WHICH ARE ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS OF FAST FASHION?

As is evident through the term, fast fashion items are produced in a hasty manner to meet the ever-growing demand of the costumers but this haste really makes waste because many important aspects are compromised and the environment is the worst-hit sector in this regard.

Excess of necessity is desire which finds its limit in the sky as it is a decided fact that excess of anything brings no good to anyone. The trend to bump up the wardrobe with new trendy dresses among the people at large across the globe gave rise to fast fashion. Apparently, it looks positive as it caters to the people at all levels from low to high, generates large scale economic and business activities and creates job opportunities to millions of people at international level but its implications prove hazardous to the environment.

POLLUTION

The fast fashion always on the run to meet the ever-growing demand of the customers as they own the dresses more than they wear. Moreover, the low quality of the fast fashion prepared as replica of the fashion designs has less span of life due to low quality of the material. These factors give rise to more demand of the raw material and more raw material means more waste that creates pollution of the air, water and soil and it also affects the wildlife habitat severely. The greenhouse gas emission, chemical waste on the soil and in the water and microplastics in the waterways have also devastating effects on the environment.

Moreover, the waste of the garments after use by the people make their way to the landfill areas and this waste requires much time for degradation causing soil and air pollution. These pollutants having different kind of chemicals make their way to the water sources and the water becomes hazardous for the human consumption. This waste also drains into the oceans and seas causing equating and climatic pollution and proves devastating for the ocean life.

BURNING OF WASTE MATERIAL

In most cases, the fast fashion waste is incinerated which is more hazardous for the environment because burning up the waste material produces large scale of smoke that is one of the major pollutants of the air causing many respiratory diseases for the people. This method to dispose of the waste causes greenhouse gas emission which is also major reason of environmental degradation. The burning of the fast fashion waste produces huge amount of ash having dangerous chemicals and the ash pollutes not only the air, soil, tap water but also destroy the oceanic environment.

SOLID WASTE

The environmental degradation by the fast fashion industry is not limited to only one or two factors rather it affects the environment in many ways. As an estimate, the fast fashion produces 92 million tons of solid waste on year-to-year basis and makes its share up to 20 percent of global wastewater and 10 percent of CO2 emission. The CO2 emission by the fast fashion industry is more than the global aviation and shipping industries. The future looks even grimmer as the global usage of the fast fashion would double in approximately 20 years on yearly basis and resultantly, the greenhouse gas emission would also get higher correspondently and its harms would go beyond human imagination having no mitigation in sight.   

SYNTHETIC MATERIAL

Synthetic material such as polyester which is made up of petroleum products is excessively used by the fast fashion industry. This synthetic material is highly hazardous to the environment as it is estimated that synthetic industry uses over 70 million barrels of oil on annual basis and all synthetic fibers make use of 342 million of barrels each year. The 62 percent of textile fibers are based on petrochemicals. The more petrochemical consumption requires more extraction of the fossil fuels from the earth and it means more earth degradation and destroying more animal habitat and wildlands. These factors cause more pollution, gas emissions and climate warming.

• DISPOSAL THROUGH LANDFILLS

As the demand of the fast fashion products are very high throughout the world, so its production which touches the highest peak. This largescale production cannot be used and naturally remains in the outlets unused. The retailers usually return these unused items to the manufacturers for being outdated and out of fashion. This huge bulk proves to be a headache for the manufacturers as these items cannot be refurbished giving them a new due to high cost. Moreover, putting them again on the sale is costlier than their disposal. Therefore, the leftover items are dumped in the landfills and these items are hard to die and continue to produce highly toxic and dangerous chemicals causing pervasive pollution.

• PASSING THE BUCK

The people in Europe and America usually discard their wearables after buying the new ones and these discarded garments are very difficult to dispose of. The solution to this problem is found in a unique way that the bulk of these left-outs are collected and transported to the poor countries. Apparently, these wearables are given in the name of assistance and aid but underneath objective is to pass the buck to poor countries. The enormous task of disposing of the discarded garments is given to the other countries in Asian, African and other regions and the fallouts of the environmental hazards and degradation are also transported to these countries. 

As a bottom line, the importance of garments’ requirement cannot be denied but excessive production and their left-outs should be managed properly which should not prove detrimental to the environment. There should be proper check and balance and justice. The blind race of meeting the market requirements and unbridled desire to earn more and more profit should not be a priority and that is, too, at the cost of the environment. If already healthy condition of the planet earth cannot be improved, at least the already favourable conditions should be maintained instead of destroying them. One should be fair enough to care for the breathing beings and transfer the better to the generations to come.

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