December 2025

December 2025 : Article-Fast Fashion & it’s Impact

Fast Fashion is the creation of quickly produced clothing that can fall in and out of trends just as quickly, often leading to fast disposal. This is the case as it caters to consumers who follow trends that eventually fade out..

Some examples of “fast fashion” brands include Gap, Shein, H&M, Zara, and countless others on a global scale. While these names may seem like everyday brands many of us likely shop at, they mostly produce low-quality and inexpensive apparel with designs that often fall in and out of magazines as fast, if not faster, than they appeared!

While these organizations may not seem like a major problem, fast fashion has a huge impact on the environment. The faster trends go, the more waste they generate. Once consumers discard products, they are often found in landfills. This creates a large waste problem, and the rise of fast fashion in the 21st century has had devastating consequences and the problem, if anything, is expanding. The consequences include overworked employees, child labour, underpaid labour, and environmental impacts.

To put the impact of fast fashion into perspective, fashion as an industry is responsible for 10% of global carbon emission. These numbers are astronomically high, and are in themselves higher than maritime shipping and international flights combined. This is a clear sign that action should be taken and that small changes can build up over time; that includes positive / negative changes as it clearly shows in the data

Along with using a colossal amount of resources, fast fashion uses fabrics which also play a significant role in the impact. As the fabric is of low quality and hard to make long lasting, the fabric goes to the dump. Furthermore, the fashion industry is the world's 2nd largest water consumer. For example, to produce a single pair of jeans, it uses nearly 2000 gallons of water. This is due to dying the fabric which uses so much water. The water which is now polluted with all kinds of dyes is then spilled into local bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, and drains.

Surveys show that only 1 out of 10 companies take responsibility for their environmental impact, and less than a quarter have set goals to reduce their environmental footprint.

Fast Fashion brands use cheap products, and low quality materials which aren’t environmentally conscious. Nearly 70% of fast fashion is made of toxic materials such as acetate and nylon. These materials take hundreds of years to fully decompose, whilst also shedding microplastics. Reports from IUCN show that 35% of microplastics in the ocean come from the product of fast fashion clothing.

Fast fashion has increased 400% in the last 20 years. These industries and their impacts are set to double in the next ten years, which makes them huge threats to environmental sustainability and prosperity. Participants of the trend include; Gap, Aritzia, UNIQLO, Temu, and Shein, just to name a few. Together, we can help make our earth a safer and better planet by reducing our impact and embracing sustainable solutions.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse