FAST FASHION CAN NEVER BE SUSTAINABLE

BY JENNY LI

According to Wrap.org, An estimated £140 million worth of clothing is sent to UK landfill each year – these figures do not show signs of decreasing any time soon.

Greenwashing has become a prominent term in recent discussions in the economy of sustainable fashion. Sustainable Jungle gives a general definition of the term greenwashing as a, “process of using misleading or false information about a company’s operations and/or products to deceive customers and members of the public about their environmental impact”.

The first thing that comes to mind are the fast fashion companies with so called ‘sustainable’ ranges such as, H&M which used to have a Conscious Collection. Though to give them the benefit of the doubt, they have stopped this collection in favour of focusing on being transparent with their main line of clothing and accessories. For example, you can now track the manufacturing of their products and learn from their site, how to repair clothes amongst other information on maintaining sustainability with fashion. Also, the H&M group has been releasing yearly Sustainability Disclosure reports since the early 2000s. Their latest report in 2021 says that they’ve tripled their use of recycled materials in their garments from 5.8% 17.9%.

However, it may seem that a large global fast fashion company has finally committed to going all in to the sustainability cause, it most likely has more to do with a complaint filed last July 2022 in a New York federal court, over their ‘Conscious’ line. In the court filing the nature of the case is, “about H&M’s labelling, marketing, and advertising that is designed to mislead consumers about its products’ environmental attributes, through the use of false and misleading “environmental scorecards” for its products called “Sustainability Profiles.”” – essentially greenwashing.

If it takes a lawsuit over greenwashing to move the needle in the right direction for a 76 year old company to truly look into sustainable options for their garments, then we are nowhere near any goal of reducing garment waste. A December 2019 New York Times article reported that the “H&M group sells an estimated three billion articles of clothing per year. Its revenue makes it among the top three fashion retailers in the world”. With that fact in mind, there is no way that a company of this magnitude and selling power can be classed anywhere near sustainable and affirms that sustainability in fast fashion is an illusion; creating a false sense of security for the fashion junkies out there that can’t wait to get their hands on the next trending dubiously made £2 top.

Most recent example of greenwashing was the Boohoo by Kourtney Kardashian Barker sustainable collection. Ironic. Clearly, an attempt to cash-in on fans of the celebrity because, we all know she is most likely wearing a designer garment most of the time therefore, not likely the consistent Boohoo shopper. Boohoo uses this as an attempt to show their commitment to sustainability, saying in the description for this collection that they have “considered sustainability in so many ways”. One of which is using recycled materials but only on certain items, those with the ‘ready for the future’ leaf icon, use completely recycled materials. Once any hype for the collection is over then it all goes on sale for a staggeringly reduced price, some of which are at 72% off, going back down to the price of regular pieces on the site. industry. Students are drawn to fast fashion because it fits in their budget and throw away society is rampant among students, which dictates the shelf life of garments. The cheapness and quality of brands such as PrettyLittleThing, makes it clear that there’s no easy way to stop this.

£2 top.

How can selling strategies like this possibly contribute to sustainability? When it’s clear that they are continuing to make garments at a low cost, pricing them high before reducing their value to make them more sellable. One of Boohoo’s earliest sustainability targets is that by 2023 they would “launch resale and recycling offers across our brands”. It’s 2023 and there are no signs of this beginning to be implemented.

Instead they have an outlet section and continue to come out with new clothes as the ’new in’ section remains. Not that the resale or recycling of these garments would be any better for the environment and in the wider fast fashion space, there’s still a problem with overproduction that completely overshadows any ideas these types of companies have of becoming sustainable. Sustainability is a façade for fast fashion to appear moral and lacks any true intention of reducing waste, a fraudulent commitment to the environment that comes well below capitalistic greed.

It’s bewildering to think that the only way to reduce clothing waste is solely on the customer to figure out how to reuse, reduce, and recycle their clothing. It’s simply not enough! A real concerted effort needs to be made by these companies to actively affect the

Unless they significantly scale back production or get rid of their ‘new in’ sections to make a point that they are ending fast fashion and putting their attention towards resale or recycling tactics. But, there is hope currently. Since, for a long time, the onus has been on the customers who buy fast fashion to be the one that figures out a sustainable means of disposing of their clothes. It’s refreshing to see these retail giants step up in some ways, albeit, still having some distrust in how far they will go for this cause. At least they’re becoming self-aware. We also need to decondition fast fashion from our wardrobes, which doesn’t mean throw them away, but, reuse them and not treat that as a one-wear item and make sure the pieces that we do buy are essential.

Circular fashion. Good On You gives the definition of this as, a way of production that “ditches the linear “take-make-waste” model and instead asks the industry to close the loop on production, including responsible manufacturing, use and end-of-life for every garment”. This might be the best resolution to fast fashion companies so far, as some have alluded to working towards this direction for example, it is something noted in Boohoo’s sustainability plans. Good On You provides further insightful information on circular fashion but essentially, it’s about repurposing a garment over and over again until it cannot be repurposed anymore, giving even garments classed as non-recyclable, some ‘recyclability’.