Since the ‘90s, many have enjoyed buying in excess and paying less. Fast fashion brands have offered the seemingly perfect solution, with low prices for virtually anything made to wear or use. 

These prices are too good to be true. What people do not consider when purchasing what they deem as “a good deal” or “knockoff” is the environment it is produced in, and where the item will end up once its cheap quality has been disposed of. 

In many cases, items produced for fast fashion brands such as Temu, Shein, and H&M are made in unsanitary facilities that do not have any governmental safety regulations.  The lack of attention to the laborers and materials used to mass produce their products has led to hundreds of deaths due to their exposure to toxic chemicals. This is a significant problem which has been pushed aside for decades, but now is the time to uncover these issues.

Laborers produce textiles for 14-16 hours a day, 7 days a week, making a pay so low that they struggle to support themselves and their families, despite working strenuously. Along with this, the spaces they work in can be cramped and hot, and many are treated horribly by their managers who could be verbally and physically abusive. 

This sounds terrible. Oftentimes, the items purchased from cheap fast fashion brands are created in work environments such as these. 

The result of these horrible working conditions is mass production, which leads to mass consumption turning into massive waste. These cheap textiles are too low quality to be sustained and used, so they are quick to be disposed of.

Depending on the materials used, some items pollute the surrounding air and water in their deterioration process, because they are made from synthetic materials such as polyester and nylons derived from fossil fuels. 

The populations surrounding the landfills face the bulk of the consequences of fast fashion. Most of the overwhelming amounts of textile waste is sent to other landfills in impoverished parts of the world. This, however, is not a solution. 

According to the Boston University School of Public Health, “These countries often have less advanced municipal waste systems, meaning that the environmental damage and health impacts of decomposing textiles will be much greater there than they would be in the United States.”

Fast fashion has several negative consequences that need to be considered. The only way to stop these issues is to stop purchasing from fast fashion brands and spread the word about how unethical these brands really are in their textile production, along with how the world as a whole is being polluted with unwanted clothes.

There are other sustainable ways to shop for clothes and other items for low prices. Thrift stores are a great example of sustainable shopping because anybody can both donate and purchase items for a good price. 

Anybody can do their part to help with the significant issues of fast fashion. It only starts with the acknowledgment and sharing of the issue as a whole.

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