Fast Fashion

Skyler O'Kelley

Mar 13, 2025

With the rise of Shein and Temu, fast fashion has become a big topic of discussion, especially surrounding the environmental and anthropogenic impacts. How is fast fashion damaging the planet? Why do I keep seeing sad people working in clothing factories? In today’s Digest, we’ll be diving into the environmental impacts of fast fashion and the human cost of keeping up with the fashion industry.

Before I begin, I must emphasize that fast fashion is a multilayered issue, one that not only relates to the health of our planet, but also to the value society places on people, from factory workers to CEOs, and the greed that lies at the root of many of our climate problems. To dive into this subject is to expose the underbelly of society, the festering root that causes so much pain for so many people. Fast fashion is a perfect example of intersectional sustainability. This is a term that describes how environmentalism is inherently a topic that must include the voices of marginalized communities, which are often the ones that are most impacted by climate change. As you read today’s Digest, keep in mind that I can only scratch the surface. Diving further into this on your own time will give you a better understanding of the issue and what else you can do to help. The goal of this Digest is to give you a crash course on fast fashion, why it’s important not to engage in or encourage the practice, and to provide you with more resources to explore further. With that out of the way, let’s begin.

Fast fashion is the business model that promotes the rapid consumption of clothing, often at an unsustainable rate. Originally, the goal was to fast-track runway items to consumers quickly, but it has now eroded into a practice that encourages the average consumer to buy items they might not need. This is harmful to the planet in many ways, the most obvious of which being that fast fashion has encouraged the rapid consumption and disposal of clothing rather than the careful care that preceded it. The amount of clothing that gets sent to a landfill is equivalent to one truckload per second. Every second, clothing is dumped into a landfill. This is, obviously, incredibly wasteful, especially when considering the cost it takes to make clothing.

To make one cotton shirt, it takes 2,700 liters of water. Not to mention that the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of all global emissions, which is twice the amount of emissions released from all air and sea travel. The resources required to sustain our consumption include people as well. Ever wonder why you don’t see those mountains of clothes that get sent to landfill in your backyard? That’s because it all gets shipped to the Global South, to countries that can’t deny the Global North’s waste patterns. Additionally, creating all the clothes takes human labor. Although cotton processing has become automated, we have yet to figure out how to automate sewing, so we must use human labor. The biggest problem with this comes from big conglomerates like Shein and Temu that employ workers and refuse to pay them fair wages. In some cases, it’s been reported that for each garment one worker makes, they earn 4 cents. Finally, many of the articles are poorly made due to the high demand. These items are more likely to wear and tear, which encourages people to buy more clothes when their old ones break down, thus promoting a throwaway culture.

From the above information, it is clear why encouraging fast fashion isn’t condonable. It causes harm not only to our planet but also to our people, and our fellow human beings. So what can you do to disengage from this practice and be a conscious consumer? Well, it starts first with mindset. You don’t need a new outfit for every occasion, creating a capsule wardrobe where you can mix and match items to create new looks reduces the toll on the Earth and your wallet. Additionally, when an item gets tarnished in any way, don’t throw it out! First see if you can fix the issue yourself, or find someone who can do it for you. If that’s not possible, look for ways you can upcycle the garment into something else, like using an old T-shirt to accent your favorite dress or turning that shirt into cleaning rags for your house. If you have items you don’t use anymore that aren’t in rough shape, find a place to sell or donate them. If you find yourself in need of a new outfit, I recommend thrifting, looking in free shops, borrowing from friends, or upcycling pieces in your closet.

The goal here is to create a circular economy, one where the life of a garment (or any item really) can be continuous, and used to its fullest potential. This mindset of circularity will not only reduce the strain on your wallet but also decrease the demand on the industry, showing those in charge that we’re not okay with how they’ve been treating people and the planet. The final thing you can do is to elevate the voices of the workers, the people who make the clothing. The reason this system works is because the workers were fed the belief that their voice doesn’t matter. This is done so that they come to believe they don’t have power, thus discouraging them from fighting back and allowing their oppressors to benefit from their hard work. By bringing awareness to their stories and providing them a platform to speak, we can help them take down the system from the inside out.

I highly recommend you dig into this topic more, the resource section below is a good place to start. The important thing to remember is that engaging with fast fashion does more harm than good. Sure, your $3 leggings came in two days, but think of the woman whose hands bled from the needle because she was just trying to feed her kids. Of the dangerous conditions she had to work in to afford her home. Is it worth it? Is it worth it to destroy thousands of acres of land, putting farmers in danger of losing their livelihood due to overfarming, for your leggings to arrive quickly and cheaply?

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