Fast Fashion – I have been asked on many occasions to be a guest speaker and talk about the impact of Fast Fashion with a focus on my own business perspective ROOBEDO. I am available for bookings – and here is a summary of one of my presentations.
Fast Fashion Fix? by ROOBEDO, Ruth Morris, est 1999
I run my own small sustainable fashion and homeware brand, established in 1999
Based in Pitlochry, I design, make and sell my own designs globally through my website.
I work with organic cottons, Scottish tweeds and reuse discarded fabrics to make my products. It is slow fashion – it that takes time to create as I hand cut and finish with hand stitching. Customers make an order and then wait 3-4 weeks for me to make the garment. It is sustainable.
(But over the last few years, I am creating less and repairing more.)
I teach on the Fashion and Textiles course at Dundee & Angus College.
When I was asked to come today todo this talk, I wanted to start with a thought.
‘Sugar’
We LOVE it, but we have been educated that it’s bad for us if we eat too much. It actually comes with a public health warning – we have special labels on all the food that we buy to help us make choices, like the traffic light system. Scientists and government have told us that we should limit our intake to stay healthy. Just 6 spoonfulls a day is the acceptable measure.
But I’ve been asked here to talk about Fast Fashion. It’s happened fast – exploding this century. We love getting new clothes – we look good, we feel good – it’s cheap and accessible to all, and designed to be very tempting. But a bit like sugar has a devastating effect on our bodies, the Fast Fashion model needs to change because it’s having a devastating effect on the planet, which in turn is bad for us. Fast fashion isn’t really cheap. We ARE paying for it.
Fast Fashion needs a public health warning, just like sugar – we need to be educated and be able to make the right choices. Brands need to be accountable and changes need to happen.
FACT: The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world. The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions. (Morgan McFall-Johnsen, 2020)
Fast fashion is ‘fast’ in a number of senses: the changes in fashion are fast, the rate of production is fast; the customer’s decision to purchase is fast; delivery is fast; and garments are worn fast – usually only a few times before being discarded.
The rise of fast fashion has had devastating consequences, from its reliance on plastic fabrics and its enormous carbon footprint to its erosion of workers’ rights.
Fast Fashion uses cheap synthetic fabrics are in order to keep costs low. Polyester is the most widely used of these synthetic fibres and is now found in over half of all textiles produced. It is a type of plastic derived from crude oil and natural gas – also used to make items such as plastic bottles.
WATER POLLUTION AND DEPLETION
Every year the sector requires 93 billion cubic meters of water, which is enough to meet the consumption needs of five million people, and is responsible for around 20% of industrial water pollution as a result of textile treatment and dyeing. (Source: Alex Crumbie, Ethical Consumer, April 2023)
Textile wastewater is one of the most polluted wastewater due to its high chemical oxygen demand (COD), intense color, high pH, high temperature and low biodegradability. Synthetic dyes in large-scale production can cause health problems (allergies and skin irritation), harm marine animals due to toxic effects (mutagenic or carcinogenic).
(Source: Dr Gulsah Baskan, 03/02/22 https://smartwatermagazine.com/blogs/gulsah-mersin/fast-fashion-toxic-clothing)
And after production, fast fashion continues giving us problems.
Affordable clothes are mainly manufactured from synthetic textile fibres that cause microplastic pollution in water. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation states that clothes release half a million tonnes of microfibres into the ocean every year, equivalent to more than 50 billion plastic bottles. These fibres have been found almost everywhere: from the summit of Mount Everest to the placentas of unborn babies. We still do not know the effects they may have.
And then there’s clothing and textile waste. Whether your clothes no longer fit or aren’t in style, 57% of discarded, unsold, and used clothing ends up in landfills.
HABITAT DESTRUCTION AND POLLUTION
There are also numerous problems with other materials. For example, cotton production uses 6% of the world’s pesticides and 16% of insecticides. And rivers have been diverted to water the cotton crops creating areas of desert, like the Aral Sea located on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, once the fourth largest inland sea in the world.
HIGH CARBON FOOTPRINT
The industry also has a heavy carbon footprint, which is responsible for up to 10% of total global carbon emissions and estimated to increase by 50% by 2030.
RESSOURCES DEPLETION
What are the solutions and ways pupils could get involved e.g. consuming less, slow fashion, buying secondhand, repairing clothing etc?
Greta Thunberg said in 2019 “But how about buying fewer new clothes?
Consuming less – #30wearschallenge is a way for people like you and me try to do something positive and embrace a more sustainable fashion industry. The #30wearschallenge is all about wearing every piece of clothing you buy at least 30 times. This movement strives to counter the wastefulness of “fast fashion” by focusing on buying quality pieces that we will wear at least thirty times before we discard them. Simply asking ourselves, “Will I wear this a minimum of thirty times?” while we’re shopping can help us to make choices that are better for the world at large as well as our wardrobes.
Rather than buying new, fall back in love with the clothes you already own.
Try shopping secondhand, swapping with a friend, renting special pieces
DIY customisation –
Surely we should be warned about this when we look on the label. Where is the traffic light system for clothing. Do we really need it – well, lets look at the effects of the Fast Fashion industry and the harsh carbon footprint it is having on our world.
Ask your local policymaker what they’re doing to create a fairer, safer, cleaner more transparent fashion industry. Your voice has power, so use it!
Email a brand: What’s in my clothes?
Write an email to a brand and ask #WhatsInMyClothes?
while fashion has a colossal negative impact, it also has the power and the potential to be a force for change
Before buying new clothes the most important thing to do is to stop and think first. Ask yourself, do you really need it?
Do you know where your clothes come from? Do you know what they are made from, do you know who made them and what the process was to get them into our shops?
Learn to sew – lots on YouTube, spend time with your Mum or Gran, Dad or Grandad – someone in your family or friendship group who has a skill, maybe learn to knit and learn to sew, learn to mend things in general.
Find a workshop or repair café near you – or book a sewing class together with a friend.
The Wardrobe aims to encourage more people to RE-USE, REPAIR & SHARE clothes (and everything else!). We sell good quality second-hand adults clothing, accessories, new and used books. We have a Free Section where each customer can take up to three free items per visit as we want to save as much as possible from going to waste – and to help those on a low income have dignified access to free clothes.
What can pupils do in school to combat and raise awareness?
Swop shop
Repair café
Donation / collection point
Ask your teachers to get an expert in to teach a fun upcycling sewing project
Extending the average life of clothes by just nine months would save £5 billion in resources used to supply, launder and dispose of clothing. — WRAP research
If the number of times a garment is worn were doubled on average, Greenhouse gas emissions would be 44% lower — Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future
Summary
Fast Fashion is designed to make us want and buy more and more. Readily available and cheap, cleverly marketed.
BUT it has a heavy carbon footprint, which is responsible for up to 10% of total global carbon emissions.
It’s made cheaply, over half of all Fast Fashion is made from manmade polyester fabric derived from PET which comes from oil and gas.
In production and washing it contruibutes to microplastic pollution.
And 57% of discarded, unsold, and used clothing ends up in landfills – which contributes to greenhouse gases.
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