Staying in trend, and looking good on social media has become so important that people have started spending huge amounts of their money on fashion, especially the fast ones! After all, who really cares what fabric might last long or is environment friendly, what matters is the looks and piles of clothes and spending less over it.
Read this article to know does this fast fashion of yours which is friendly to you if it is also friendly to the environment? and can it ever be friendly to the environment?
Growing Demand For Clothes Fueled By Social Media
It is pretty understandable that the biggest influence over the majority of the population is social media itself because their image on social media has a lot of importance.
Not just the upcoming trends and the influencers and that wish of becoming like influencers are the reasons, it is also the new brands the cost-friendly brands, and their advertisements via famous influencers which attracts us there, one such example is Shein.
Shein is literally the example of bringing fashionable clothing accessible to the public and helping them look and feel more special and more like a part of the fashion industry itself, which has indeed increased the growth of demand for trendy clothes.
Environmental Impact Of Fast Fashion
As glamorous as it sounds fast fashion has its downsides as well. Difficult to think of it having any positive effects on the environment, but here is how the environment is affected,
As per the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as much ad 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide is emitted by the textile industry directly polluting humans’ breathing air.
Moreover, the WWF says that almost 20,000 liters of water wasted cause is required just to produce 1 kilogram of cotton, and in easier terms that is just the production of one single t-shirt or a pair of jeans.
Mostly fast fashion has materials that are not just harmful to the environment during manufacturing but even harmful when recycled. The synthetic fibers which are mostly used in fast fashion can be eco-friendly but at the same time, if they are combined with the chemicals, they become deadly as well.
How Companies Are Profiting From Eco-Friendly Tags?
Won’t say inhumane or bad but there is always a set of individuals or entities who always uses the right step in the wrong way and one such example in fast fashion is called “greenwashing”.
Greenwashing is when advertisements and claims made by companies are false and keep their consumers and audience in disbelief that they are contributing to the environment safety when in reality their efforts are way lesser than the claimed ones.
Since the consumers are becoming more aware and have started checking their brands and their c contribution to the environment, a lot of brands have started making false claims so as to get in the good books and attract more customers, and hence, profits!
Can Fast Fashion Be Environmentally Friendly?
Fast fashion and environment friendly do not really suit well in one sentence, but yes they can be made less harmful to the environment.
To begin with, the companies can use alternative material which is more environmentally friendly compared to harmful fabrics. Some more sustainable and bio-degradable examples of fabrics are organic hemp, organic linen, econyl, pinatex, tencel, etc.
Whereas coming to you as a consumer, you can also help in making fast fashion better with the very basic step being “demanding more accountability”. This step is enough to put pressure on the fashion brands who are still ignoring the harmful impacts fast fashion has on the environment. This one step might result in brands undergoing transitions and bringing changes.
Conclusion
Yes! Having the right aesthetic and following the trend is apparently a “NEED” at this point, but at the same time not forgetting that the air we breathe is the real necessity and not what crop top you’re wearing! So make sure you at your level are a responsible citizen and also track the environmental progress of your lovely brands to ensure that you do not participate in making things worse for the environment.
