Your clothes aren't as stylish as you think: An overview of the reality of fast fashion
For many people, fashion is a tool not just to clothe oneself but to express your personality. Each store showcases a wide variety of products and styles to fit every body type, season, and aesthetic.
As such, millions of designs are produced, sold, used, and discarded at never-before-seen rates everyday, mostly due to the creation of fast fashion and a focus on marketing disposable consumer goods.
But what happens behind each garment that is made? And what happens once it has been discarded?
More often than not, the answers to these questions are hidden in the dark.
What’s wrong with fast fashion?
Unbeknownst to many, fast fashion is the third most polluting industry in the entire world. From the oil and gas used to create synthetic fabrics to the chemical dyes that pollute rivers and choke communities, the end-to-end supply chain down to its end-of-life have been shown time and time again to exacerbate environmental and social issues.
A waste problem
The fashion industry is a major contributor to environmental degradation, generating an estimated 92 million metric tons of textile waste each year – the weight of over 6 million lorries worth of fabric waste.
Alarmingly, 85% of this waste ends up in landfills or is incinerated within a year of being produced. These landfills often include places like Kenya, Tanzania, and Chile – and in the context of Southeast Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, and more. These textile wastes often originate from more developed economies such as the US, Japan, the UK, and the European Union.
In the landfills, the garments continue to contribute to pollution and waste management crises, while also placing a burden on local communities that are ill-equipped to handle such volumes of discarded textiles.
Polluting environments and communities
In addition to the sheer volume of waste, the fashion industry is responsible for about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it the third-largest polluter worldwide.
For instance, producing just one cotton t-shirt requires 2,700 liters of water (around 11,250 glasses of water). Moreover, the dyeing and treatment of textiles contribute to approximately 20% of global industrial water pollution, as toxic chemicals often contaminate local water supplies, posing serious risks to both human health and biodiversity.
An example of this is in Xintang, China, the "denim capital of the world." Due to a lack of regulations and financial limitations, factories in Xintang discharge untreated wastewater directly into local rivers, turning them unnaturally blue and heavily contaminating them with toxic chemicals used in dyeing processes. This essentially devastates local aquatic ecosystems and renders the water unsafe for consumption.
Labour issues
The social implications of fast fashion are equally troubling. Many garment workers in Southeast Asia endure poor working conditions and receive wages far below what is needed to live. In countries like Cambodia and Vietnam, where the garment industry is a significant part of the economy, labor rights abuses are commonplace.
This reality underscores the importance of sustainable fashion as not just an environmental movement but also a social one. By promoting ethical practices and ensuring fair treatment for all workers involved in the supply chain, sustainable fashion aims to create a more equitable industry in the clothing industry.
The rise of ethical fashion
Fortunately, there is a growing awareness and demand for sustainable practices within the fashion industry.
Concepts like slow fashion—which emphasizes quality over quantity—are gaining traction among consumers who are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of their purchases. This shift presents an opportunity for businesses to adopt more sustainable models that prioritize eco-friendly materials and ethical labor practices.
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