INEWORD P

Monday,

May 1, 2023 | Pinewood International American School of Thessaloniki

Fast Fashion: Alarming Damages—Are We Taking Any Action?

M

atteo Huang | Contributing Writer

As I was reading the news just recently, a headline grabbed my attention. It said “Just Stop Oil activists throw soup at Van Gogh’ s Sunflowers.” But it wasn’t until I delved further into this topic that I realized that the intention was never to damage the painting–especially knowing it’s kept under protective glass–but was a necessary means to provide activists a platform to inform people so they could hold companies accountable for their actions. And I must agree, any press is good press: it caught many people’s attention and pushed the issue into controversy. However, I do not see the same press, the same “spotlight” focused on fast fashion companies; in fact, a study conducted by UBS concluded that most shoppers do not understand the impacts of fast fashion environmentally, let alone the ethical concerns. Though this number is growing, not enough know, or care to make a change.

Statistically, fashion industries are one of the most polluting industries in the world, accounting for roughly 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of industrial water pollution, drying up rivers and polluting clean sources of water. In just one year, we release 500,000 tons of microfibres into the ocean simply by washing our clothes. To put that into perspective, that’s about 50 billion plastic water bottles. An average of 1,800 gal- lons of water are needed to produce one pair of jeans–that’s enough water for you to drink for 10 years! And that’s jeans alone–think of all the other products you purchase without giving much, if any, thought into it! Over half of the garments produced every year are thrown away or incinerated within 12 months, burned or trashed in landfill. Despite companies acknowledging this, they fail to make improvements, and it is now the job of activists, of the press, to advocate for a change in our money-oriented world.

The advertised benefits of fast fashion, convenience and affordability, are taken at the expense of others; we are not only exploiting our environment, we are also exploiting laborers in poorer countries. According to a report by the Clean Clothes Campaign, an estimated 93% of workers in the fast fashion industry earn less than a living wage. Furthermore, a study by Oxfam revealed that garment workers in Bangladesh earn only 2.5% of the final retail price of the clothing they produce. When surveyed, they admitted these wages could not make ends meet. These very people are what is exchanged for “convenience and affordability”. This is the actual price of a garment

Our generation, too, is to blame for our environment. The monthly, if not weekly “trending look” our generation so promotes drives people in purchasing products they will not wear