The price we are paying for fashion

Falling garment prices over the last 20 years have made everyone buy more clothes than needed. It feels great until you find out the real story behind the trend.

The clothing industry produces between 2 and 8% of global carbon emissions, while textile dyeing is a major polluter of water. Fast fashion—where clothes move from idea to design to the mass market as quickly as possible—plays a significant role in this. The average person is buying 60% more clothing than 15 years ago, while each item is kept for only half as long.

All the discarded clothing—50 billion of which are discarded within a year of production—ends up in landfills or burned.

The fast fashion industry is affecting the environment even before production begins. The fashion sector consumes the second most water, using 700 gallons to make a cotton shirt and 2000 gallons to make a pair of jeans.

According to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, emissions from textile manufacturing alone are projected to skyrocket by 60% by 2030.

To counteract the negative impacts of fast fashion, many are embracing the mantra, “less is more.”

To address the concerns, the World Resources Institute advises businesses to invest in business models that use better quality products that can be reused. The UN launched the ‘Alliance for Sustainable Fashion’ to address the harm fast fashion has caused to the environment, and act upon the environmentally and socially destructive practices the fashion industry engages in.