Our Perspectives / Published March 4, 2024
In this article, FracTracker’s Communications Intern Sarah Liez discusses the atrocities of the fast fashion industry, highlighting its connections to fossil fuels and petrochemicals. Fast fashion relies heavily on synthetic materials and nonrenewable energy sources, leaving behind significant environmental footprints and often involving unethical labor practices. Liez urges consumers to refrain from supporting fast fashion brands and advocates for a transition towards more sustainable fashion choices.
As a woman in her twenties, I’ve invested significant time and money into cultivating my wardrobe — keeping up with the latest trends, relishing the treasure hunt of thrifting, periodically revamping my personal style. Concurrently, as an environmental advocate, I’ve dedicated considerable thought and effort to exploring a particularly fascinating yet alarming facet of contemporary apparel: fast fashion.
While I have delved deeply into the intricacies of the fast fashion industry — engaging in conversations with peers, investigating news articles and exposés of SHEIN’s harmful practices, and even orchestrating an educational activity for summer campers — I haven’t fully grasped its direct ties to the fossil fuel industry until recently.
Sure, it’s easy to see how nonrenewable energy powers the manufacturing and distribution of any retail institution. However, it wasn’t until I tuned into a particularly compelling episode of Gimlet’s How to Save a Planet Podcast — which I highly recommend giving a listen — that I truly grasped the extent to which fossil fuels permeate the textile industry, particularly in the textile creation itself.
What is Fast Fashion?
Fast fashion is a relatively new and topical term — one that has overtaken the American fashion industry. The term “fast fashion” denotes inexpensive, fashionable clothing rapidly produced by mass-market retailers. Among today’s titans in retail include SHEIN, Zara, and H&M. These leading brands attract consumers because of the accessibility, affordability, and trendiness of their apparel — leading very few to question, let alone want to question, how did this get so affordable? Where is the catch?
The alluring elements that underpin fast fashion are driven by highly destructive practices. Environmental degradation, a culture of overconsumption, mistreatment of factory workers … the list goes on and on. To explore exactly what makes fast fashion so harmful, we must first understand how most clothing items are made, and how they find their way into our closets. Let’s start with the basics: the materials.
Textile Materials
Today’s textiles — including garments, footwear, or any other fabric-based items — are usually crafted from either raw or synthetic materials, each with vastly different sourcing methods.
Raw materials, or natural fibers, stem directly from living organisms, such as plants or animals. Common natural fibers include cotton, wool, and silk — cotton harvested from cotton plants, wool sheared from sheep, and silk produced by silkworms. Once collected, cleaned, and processed into fibers, the raw materials are spun into yarns or threads that are treated, dyed, and woven into fabric.
Synthetic materials, on the other hand, are artificially synthesized to replicate naturally occurring fibers. The compounds used to create synthetic fibers originate from fossil-fuel derived resources, primarily crude oil or other petrochemicals (chemicals made from petroleum and natural gas). The chemicals first undergo polymerization, forming elongated, linear chemical chains before being transformed into fibers via a process called spinning. The most prominent synthetic fabrics include polyester, nylon, and acrylic.
There also exists semi-synthetic (otherwise known as cellulosic) fabrics, though less common. Unlike the oil and petroleum-based sources used in synthetic fabrics, the polymers used to create these fibers are derived from renewable resources such as wood pulp from trees or bamboo. These fibers undergo a similar manufacturing process to synthetics, being extruded through holes and stretched. Examples of semi-synthetic fabrics include viscose, modal, and lyocell.
Synthetics are often favored over natural fibers for a myriad of reasons — they possess distinct properties and are often more stretchable, waterproof, and stain-resistant. They are also considerably less expensive to manufacture. In 2022, synthetic fibers made up roughly 65% of global fiber production, followed by plant fibers at 27%, semi-synthetic fibers at 6.3%, and animal fibers at 1.7%. This means that most of today’s clothing items — and nearly all fast fashion items — are literally made from fossil fuels.
Source: Textile Exchange based on data from CIRFS, FAO, ICAC, IVC, IWTO, Maia Research, and its own modelling. (2023)
Assembly and Distribution
Once harvested or synthesized, processed, and ready for use, fabrics are shipped to factories, often located in Bangladesh, China, India, or Turkey. While most material creation processes are automated, assembly is often too intricate for machinery, and instead must be completed by human workers.
Garment workers operate in assembly lines, stitching specific sections of each garment before passing them along. Sewing is a labor-intensive task performed manually by workers who guide the stitches themselves, and the complexity of a garment determines the time required for completion. Lastly, garments undergo finishing processes such as dyeing, printing, and adding embellishments before being packaged and distributed to client distribution centers. From there, they are shipped again to be displayed in retail stores or — as is commonplace with fast fashion giants like SHEIN and Zara — placed on a warehouse shelf.
Despite their ubiquity, it is important to recognize that each garment is meticulously handled and sewn by real individuals, not to mention the numerous steps involved in between, from quality assurance checks to reworking and mending to laundering. Unfortunately, the rise of fast fashion has led to prolonged work hours, subpar wages, and downright abusive working conditions for many garment workers.
What are the impacts?
As you can see, clothing manufacturing is a complex and time-consuming process. The cost of most fashion items today, though, don’t reflect this — in the fast fashion industry especially, where a pair of boots can cost as little as $9.00. This is the time to ask the question “Where is the catch?” The answer is that the fast fashion industry cuts corners and lowers costs at the expense of others — be it human lives, institutions, or the environment.
Environmental Impacts
Fast fashion’s environmental impacts extend to the depletion of non-renewable resources, greenhouse gas emissions, and extensive water and energy use. First, synthetic materials are made from fossil fuels themselves — oil, natural gas, and other petrochemicals are transformed into polyester, nylon, and spandex. The energy-intensive process of converting plastic fibers into textiles demands substantial amounts of petroleum and natural gas and emits volatile particulate matter and acids like hydrogen chloride. Shipping and transportation represent another central source of pollution, as fast fashion brands prioritize speedy delivery times and often maintain an online-only or predominantly online presence. Consequently, their entire inventory must be packaged and shipped to each individual consumer.
Per a report of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) from 2018, the fashion industry ranks as the second-largest industry consumer of water, with production figures showing it takes about 700 gallons to craft a single cotton shirt and 2,000 gallons for a pair of jeans. Microplastics are also a pertinent issue, for synthetic fabrics have prolonged decomposition periods, contributing to the accumulation of microplastics in oceans. A 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that 35% of microplastics in the ocean stem from the laundering of synthetic textiles.
Worker’s Rights
Sweatshops — small manufacturing establishments with unfair and unhygienic working conditions — are prevalent in the fast fashion industry. Leading brands often source their clothing from suppliers in underdeveloped nations where production is outsourced to unregistered vendors who evade legal requirements for safe working conditions. Workers, often women and children, endure grueling workdays and meager pay, leading to a cycle of poverty and exploitation.
On April 24th in 2013, the unsafe working conditions and lack of regulatory oversight of garment workers were brought to international attention and horror when a building collapsed in Savar, Bangladesh. Rana Plaza was a commercial building that housed several garment factories, shops, and a bank. Despite visible cracks appearing in the building the day before, workers were ordered to return to work the next day. Tragically, the building collapsed, resulting in the deaths of 1,134 people and injuring over 2,500 others, making it one of the deadliest industrial disasters in history.
Let’s Talk About SHEIN
SHEIN stands out as the epitome of fast fashion excesses and pitfalls. While the practices and negatives associated with fast fashion are prevalent across the industry, SHEIN’s scale and influence surpass all others. The fashion behemoth processes an estimated 880,000 orders daily, with their annual revenue skyrocketing from $10 billion in 2020 to an eye-popping $24 billion in 2022.
Its business model is unparalleled in its magnitude, with SHEIN introducing anywhere from 700 to 1,000 new items to its inventory each day. Unlike its competitors, which typically take around two weeks to move from design to delivery, SHEIN has condensed this timeline to as little as three days. This rapid, ceaseless production exacerbates an already harmful cycle — more pollution, exploitation of labor, and rampant overconsumption.
SHEIN’s business model fosters a cycle of mass overconsumption and throwaway culture. Its garments, predominantly made from low-quality synthetics, lack durability. The brand’s swift turnarounds cater to fleeting trends, ensuring their content reflects what is popular in the moment — meaning these clothes don’t have to live past their short, fashionable lifespan. Yet, while these garments have a short lifespan in our closets, their environmental impact lingers for far longer. Synthetic fabrics, as previously noted, are not biodegradable, meaning that most SHEIN products will quickly outlast their usefulness and contribute considerably to landfill waste. Not to mention, almost every SHEIN item is individually packaged in a plastic zip-top bag — even those arriving in the same package. Considering the thousands of items dispatched daily, this results in a significant accumulation of plastic waste destined for landfills.
SHEIN also demonstrates a notable lack of transparency regarding its social and sustainability impacts. Despite sporadic use of lower-impact materials and a stated commitment to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is little evidence that the brand is actively addressing its environmental footprint. Likewise, information regarding their labor practices remains elusive. While the company claims to uphold high labor standards across its supply chain and enforce a Code of Conduct for all supplies in compliance with local labor laws, these laws can vary drastically between regions and often lack humane standards to begin with. Moreover, these assertions are additionally vague and lack substantive verification, casting doubt on the brand’s commitment to ethical practices and accountability.
What the Average Consumer Can Do
It’s easy to feel helpless — after all, we’re all just one person, one consumer. Still, it is important to self-actualize your beliefs by taking action on this issue, however small. Here is a list of what you can do:
Educate Yourself and Others
Learn (as you have in this article) about the environmental and social impacts of fast fashion. Take time to understand the consequences of mass production, exploitation of labor, and the disposal of clothing. Share what you learn with friends, family, and on social media and encourage others to join the movement towards more sustainable and ethical fashion choices.
Repair, Upcycle, Donate, and Recycle
Do your best to extend the life of your clothing by repairing items when possible or repurposing them into new garments or accessories. You can learn basic sewing skills or support local tailors and repair shops. Instead of discarding unwanted clothing, donate them to charities or organizations that redistribute clothing to those in need. For items that are beyond repair, explore textile recycling options to minimize waste.
Be a Conscious Consumer
Ask questions about where and how your clothing is made. Advocate for transparency and ethical standards within the fashion industry by supporting initiatives that promote worker rights and environmental sustainability. Seek out brands that prioritize sustainability, ethical production practices, and transparency. Look for certifications such as Fair Trade, Global organic Textile Standard (GOTS), and B Corp, or utilize platforms like Fashion Revolution and GoodOnYou for credible brand evaluations.
Explore secondhand options by visiting thrift stores, consignment shops, and online platforms for pre-loved clothing. Buying secondhand reduces demand for new production and extends the lifespan of garments.
Consider boycotting fast fashion brands altogether — this is by far the most effective way to align your actions with your values and combat fast fashion. While there are various reasons why people are drawn to these brands, such as affordability, accessibility, and inclusive sizing, I urge you, at the very least, to never shop at SHEIN again. SHEIN epitomizes the worst practices of the fast fashion industry. If you ever find yourself tempted to buy from brands associated with unethical practices in the future, steer clear of SHEIN at all costs.
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