Fast fashions waste and wreckage

By ariel miller

Staff writer

As does a majority of the community, you have almost certainly online-shopped for last-minute clothes, and although it’s faster, cheaper, and more convenient; the sources we might get them from are often unreliable and environmentally unethical. In short, this simplified and immoral version of shopping is widely known as “fast fashion”. But we can’t simply state something without giving relevant and reasonable evidence. The reason that fast fashion is relevant to us–especially teens–is because a lot of us are either unaware of the consequences of fast fashion, or we simply do not have the funds for higher-end or upcycled fashion. But let me explain a little bit more in-depth the effects that the use of fast fashion has on both our environment and on our people. For starters, fast fashion produces an excessive amount of waste, depletes our natural resources, and fills landfills with unnecessary waste. According to Rashmila Maiti writing for Earth.org, there are three general environmental factors that are affected the most by fast fashion. This includes water, microplastics, and energy. Maiti points out that fast fashion is the second-largest polluter of water, contributes to 35% of all microplastics in the environment, and involves an energy-intensive production process that releases harmful particulate matter, which negatively impacts the environment. However, fast fashion does not only negatively impact the environment, but our community and society as well. As Seaside Sustainability states, the pollutive aspects of fast fashion are consistently putting communities at risk; such as its effects on soil, groundwater, and the atmosphere. Although fast fashion may seem faster, cheaper, and more convenient, the consistent negative societal and environmental impacts are far more important and essential to the well-being of our people.