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This holiday season, millions of people will spend time shopping for their loved ones, with clothing projected to be the top gift given by consumers according to a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation. Although we wear clothes every single day, we often do not consider how far our clothing has traveled, who made it, and what its environmental impact is. 

What is fast fashion?

Despite the widely publicized environmental and human impacts of the fashion industry, it continues to grow, in part due to the rise of fast fashion. Fast fashion refers to a business model that aims to produce the latest clothing trends at the lowest costs, hinging itself as an affordable alternative to expensive designer clothes. 

While fast fashion has increased clothing accessibility, it has also led to an overall decline of quality products. Fast fashion relies on frequent consumption and short-lived garment use, and consumers who buy into this business model have skyrocketed the industries’ profits, creating incentives for continued clothing production. 

Cheap manufacturing has also proliferated the growth of the fast fashion industry, with manufacturing facilities often located in developing countries with poor labor and environmental laws, leading to worker and environmental exploitation. In today’s contemporary times, clothing is being produced at astoundingly fast rates with eerily low costs that are not at all reflective of the true price we pay for fast fashion.

Major environmental impacts of the fashion industry

Water use and pollution. Producing clothes requires significant amounts of water. According to the United Nations, the fashion industry is the second largest consumer of water in the world. Water is needed to grow crops like cotton, a common fiber used in clothing, which are often sprayed with agrochemicals and therefore contribute to the growing worldwide water pollution issue.

Water is also used during textile dyeing and treatment processes. Textiles and garments are treated with several chemicals that can end up in our waterways, causing substantial water pollution. According to Vanessa Turk with GW Law, textile manufacturing is responsible for over 20 percent of global industrial water pollution because of the toxic and hazardous chemicals used. In China, a hotspot for fast fashion, several notable fashion brands like Puma and Zara have been linked to water discharge violations, which has caused harmful water pollution without any remediation or clean-up plans in place.

High carbon footprint. It is estimated that the fashion industry is responsible for anywhere between 8 to 10 percent of global CO2 emissions. Long supply chains that rely on fossil fuels for transportation and energy intensive practices like waste disposal and manufacturing synthetic fibers such as polyester contribute to fashion’s high carbon footprint. “For example, in China, textile manufacturing depends on coal-based energy and, as a result, has a 40 percent larger carbon footprint than textiles made in Turkey or Europe,” says the authors of The environmental price of fast fashion, a research review published in the academic journal, Nature Reviews Earth and Environment. 

Textile waste. Textile waste is produced during the manufacturing process and refers to clothing that is never bought, or clothing that is sold and then discarded by the user. Collectively, these three waste streams pump out a significant amount of garbage. Julia De Voy, a researcher at the Boston University of Public Health, writes that “every year, people in the United States throw out more than 34 billion pounds of used textiles. Divided across the population, that’s more than 100 pounds of textile waste per person each year.”

During the process of manufacturing clothing, it is estimated that on average, 15 percent of fabric is wasted. This textile waste, coupled with clothing that is never sold, is often shipped to the Global South where environmental regulations aren’t as strong, leading to hazardous disposal activities like burning. However, due to the high waste volumes, many countries are beginning to ban textile waste imports.

It is important to consider that wealthier individuals on average contribute disproportionally to textile waste production. De Voy says that “people with higher incomes generate on average 76% more clothing waste than people with lower incomes.”

Adding to the issue, the authors of The Environmental Price of Fast Fashion state that “the short garment lifetimes, alongside increased consumption, has led to a 40 percent increase in landfilled textile waste in the USA between 1999 and 2009 and, globally, textiles account for up to 22 percent of mixed waste worldwide.”

Image credit: Maria Jose Iturbide-Chang

Chemical use. The textile industry uses over 15,000 different chemicals, which can end up in our waterways and have detrimental impacts on humans and wildlife. “Heavy use of agrochemicals can cause nausea, diarrhea, cancers and respiratory diseases, and acute pesticide poisoning is responsible for nearly 1,000 deaths a day and afflicts neurological and reproductive problems, such as infertility, miscarriage and birth defects,” says the research review.

Agrochemicals applied to crops like cotton are only part of the problem, as other chemicals are used during manufacturing to treat textiles and end up bioaccumulating in the environment. Researchers state that “chemicals used to waterproof textiles, which are mostly chemically stable fluoropolymers, are found even in remote Arctic locations and in the bodies of polar bears and seals.”

Perhaps most problematic is that there is “limited data on material safety data sheets,” which are often the only source of information, “increasing environmental risks from unsafe usage or disposal.” You can imagine how hard it may be to quantify and regulate the impacts of 15,000 different types of chemicals, creating a load of uncertainty and potentially unsafe conditions. 

Plastic pollution. Synthetic fibers such as polyester, nylon, and acrylic are commonly used in the fast fashion industry and contribute to the plastic pollution crisis in our water, soil, and bodies. Rashmila Maiti, a writer at Earth.org, reports that “a 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that 35% of all microplastics – tiny pieces of non-biodegradable plastic – in the ocean come from the laundering of synthetic textiles like polyester.”

Long supply chains may intensify environmental impacts and worker injustice 

The fashion industry clearly comes with detrimental environmental impacts. But one of the major reasons for this is because of the long, global supply chains. This increase in complexity of supply chains reduces customer transparency, because it becomes harder and harder to determine where clothing items and raw materials are being sourced when the supply chain is outsourced to several different areas. 

The industry is also reliant on cheap labor from developing countries, contributing to worker injustice. According to researchers, “the globalization of the textile and fashion system has resulted in an uneven distribution of these environmental consequences, with developing countries (who largely produce the textile and clothing) bearing the burden for developed countries (who largely consume the products).” 

They also state that “it is clear and known that fashion companies look to save production costs through manufacturing in locations with lax environmental regulation and where pollution-mitigating technologies are not needed. This mode of manufacturing leads not only to high environmental impacts from chemical usagebut increased health risks for factory workers, cotton farmers and fashion consumers.”

An overview of the often long and complex fashion supply chains and the associated environmental impacts. Image credit: The environmental price of fast fashion.

Okay, so the fashion industry harms the environment and people, but what can I do about it?

Value your role as a consumer. There is a widely held belief that consumer responsibility is not as important as corporate responsibility. Corporations must be held responsible for their detrimental actions, but we cannot ignore the critical role that consumers play in supporting these polluting industries. In absence of a demand, corporations have no financial incentive to produce. We can demand change by voting with our dollars and making purchases that do not support businesses and corporations who knowingly engage in practices that contribute to environmental degradation and worker injustice. 

Support short supply chains and buy from local artisans, secondhand clothing stores, and ethical brands. If you manage to get your clothes from a local thrift shop or know of a skilled sewer or weaver using recycled or sustainably made textiles, congratulations – you are leading the charge against fast fashion. 

Alternatives to consuming fast fashion include thrift stores, consignment shops, trading clothes with your community or network of friends and family and finding ethical and sustainable brands. Online retailers like Thred Up and Poshmark offer the convenience of online shopping without the impact. 

A clothing store located in the state of Vermont, called Artist’s and Revolutionaries, specializes in handmade clothing and is a prime example of a fast fashion alternative. The only catch is that the price tag is high, with tops starting at $88 and pants at $168. John-Michael Schlotter, the curator behind the sewing machine and the shop, said that the high price reflects the care and labor that go into them. The store manager, Jane Ogden, says that “this is not fast fashion. It’s all made right here.”

If you buy new or support fast fashion brands because it is all you can afford, don’t worry. Everyone needs new clothing from time to time. You can still be mindful about your purchasing habits by asking yourself how long you see yourself or someone else (if it’s a gift) owning that piece of clothing. Fast fashion hinges on impulse buying, which often results in people purchasing garments that they eventually throw out. Researching company policies may also help aid in your decision to purchase from a more ethical company. 

Purchasing natural and sustainable fibers. Purchasing organic cotton products and looking for clothing with certifications of limited chemical content, such as OEKO_TEXⓇ or GOTS, is a step in the right direction to reducing fashion’s environmental impact, says Gerardo Bandera with Fair Planet. Natural fibers like linen and wool are often less chemically treated and can also be alternatives to plastic pollution producing fibers like polyester, rayon, nylon, and acrylic.

Without a doubt, corporations play a critical role in curbing the mass pollution produced by fast fashion. “The current business logic in the fashion sector is based on ever-increasing production and sales, fast manufacturing, low product quality and short product life cycles, all of which lead to unsustainable consumption, fast material throughput, substantial waste and vast environmental impacts,” says the authors of the Environmental price of fast fashion.

A substantial shift away from a business model and now global mindset rooted in overconsumption is crucial. Key decisions corporations and businesses can make to mitigate their activities include decreasing garment production, producing natural fibers, and adopting policies that are protective of the environment, workers, and consumers. 

The idea of slow fashion has grown in popularity as a response to the harmful impacts of the fast-paced fashion industry. Slow fashion asks consumers and businesses to be mindful of fashion’s mass pollution legacy and reject the impulse buys that only contribute to a pile up of waste. Purchasing high quality garments and natural fibers with long lifetimes and less impact, trading clothes, buying secondhand, and reducing our need to consume something ultimately destined for a landfill are steps we can all take right now. Instead of fast fashion, we can opt to cultivate a culture of slowness by creating more and consuming less.

Call to Action: Make a Change This New Year

As we step into the New Year, let’s take action to combat the fashion industry’s pollution:

  • Choose sustainable brands: Support fashion companies committed to environmentally friendly and ethical practices.
  • Reduce consumption: Opt for quality over quantity.
  • Educate yourself & others: Spread awareness about the impacts of fast fashion.
  • Advocate for change: Call on brands, businesses, and policy makers to prioritize environmental stewardship, pollution control, and worker justice. Together, we can make 2025 a year of meaningful progress for our planet.