How fast fashion is the biggest threat to climate change and carbon emission?
According to the UN Environment Programme, the fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for 8-10% of global carbon emissions which is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.
Fast Fashion is a new trend that the runway (a place in a fashion show where models wear designer clothes walk the ramp) is a new trend that takes the design to the people quickly and easily. Delivers at low prices. Fast fashion includes many merchants like H&M, Primark, Zara, Forever 21. People’s attention is more on the rapid production and clothes sold at cheap prices. They do not know how much waste or dirt is generated in the method of making cloth, which pollutes the environment.
Do you know Fast fashion includes many merchants like H&M, Primark, Zara, Forever 21 as well?
On the other hand, many times it happens that where the quality of the product is compromised, the money spent on it is more, that is, in reality, that product has no importance. Talking about street shopping, in the mutual and untold understanding between the merchant and the customer, the quality of the cloth remains low, as well as its price is also low, due to which the customer uses the clothes for a short period. Eventually, the customer unceremoniously throws them out of his wardrobe and turns to the new trend. This wastes a lot of cloth. There is a worldwide demand for viscose and rayon.
Wood pulp gets viscose and rayon. This pulp is found in old and disappearing forests. For which the forests are being cut openly. Do you know that every year more than 150 million trees are cut to make clothes? The forests of Indonesia, Canada, and Amazon rain forest are being sacrificed for your clothes.
What is fast fashion?
Simply put, fast-fashion or casual fashion after a short period is such a new trend that the runway (a place in a fashion show where models wear designer clothes walk the ramp) takes the design to the people quickly and easily. More carbon monoxide is released by maritime shipping and international flights than is due to textile production. Not only this, textile dyeing and related activities contribute 20 percent to industrial water pollution. While some brands are taking a step towards providing sustainable fashion. On the other hand, many times it happens that where the quality of the product is compromised, the money spent on it is more, that is, in reality, that product has no importance.
Since no break in fast fashion harms the environment, designers and some customers have turned to sustainable fashion.
How fast fashion is destroying the planet?
Well, fast fashion has become so fast that every year more than 100 billion clothes are being made around the world. The garment industry is the second-largest business after the oil industry. Garment mills have come up in almost every country. In which thousands of chemicals are being used. Do not consider your clothes less than plastic, because the pile of clothes we have prepared in the pursuit of following fast fashion has joined the chain of never-ending. The cloth for the customers is a few pounds or rupees, but the damage done to the ecosystem behind it is getting quite expensive.
Things that should draw your attention
1.The cultivation of cotton reduces the fertilizer capacity of the soil as compared to any other crop. It requires comparatively more water. The cultivation of cotton also requires a lot of fertilizers, pesticides, and other harmful chemicals.
2. Do you know that 22.5 percent of the total pesticides are used in cotton cultivation in the world alone? And about 2,700 liters of water are needed to make just one T-shirt of cotton. That is, cotton spoils the soil, and pesticides, other harmful chemicals contaminate the water. Next comes polyester and nylon. Fossil fuel is used to make it. That is natural coal. Earth is being dug to get it, forests are being cut and the smoke coming out of factories is making the air poisonous.
Why is sustainable fashion necessary?
Could sustainable fashion ever be the answer to supporting human rights?
Yes, but it has to be combined with two steps:
1- End fast fashion for good, and replace it with sustainable fashion. That is, now neither exploitation of laborers nor destruction of the planet. It is like feeding two birds with one beak.
2- Stay away from the consumerist lifestyle that everyone maintains, be it on social media or elsewhere. We do not need a lot of things to look attractive and stylish.
3. Sustainable brands or not, less is always more. The less we care about stuff, the more we care about human values.
What are the options for keeping sustainable fashion alive?
Those who can’t afford sustainable fashion, they can better recycle and rent their clothes than waste them. This is doable for everyone. Apart from this, it is better to spend wisely on clothes than to spend extravagantly on them.
How to adopt sustainable dressing?
Many designers believe that it would be a better idea to introduce people to designs that they can wear all season, instead of giving them seasonal trends. If customers pay attention to good quality clothes, then they can wear them in different styles. By doing this, there will be beautiful clothes in the wardrobe and also sustainable for the environment.
Sustainable fashion is not just a practice but a “socio-economic movement”. The aim of which is not just to make money but to make the world a “better place”.
