Every year, the average person throws away around 81 pounds of clothing in the U.S. That’s equivalent to a completely filled garbage truck of clothes being discarded every second. The appeal of fast fashion is undeniable: trendy, inexpensive clothes that allow us to constantly reinvent our wardrobes. However, this seemingly harmless convenience comes with a hidden price. While we’re busy chasing the latest looks, the world is facing a crisis of environmental destruction and human exploitation. Fast fashion is no longer just about what we wear—it’s about the ethics of how it’s made and the real cost behind the clothes we casually toss aside. As the industry continues to grow, we must ask ourselves, at what point does “affordable” become unacceptable.
Fast fashion’s entire business model is built around rapid mass production, usually using lower quality materials to reduce the costs. The appeal is obvious—why buy one expensive item when you can fill your closet with an entire new wardrobe for the same price? As a result, people feel more inclined to buy more and more often. According to the European Parliament, “The fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions—more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.” Even producing a single cotton t-shirt requires a staggering 2,700 liters of water to produce, enough for one person to drink for over two and half years. Worse, the synthetic materials that dominate fast fashion, such as polyester, constantly shed microplastics which pollute oceans and the air, harming both the wildlife and entering the food chain. Clothes that don’t sell usually just end up in landfills or incinerated, contributing even more pollution to the environment.
The planet, however, is not the only thing that is suffering. The human cost of fast fashion is quite concerning as well. Most of our clothes are made in factories in developing nations like Bangladesh, China and India, where workers—mostly women and children—are paid little to nothing. These people are exploited and often face unsafe working conditions for long hours. In 2013, for example, the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh collapsed due to cheap building materials, killing an estimated 1,134 workers and injuring 2,600 more. Cracks were found in the walls on the day before the collapse, yet the workers were forced to return the next day anyway. Before the factory’s collapse, there were several counts of child labor, with reports that during inspections and visits, the child workers would be required to hide in the bathrooms. Of the 1,436 survivors, 202 of them were under the age of 18. Even after this disaster, many fast fashion brands have done little to improve the working conditions in the factories they rely on, only propagating the exploitation of the workers.
The sad truth of it is that while these big-name fast fashion companies continue to bring in millions of dollars, the workers they built the industry off of still struggle for basic human rights and fair pay. The low costs on price tags are the result of cutting corners on everything—from materials to safety. It’s easy to ignore the reality of the situation when a cheap shirt is staring you in the face, but as consumers, we must be more mindful of where our clothing comes from.
This cycle of suffering will not stop until we, as the consumers, demand change. This can mean buying less, prioritizing quality over quantity or even supporting brands that are sustainable and prioritize the welfare of the workers and environment. When affordable fashion exploits both people and the planet, can we actually afford it?
In the city of Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, workers bend over sewing machines producing garments for fast fashion brands. Similar sweatshops have paid employees as little as 60 cents an hour, barely enough to cover daily expenses. (Photo/Rio Lecatompessy via Unsplash)
