Fast Fashion: An Environmental Crisis

Abstract

PLACES Student Paper Award (2023) (short paper winer). Over the course of recent decades, the production of clothing has become cheaper and more globalized than ever before. This can be attributed to a process known as fast fashion. According to a study published in Environmental Health journal, “fast” in this context refers to how quickly retailers are able to take clothing designs from the runway to on the racks in stores (Bick, et al., 2018). Global industrialization has contributed to clothing supply chains becoming international commodities, correlating with a massive shift for manufacturing and construction of garments to low and middle-income countries with cheap labor opportunities. This outsourcing of labor is done in hopes of companies trying to keep their prices and costs low. The United States consumes more garments than any other nation, with the average American throwing away approximately 80 pounds of clothing every year (Bick, et al., 2018). Fast fashion plays a huge part in this. Earth.org states that “retailers like Zara, Forever 21, and H&M make cheap and fashionable clothing to satisfy needs of young consumers” (Maiti, 2022). The fast fashion model pushes for accelerated times in production, consumption, and the lifespan of its produced clothing.