Plastic Waste in Fast Fashion
What makes a brand, fast fashion?
“Fast fashion is a design, manufacturing, and marketing method focused on rapidly producing high volumes of clothing.”
The Good Trade; What Is Fast Fashion Anyway?
Plastic in clothing?
89% of PrettyLittleThing clothings contain new plastic, Missguided and Boohoo 84%, ASOS 65%.
On average 80% of clothings on UK fast fashion websites contain new plastic significantly impacting the environment.
RSA; Half of ‘fast fashion’ entirely made of new plastics – study.
Why?
Polyester is the most used plastic material in textile production due to its cheap and time-efficient production – popularised by fast fashion brands.
CP3 Concordia; Microplastic Pollution and the Fast Fashion Industry.
Chemicals in clothing?
Lead is a chemical element which is used to soften plastic. It can be unhealthy to human exposure based on amount of exposure – especially to children as it can damage the brain and nervous system impacting development and behaviour.
It was found that SHEIN was selling a toddler’s jacket containing 20 times over the amount of lead deemed as safe for children by the Canada’s Health Department.
ZAFUL and ALIEXPRESS have been found to sell clothing containing phthalates, a group of chemicals making plastic more durable, which can increase likelihood of childhood asthma.
Good on you; Toxic Chemicals in Fast Fashion Could Be Harming Your Health.
Phthalates were found to affect fertility and development, increasing likelihood of obesity and developing type 2 diabetes as the chemicals affect hormones regulating fat tissue.
National Center For Health Research; What Are Phthalates and How Do They Affect Your Health?
Environmental causes?
When fast fashion clothing containing plastic is washed, the synthetic fibres of the fabric break down into non-biodegradable microplastics which goes through the pipes and gets dumped into the ocean, eventually ending up in seafood that we eat.
This is the biggest threat to the marine ecosystem.
Wearme Fashion; Sustainable Fashion
Where does the clothing go when you get rid of them?
When you return an item, even unworn, it is likely going to end up in a landfill as it is cheaper for brands to throw them away rather than process them.
Clothes that are thrown away end up in a landfill, and due to their high level of plastic, each individual garment will take more than 200 years to decompose.
Rio, Why your brand-new returns end up in landfill, not a warehouse.
Roadrunner; The Environmental Crisis Caused By Textile Waste
This is what has led to the Chile Atacama Desert to become such a big clothing dump that it can be seen from space.
What sustainable materials and companies are out there?
As cotton alternatives TINTEX, Java kapok, INDUO, and Organic Cotton Colours have developed more natural fabrics that are not negatively impactful to our environment to make, able to be worn for a longer time, and as they are made naturally, when disposed they will simply return to the earth.
OLIVENLENDER and COCOON make silk out of natural resources.
RECOVER is a company that uses denim waste and worn denim, deconstructs, and reconstruct them into new pairs of jeans. They also make their own natural textiles.
GELATEX and Panama trimmings make different types of leather to replace PU leather which is actually very harmful to the environment, using recycled leather and developing processes to get rid of chemical use.
Wearme Fashion; Sustainable Fashion
For more information here is a list of recommended articles, books, and websites:
⁃ Sustainable Fashion by Wearme Fashion
⁃ RSA; Half of ‘fast fashion’ entirely made of new plastics – study.
⁃ CP3 Concordia; Microplastic Pollution and the Fast Fashion Industry.
⁃ Good on you; Toxic Chemicals in Fast Fashion Could Be Harming Your Health.
⁃ National Center For Health Research; What Are Phthalates and How Do They Affect Your Health?
⁃ Green Peace; How fast fashion fuels climate change, plastic pollution, and violence.
⁃ Wired; Can the Fashion Industry Kick Its Plastic Addiction?
⁃ Unsustainable; How to Stop Fast Fashion, and the Environmental Cost
⁃ Global Citizen; 7 Sustainable Ways You Can Fight Fast Fashion at Home
