The unknown side of fast fashion and why it is a warning alarm!

by Ciceroni - City Guide to Fashion & Lifestyle Fasion & Lifestyle

Yes we are talking about the ‘no-more-in-trend’ clothes that lie in your closet and eventually end up in the landﬁll while you continue to buy ‘in-trend’ clothing that will have the same cycle in a few weeks. This is not just you, there are billions of people following the same cycle. And the real problem is the number ‘billion’.

Fashion uses renewable plus non-renewable resources of this planet. Most of the companies that mass-produce clothing do not stay responsible for their judicious production and distribution.

Ticking Resources

In the current era we might not realise the true duration of a trend in the clothing industry.

Something becomes a fashion, and is no longer fashionable- this can even happen in a span of 18 weeks. Now what do we do with our outdated clothing? Obvious answer, throw it away. So the entire resources behind developing, storing, and selling that product are altogether wasted in this manner.

‘The fashion industry is the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply’- UNEP.

‘The fashion and apparel industry consumes 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources per year’- Ellen McArthur Foundation

The Hidden Price We Pay

It uses water, land, gas, trees, electricity and the list goes on. This list doesn’t only end with production and storage, it keeps going on, including the shipping, post-productions, and sale. The shipping of the clothes internationally costs our planet a heavy price of environmental deterioration. Yes, it is about gas emissions.

According to UNEP, ‘Fashion is responsible for 8-10% of global carbon emissions; more than all international ﬂights and maritime shipping combined.’

‘The fashion industry emits as many greenhouse gases per year as the economies of France, Germany and UK combined.’ - Mckinsey.

‘Products designed in the global north, like the United States, are now almost all completely offshored for production to low-income-countries in the global south, such as Bangladesh and China.’ - Mission Magazine.

The Last Episode

The last episode is not literally the last episode, it is a wakeup-alarm for us. What we use, or don’t, goes directly to landﬁlls. Some of it is priorly sent to lesser fortunate countries, and lastly everything ends up in the dump.

According to a recent post published by The Guardian:

In Chile's Atacama desert, at least 39,000 tonnes of abandoned clothing are dumped. That's the equivalent of 85,000 grand pianos.

It was discovered that each year, over 59,000 tonnes of garments arrive at the Chilean port. At least 39,000 tonnes of it was dumped in desert landﬁlls.

This just doesn’t pollute our lands, there is a scarier picture beyond.

‘Around half a million tonnes of plastic microﬁbers from clothing end up in the ocean every year. That is equivalent to more than 50 billion plastic bottles.’ - Innka Healthy Lifestyle (Instagram)

What Can We Do?

Just imagine watching 1 ton (1000 kg)(an average t-shirt weighs around 200gm) of clothes being thrown in an area, looks miserable, right? Now multiply this with a ﬁve digit number. That’s how huge our wastage has become.

We, together can change this. It is not diﬃcult at all. Fashion can be known for better and holistic reasons too! Next time we make a purchase, we must think about the resources it uses up, and how easily it will end up in waste, thus jeopardising our environment. Let’s start with little steps, reuse, and upcycle our clothes. Let’s move toward sustainable ways of being fashionable.

We hope this piece of information motivates you to opt for sustainable fashion, happy fashion.

Ciceroni is a Hyperlocal Fashion & Lifestyle Review web portal that guides you to interesting places for shopping in the city. It is a meticulously organized list of local exhibitions, brands and stores in your city to help you decide before you step out to shop. Be it fashion, jewellery, Shirts for men, Trousers for Men, home décor or wellness, Ciceroni has you covered.