“Fast Fashion” describes the second most polluting industry on earth after oil. Online stores such as Misguided and SHEIN sell clothing items at affordable prices, but the environmental cost is damaging.

Investing in fast fashion also means investing in its consequences. “We love to change our fashion, but this idea of changing fashion and fast fashion has created a real issue for textile waste accumulation,” said Sonja Salmon, associate professor in the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science at North Carolina State University.

According to Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, the fashion industry is the second largest consumer of the world’s water supply and produces 10 percent of all of human-caused carbon emissions. Rapid distribution of clothing also comes at the cost of underpaying workers who suffer from generally poor working conditions.

Facing the Consequences

“The fashion industry needs to fundamentally change in order to mitigate the environmental impact of fast fashion,” said Greg Gangi, associate director for clean technology and innovation and teaching professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He said the current industry model of purchasing and disposing of clothes adversely impacts the world’s resources.

Clothing manufacturing requires textile dyeing that utilizes toxic chemicals that often end up in oceans and lakes. “The toxic substances in the wastewater from these factories contaminate the fresh water that we drink and in which animals live,” said Fushcia-Ann Hoover, a social-eological systems scientist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The production of fabrics also releases microplastics into the water.

Clothing brands use fabrics such as polyester or nylon that take years to biodegrade. These fabrics then turn into microplastics — tiny pieces of non-biodegradable plastic. A 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated that laundering of synthetic textiles like polyester generate 35 percent of all microplastics in the oceans. As plastics degrade, they release chemicals such as bisphenol A or BPA. This chemical concentrates in fish tissues harming the food supply. “Plastic pollution is harmful because it travels through soil and water and can be consumed by wildlife, thus threatening the health of animals and humans,” said UNC-CH professor Gangi.

Energy-Intensive Process

Turning plastic fibers into textiles requires energy and petroleum-based products that release volatile particulate matter into the air. Supply chains require 10 times more energy to generate one ton of textiles than does the production of one ton of glass. Factories require electricity to wash, dry and dye the cloth. Shipping the garments often by ship and truck transport release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Ships burn bunker fuel that contains 1800 times more sulfur than domestic vehicle fuel, making shipping a major energy-polluting component.  From processing yarn and fabricating textiles, to transporting and selling clothes to customers, fast fashion adversely impacts the environment.

Fast fashion also poses societal problems. A 2018 US Department of Labor report found evidence of forced and child labor in the fashion industry in Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Philippines. The low cost and rapid pace of fast fashion mean supply chains often subcontract low- and middle-income countries for production. Gangi said marginalized communities – rather than consumers — bear the biggest burden of fast fashion habits.  Research shows that wages paid in some garment-producing countries remain too low to meet the basic needs of workers. In addition, workers face exposure to hazardous work environments.

Cost of Clothing Consumption

A review by the United Nations Environment Program and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reported that 62 million metric tons of apparel were consumed globally. The report asserted that fast fashion accounts for more annual carbon emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. The study forecast that fast fashion may contribute to a 50 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions within a decade. Many clothes end in landfils as lower quality clothing degrades after only a few times being worn. Many people opt to discard clothes rather than donate them when they’re worn out or no longer trendy. This cycle poses public health and environmental dangers to local communities that are often the site of landfills that can release toxic air emissions and leach pollutants into groundwater.

Gone are the days when people would buy a shirt and wear it for years. Rapid production means that sales and profits supersede human welfare, said UNC professor Gangi. Taking steps toward advocating for a green-friendly fashion industry and becoming environmentally-conscious consumers can help slow down climate change.