If you asked me
where I got most of my clothes I would name stores like Zara, Forever 21,
Bershka, and such. I would say I shop here because they have a plethora of
styles and it is affordable for a college student. I can spend less and look
good. However, neither you or I would know that we were throwing our money to
big businesses who underpay their workers overseas and are damaging the world
with their mass production. In the paper, I would like to explore what fast
fashion is, how much it is affecting or environment, and possible solutions to
decrease the damage of fast fashion.

            In recent years Fashion Brands like
Zara, and Gap, Forever 21 are producing new styles more frequently and more
quickly. This is what fast fashion is. The mass production of clothes to offer
more styles making it extremely affordable for consumers. “It used to be four
seasons in a year; not it may be up to 11 or 15 or more” says Tasha Lewis, a professor
at Cornell University. This means that before when fashion brands only made clothing
for 4 seasons out of the year now they produce clothes for perhaps up to 15
seasons. That’s more seasons than their or months in one year. In 2015 to
fashion retailers grew 9.7% in comparison to 6.8%. The global industry earns
roughly 1.2 billion dollars a year, with about 250 billion dollars spent in the
United States. All of this means that the pace of fast fashion is not slowing
down but growing. Many people do not know that their shopping addiction is
causing major environmental issues and supporting sweat shops where the clothes
are.

            Fast fashion and the disposable
culture are damaging the world. Second to the oil industry, the clothing and
textile industry is the largest pollutant in the world. According the Environmental
Protection Agency, 15.1 million tons of textile waste were generated in 2013. This
number only keeps increasing each year. In 2014, 16 million tons of textile waste
was generated. In this 2.62 million tons were recycled, 3.14 million tons were
combusted for energy recovery, and 10.46 million tons were sent to the
landfill. This comes to show that almost all of the clothes purchased within a
year ends up in garbage bags by the end of the year. The speed at which people
are consuming new trends is equal to the speed of how much clothes are being
disposed.

            Not only is the throwing away of
clothes detrimental to our earth the mere production of it is damaging as well.

Polyester, the most generally used fiber is made from petroleum. It is a
man-made fiber and the need for man-made fibers is doubling as the years go to by.

The manufacturing of man-made fibers is an demanding process that requires
components like crude oils which then pollutes our earth. In addition to
Polyester there is Cotton. Cotton is the reason for about 25% of the pesticides
used in the United States.