4th July 2025
Fast fashion is as destructive of our environment as fast tech and is fuelled by many of the same features. Fast fashion is cheap (in terms of purchase price only – its lifetime cost is considerably more when factoring in disposal); its new and trendy and it – and its advertising – is designed to attract our attention; it’s intended to have a short life.
Yet just like fast tech, fast fashion produced vast amounts of waste that cannot easily be recycled. And like fast tech, a lot of the materials used in production are plastic based (ie synthetic fibres, plastic zips etc). Instead discarded clothing ends in landfill sites, in incinerators, clogging up oceans, and strewn across deserts.
Again we need to ask ourselves: Do I need this item of clothing? Should I buy the cheapest, or should I look for the durable, repairable option? Will I value it?
And we also need to ask questions about the system that allows so many cheap (and not so cheap) items of clothing to be produced and as quickly discarded. Does the fashion industry need to be held to accountable? Should manufacturers also be responsible for end of life disposal or recycling of garments? Should manufacturers be reviewing how much plastic goes into their garments? And on a related issue, should manufacturers be reviewing how much they pay those who actually do the making? Cheap products are often cheap because wages are cheap.
Further reading –
The Green Tau 