How fast fashion fuels climate change, plastic pollution, and violence, P12
- Shidonna Raven
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
By Helle Abelvik-Lawson
September 22, 2023
Source: Green Peace
Shidonna Raven Fashion - Home & Heirloom Collection. All Rights Reserved. Copyright. Trademark.
Photo Source: Unsplash
Fashion companies want us to blame ourselves
No matter our personal shopping habits, the companies are clearly the ones out of control here.
The truth is, we live in a global economic system that sees the exploitation of people and the environment as a fantastic opportunity to make huge profits.
Fashion is only one example, but it’s an eye-opening one. Fashion brands bulk order larger and larger amounts from factories, which lowers the price of each garment. But because they’re ordering so much (to make it cheaper per item), they’re creating far more clothing than could ever be sold or worn.
At this scale, it’s hard to conclude it’s simply “people buying clothes” that’s creating this global system of fossil fuel use, human rights abuses and plastic pollution. The companies make 40% more than we need anyway!
As well as exploiting workers and the environment, brands exploit our need for clothing by encouraging a wholly false “demand” among customers for more and more designs.
Chinese fast fashion company Shein already has tens of thousands of styles on their website, and adds around 1000 more each day. All just to keep the profit machine churning.
But this isn’t new. It’s as old as the global economy itself. Take cotton farming, which saw Europeans enslave Africans during the 1700s. This industry was encouraged by early royal “influencer” Marie Antoinette wearing fine cotton dresses.
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